USA is one of the world’s largest ivory markets

29/10/2007 00:00:00 A report by ivory experts Esmond Martin and Daniel Stiles for UK conservation group Care for the Wild International today revealed that masses of ivory from poached elephants are entering the United States illegally.

‘We surveyed thousands of retail outlets in 15 American cities, says Dr Martin, ‘and also visited Vancouver in Canada because of its large East Asian community and close links with China and Hong Kong.’

There is more worked ivory for sale in the United States than anywhere else in the world, bar Hong Kong. Bypassing US Customs, buyers increasingly use the Internet to obtain illegal ivory from China – the main source of worked ivory in the US. ‘We found a staggering 23,741 ivory items, almost half of them in New York City,’ Dr Martin said. ‘Many are mislabelled as antiques, mammoth ivory or bone.’ Illegal Imports
Half the ivory pieces for sale in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu were imported illegally. In the eastern U.S., it was just under one in ten. The investigation also uncovered a lively, but largely unregulated ivory crafting industry in the United States. Between 60 and 100 active ivory craftspeople work in dozens of U.S. workshops and sell their products on the Internet or supply retail outlets in shops and markets.

Records of the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), which monitors illicit movements of ivory for CITES, show that recently the U.S. has had the highest number of ivory seizures and is classified as an ‘ivory trade problem country’.


Courtesy of Care for the Wild International.


‘With regards to ivory trade, the U.S. fails to comply with both CITES regulations and its own national laws,’ says Dr Barbara Maas, CEO of Care for the Wild. ‘The fact that even resource-rich countries like the United States experience these problems illustrates that legalising ivory trade means more poached elephants. It also shows that China continues to fuel this trade at home and abroad.’