THE IVORY CURSE: A CRIMINAL STORY – Dossier

In 2013, a historical record of over 50 tons of ivory were seized globally, and almost 45 tons of that total were confiscated in a large-scale consignments developed by the organized crime.
It is not possible to define precisely how many elephants were killed to provide this quantity of ivory, anyway it is possible to calculate it quite precisely: at least 20.000 animals are killed each year, out of a total population of 450.000. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) alerts that the «threshold of sustainability» has already been crossed: in 2010 the number of elephant killed by poachers was higher than the birth rates. Since that moment, the elephant population has always stayed in net decline, with Tanzania as the most hit African country, losing 66% of its total population, in less than five years (2009-2014).

The current poaching and trafficking crisis is the second to which elephants are subjected: the first one (1970s-1980s) almost exterminates the Loxodonta Africana, with nearly 100.000 specimen killed every year for their tusks. It was this quasi-extinction that lead the International Community to impose a ban on the ivory trade. This prohibition was an immense victory, that rapidly reduced the price of the ivory and drop the legal supplier and retailer out of the market. Through the last decade of the XX century, the ivory trade was quite completely in the hands of the Governments; anyway illegal ivory demand did not disappear completely, and met the fully criminalized trade, which slowly consolidate itself, until the beginning of the new millennium, when was strongly able to answer the growing ivory demand form the East Asian market: in the period 1998-2011, the size of the global illegal ivory activities tripled.

East Asia has always been an important destination market for ivory, even though the accurate demand is too difficult to be measured.
It is possible to divide up the ivory trade chain according to the part of the world considered: African States are the beginning of the trade, where the poachers, that slay the animals and rip out their tusks or horns. From Sudan come the most violent poachers, trained by the wars which have teared the country. The Sudanese poachers drive the white rhinos of the North to the extinction during the first poaching crisis. In the DRC, where war caused lawlessness, the elephant population has been affected, and passes from more than 100.000 specimens to less than 5.000, anyway poaching continues and is due particularly by the Congolese military. Mozambique experienced a tragic decline of the elephant population, while its rhinos are completely extinct. In Kenya, the escalating poaching is due to domestic corruption, organized crime, and local poverty: Kenyan poachers are better equipped and better informed. Even Zimbabwe, that at the moment registers low level of poaching, in short time will experience a growth, because of its proximity to areas affected.

In this part of the chain there are: the poacher, who physically kill the animals; the “financier”, who never came in contact with the ivory, but has a political and social role. Among his tasks, he provides the poachers with the correct information about where to hunt, who are the corruptible officers, and corrupts the judiciary and law enforcement agencies; the “consolidator” receives and packages the cargo, which will be later loaded on the ships intended to Asia. “Consignors and consignees” are those who signs to register the cargo in their name to cover up the real owners.

In the last period, regional dynamics have been changed: Southern Africa is reducing the seizure of ivory-related activities (poaching, exporting…) while Eastern Africa and South-East Asia’s seizure are growing bigger and bigger.

The major transport axis for illicit ivory is obviously by the sea, through the Indian Ocean, where one-three tons of ivory are mixed to other products which are to be exported, usually fish or garlic to hide the smell of decomposing ivory. Other traders rely completely on the links they have at the port.

Airborne flows have a less volume of trafficked ivory: most of the ivory confiscated in airports do not reach the weight of 10 kg, usually transported in personal luggage of small-scale traffickers: tourists and migrant workers. In those cases, credible judicial actions can work as a deterrent, an effect that is not possible to obtain with real traffickers. In this context, is important to underline the role of Asian diplomats, who abuses their diplomatic immunities in order to traffic and import ivory, diamonds and other high value commodities, and are really impossible to be identified.

Once in Asia, starts the second part of the chain: in this part of the world, ivory has different meanings, as religious symbol, status symbol and even traditional medicine.

Thailand is the world’s second largest ivory market, and it is growing fast. Vietnam is the fulcrum of the rhino horn trade and a hotspot for the ivory trade in Asia, both as a transit and as a consumer country. Myanmar, which shares a long border with China, shows sign of increasing illegal ivory-related activities. Cambodia has long borders in common with Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, each of which has sizable ivory smuggling activity, and in parallel, the size of ivory trade has been significantly increased since 2013. Laos has a small ivory market, whose principal role is to serve Chinese tourists, and has weak wildlife enforcement. Ivory from Laos enters Chine through the Mekong River, that flows across both States, and which is used even for the drugs and human trafficking.
China is the largest market for ivory. Although it is not possible to define it precisely the amount of ivory in circulation, the quantity of the “white gold” has increased by 170% between 2010-2011. The impossibility to evaluate the right quantity of ivory is particularly due to the fact that there exist two markets, the licit one and the illicit one.
In 2006, the Chinese Ministry of Culture declared ivory as part of the country’s “intangible cultural heritage”: China is the world’s largest ivory consumer, and Chinese nationals have been reported in ivory-related offenses and at all steps along the ivory value chain, except for the physical poaching. The licit market for ivory in China is provided for by an annual government ration of five tons of ivory from a 62-ton stockpile, acquired by China in 2008.

Since the ratification of the CITES, in 1981, the Chinese Government realized a growing involvement of the public sphere in the ivory sector, imposing a strict regulation (such as the prediction of routine inspections; the obtaining of proper paperwork to be shown as a prove of being authorized in treating ivory; ID cards for every single ivory product…), which is more functional on paper than in practice. A 2011-survey prove that 20 of the 32 retail visited had not the ID card, or those cards were not of the correct ivory object.
About the illicit ivory market there is little information, anyway through confiscations, judiciary documents and investigations, it is possible to say that a large amount of illicit ivory enters to China: WildAid and Save the Elephants’s 2014 report estimated that 70% of the total Chinese ivory is illicit, and that 57% of licensed ivory structures trades illegal ivory, too.

At the moment, the attention paid to the ivory issue is absolutely insufficient: the protection of the remaining elephants population is essential in order to guarantee that those animals will not meet extinction. Moreover, fighting against ivory trade would mean fighting against organized crime. It is important that all the Governments work together, so that ivory starts to be regarded and considered as an ecological organized crime and its value begin to decrease; enhancement of the coordination of national data and intelligence; reinforce of the diligence along global transport chain.

OIPA stands against the ivory trade as one of the most hideous crime, that lead to the death of innocent, beautiful, helpful animals and of those men, the anti-poaching guards, who try every day to preserve and to ward the natural biodiversity.

See more: https://www.oipa.org/international/stand-for-elephants/