TED Case Studies

Value: Reliable Elephant Ivory Trade Ban

Statistics

• threatened with extinction, they are theoretically protected from international trade since 1989
• although ivory trade has experienced sustained growth since the 1940s, the huge increase that occurred during the 1970s was the result of the automatic weapons availability and widespread government corruption in many exporting countries
• in the 1960s, raw ivory prices remained between $3 and $10 per pound
• 1975 the prices reached $50 because ivory was perceived as a valuable hedge against rising inflation
• by 1987, the price was $125 per pound
• new manufacturing techniques, enables mass production of ivory carvings, along with rising demand in East Asia and led to increased elephant kills

World Raw Ivory Consumption (%)

Country	1979	1981	1983	1985	1987
HG KONG	37	48	40	22	36
JAPAN	28	32	20	24	22
EC	18	5	6	7	4
TAIWAN	2	2	3	4	20
MACAO	0	0	2	15	2
CHINA	1	1	2	1	10
INDIA	2	2	2	4	1

Before the 1989 CITES ban, illegal and legal ivory exports amounted to 770 metric tons, or 75,000 elephants. The listing of elephants has effectively banned all trade in elephant ivory

• without substantial investment in the elephant conservation in several African countries
• quota system: each tusk has to be marked and coded by country origin and then entered into an international data base which monitored the trade, alerted authorities, collected information on herd numbers and the animal’s status for a report to the 1989 CITES Meeting
• ivory quota system came into effect in January, 1989. Immediately prior to its implementation, there was a general amnesty on illegal ivory stockpiles. This prompted a massive price rise as previously illegal stockpiles were released onto the market. 

9. Geographic Locations

Most elephants in Africa reside in Zaire (112,000), followed by Gabon (78,000), Botswana (68,000), Tanzania (61,000), and Zimbabwe (52,000). Kenya's elephants have been greatly reduced and now number 16,000 (see Table 2).

a. Geographic Domain: Africa

b. Geographic Site: South Africa [SAFR]

c. Geographic Impact: East Asia, especially [CHINA] Table 2

Elephants in Africa, by Country (1989) (thousands)

Country	Elephants	Country	Elephants	Country	Elephants
Cameroon	22	South Africa	7	Zambia	32
South Africa	7	Benin	2.1	CAR	23
Zimbabwe	45	Congo	42	I. Coast	36
Namibia	5.7	Mozam.	17	S. Leone	380
Botswana	68	Nigeria	1.3	Angola	18
Togo	380	Senegal	0.14	Liberia	1.3
Somalia	2	Sudan	22	Maur.	0.1
Tanz.	61	Niger	0.44	Uganda	1.6

http://www1.american.edu/ted/elephant.htm