Biggest ivory market in U.S. after China: experts

July 29, 2014 01:53 am | Updated 01:53 am IST

Booming global sales of ivory are driving the precipitous and accelerated decline of one of the world’s largest, most revered mammals: the African elephant. Despite movements in the late 1980s to ban the international trade in ivory to protect the elephant, poachers kill an average of 96 African elephants a day for their tusks. That’s one every 15 minutes.

And Chinatown is one the top spots to buy ivory in the United States, which ranks second — behind China — on the list of nations with the biggest ivory markets, according to experts.

The killing in Africa is so extensive that the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife this year announced that it is beginning to tighten regulations to ban the import of ivory or elephant tusks for commercial purposes.

The new rules allow ivory already here to be commercially sold only if the seller can prove that the ivory is more than 100 years old or obtained before 1976.

The problem is, experts say, that there is often no way to determine how old ivory is or how long ago the elephant was killed, especially if the ivory has been carved or sculpted — thus it’s difficult to differentiate between legally obtained ivory and poached ivory.

Decline in population

Over the past few decades, the overall elephant population has declined 76 per cent, all because of the demand for their tusks, which can be sold for $1,500 a pound on the global black market.

Meanwhile, the international ivory trade is the primary funding source for many terrorist groups, according to regulators and wildlife conservationists.

Although the market is primarily driven by China, where carved ivory is a traditional status symbol and where a growing middle class has heightened demand, the U.S. market is significant. San Francisco is second to New York for ivory imports, according to federal authorities.

“Compared to what is being imported into China and Thailand, we are far below that, but the fact that we are the No. 2 importer is significant,” said Gina Kinzley, the elephant keeper at the Oakland Zoo, which is working with the Natural Resources Defence Council and the Wildlife Conservation Society on what is called the 96 Elephants campaign, a name that emphasises the daily death toll in an attempt to mobilise people to push for stronger laws against and penalties for the illegal transport of ivory.

“You can’t justify it,” said Kinzley, who plans to lead the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos on October 4 along Market Street in San Francisco. “Poaching needs to stop. We need to stop the demand for ivory.”

The message does not appear to be sinking in. Carved ivory trinkets and elaborate sculptures are on display in shops throughout Chinatown, and large tusks are in the front windows of at least two stores on Grant Avenue.

Experts doubt the ivory trade in San Francisco has dried up as much as the shopkeepers claim. A 2008 study found 45 outlets in San Francisco selling 2,587 items made out of ivory. Ivory sales were also booming in Los Angeles, where 2,605 ivory items were being sold at 170 outlets. As much as 68 percent of those items could have been illegal, according to researchers.

Kinzley, who has travelled to Africa three times to conduct elephant studies, said that without more inspectors and sophisticated testing, it will continue to be very difficult to tell the difference between antique ivory and recently imported ivory. — © New York Times News Service

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