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  National Geographic 11 May 07
Asian Gangsters Drive African Elephant Slaughter, Report Says
James Owen for National Geographic News

WWF 10 May 07
Organized crime fuels illegal ivory surge in Africa

BBC 11 May 07
Asian markets push illegal ivory

The illegal ivory trade is expanding, driven by East Asian crime syndicates, according to the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic. The syndicates gather ivory in Africa for export to East Asian countries.

The biggest market is mainland China, though there is also significant trade to other countries such as Thailand and the Philippines.

Traffic says there are 92 illegal ivory seizures per month, and the number of large hauls has doubled in a decade. Its report will be presented to next month's meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), where wildlife campaigners hope it will put pressure on governments whose countries are used by the traffickers.

"The relevant question is whether CITES is going to crack down or not, whether governments are going to show some political will," said Sue Lieberman, director of the global species programme at WWF which runs Traffic together with the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

"The Asian market is the key. It is thriving again in Thailand, and a lot of Chinese businesses have moved into Africa, for example timber companies, which means more ivory is coming out," she told the BBC News website.

Big hauls up

Traffic bases its report on an analysis of nearly 12,400 records of ivory seizures in 82 countries dating back to 1989 as part of the Elephant Trade Information System (Etis).

It clearly identifies the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Nigeria as the main sources of illegal ivory.

"With myriad conflicts, central Africa is currently haemorrhaging ivory," observed Tom Milliken, director of Traffic's Africa programme. "These three countries are major conduits for trafficking illegal ivory from the region to international markets, particularly in Asia."

The number of seizures fell between 1990 and 1995, but there has been a rising trend since then. The number of large hauls - above one tonne - has also risen, which Dr Lieberman believes "demonstrates greater sophistication, organisation and finance".

China is identified as the single biggest market, though Traffic says enforcement has improved markedly in the last five years.

On the African side, the conservation group singles out Ethiopia for praise as a country which has effectively implemented an action plan drawn up by CITES four years ago, clamping down on its domestic ivory market.

National Geographic 11 May 07
Asian Gangsters Drive African Elephant Slaughter, Report Says
James Owen for National Geographic News

Asian crime syndicates operating in Africa are fueling the slaughter of elephants for their ivory, conservationists say.

A new report suggests organized crime is behind a surge in the trade of illegal ivory, particularly from elephants in Central Africa. The warning is based on a study by TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade-monitoring network run by the conservation nonprofit WWF and the United Nations' World Conservation Union.

Researchers identified the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cameroon, and Nigeria as the main sources of this illegal ivory.

"Central Africa is currently hemorrhaging ivory, and these three countries are major conduits for trafficking illicit ivory from the region to international markets, particularly in Asia," the study's lead author Tom Milliken, director of TRAFFIC's Africa program, said in a statement.

Traffickers from China and other Asian countries were implicated in an increase in the size and number of large-scale ivory seizures, which have almost doubled in recent years.

The team found that confiscated ivory consignments weighing at least a ton rose from 17 between 1989 and 1997 to 32 between 1998 and 2006.

The report is based on an analysis of some 12,400 seizures from 82 countries logged on the world's largest database of elephant product seizures, the Elephant Trade Information System.

Ivory Trail

Demand for elephant ivory comes mainly from China, where it is shipped through ports such as Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, researchers say. Other key destinations include Thailand, Philippines, and Japan.

The growth in large-scale seizures coincides with a period of massively increased trade between Africa and China, according to TRAFFIC's Richard Thomas, based at the organization's headquarters in Cambridge, England.

These trade ties have made illegal ivory shipments much easier to set up, Thomas said. "The fact that they are shifting such large quantities of ivory suggests a move towards more organized crime," he added. "It takes a well-organized operation to shift as much as a ton, which is about half a shipping crate. It's not like smuggling a piece of ivory in your hand luggage."

The trafficking is oiled by open-air markets in countries such as Angola, where illegal ivory is freely sold, the TRAFFIC team said.

Many ivory items offered at Angolan markets originated in neighboring countries such as the DRC, researchers discovered. "For example, some of the animals that the ivory has been carved into [it] are Central African species," Thomas said. "They aren't animals that occur in Angola."

Susan Lieberman, director of WWF's Global Species Program, speaking from Rome, Italy, said increased seizures of such ivory surely means a surge in elephant killings by poachers. Since there's no evidence the seized ivory had been stored, the implication is that it's fresh, she said.

Forest Elephants

The slaughter includes that of threatened populations of forest elephants in the Congo Basin, Lieberman added.

The research team is calling for a crackdown on poorly regulated African ivory markets that contravene CITES, an international treaty that monitors illegal trade in endangered wildlife.

"There is a CITES action plan to clamp down on illegal domestic ivory markets," Thomas, of TRAFFIC, said. "Ethiopia has acted on it, and it's had an immediate effect. We'd like to see other countries follow suit."

In China, the team noted, there has been a significant improvement in law enforcement and policing of local markets, yet Chinese ivory traffickers in Africa are operating largely unchecked. The report says that Chinese citizens have been arrested or detained or have fled in at least 126 major ivory seizures in African countries.

"It is imperative that China reaches out to the growing Chinese communities in Africa with a clear message that involvement in illegal ivory trade will not be tolerated," Milliken, the study's lead author, said.

WWF 10 May 07
Organized crime fuels illegal ivory surge in Africa

Gland, Switzerland – Asian-run organized crime syndicates based in Africa are being implicated in the increase in illegal trade in elephant ivory, according to a new study by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network of WWF and IUCN-The World Conservation Union.

The study identified the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and Nigeria as the three nations most heavily implicated as the sources of ivory in this illegal trade.

TRAFFIC’s report is based on an analysis of almost 12,400 ivory seizure cases from 82 countries recorded since 1989 in the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) — the world’s largest database of elephant product seizure records.

“With myriad conflict zones, Central Africa is currently hemorrhaging ivory, and these three countries are major conduits for trafficking illicit ivory from the region to international markets, particularly in Asia,” says Tom Milliken, Director of TRAFFIC’s Africa programme and the principal author of the study.

The illicit trade is directly correlated to the presence of large-scale, poorly regulated domestic ivory markets in parts of Africa and Asia.

These markets are in direct contravention of decisions adopted by Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), aimed at prohibiting unregulated domestic sale of ivory.

“Four years ago, CITES drew up an action plan for tackling these domestic ivory markets, but so far, it appears to have had little impact,” says Milliken. One exception is Ethiopia, which has effectively clamped down on its domestic ivory market by implementing the plan.

“Ethiopia has set a fine example for other countries to emulate,” says Dr Susan Lieberman, Director WWF’s Global Species Programme. “It shows what other countries could do if only they had the political will to do it.”

Markets in China create a high demand for illicit ivory, which arrives either directly or through ports such as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Japan and Thailand are also important final destinations, whereas the Philippines mainly acts as a transit country linked to the major importers.

Together, these seven countries and territories account for 62 per cent of the ivory recovered in the 49 largest seizure cases recorded by ETIS. World-wide, the number of ivory seizures averages 92 cases a month, or three per day.

Large-scale ivory seizures (of 1 tonne or more) have increased both in number and in size in recent years — from 17 between 1989 and 1997 to 32 between 1998 and 2006.

“This demonstrates greater sophistication, organization and finance behind the illegal movement of ever larger volumes of ivory from Africa to Asia,” says Dr Lieberman. “This is clearly a negative consequence of the ongoing globalization of African markets and economies.”

There has been significant improvement in law enforcement efforts and policing of local markets in mainland China, but ETIS records show that Chinese citizens have been arrested, detained or absconded in at least 126 significant ivory seizure cases in 22 African elephant range states.

“It is imperative that China reaches out to the growing Chinese communities in Africa with a clear message that involvement in illegal ivory trade will not be tolerated,” adds Milliken.

END NOTES:

• The establishment of ETIS was mandated under CITES in 1997 to monitor illicit trade in ivory and to assess whether any limited resumption of ivory trade would have negative impacts on elephant populations. Since its inception, ETIS has received funding from the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the CITES Secretariat and the European Union.

• The analysis was carried out with the assistance of the Statistical Services Centre of the University of Reading, UK.

• The TRAFFIC report will be a formal agenda item at the upcoming meeting of CITES Parties in the Hague, Netherlands, from 3–15 June 2007.

• Between 1989 and 1997, all elephant populations were listed in Appendix I of CITES, which imposed a global ban on international commercial trade in elephant products. Subsequently, CITES Parties have twice approved limited, conditional one-off sales of ivory from four southern African countries (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe) whose elephant populations have been transferred to Appendix II.
links
The full report, The Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) and the illicit trade in ivory: A report to the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES by T. Milliken, R. W. Burn and L. Sangalakula: TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa, 2007.

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