`If the elephant died from natural mortality or natural culling, I see no reason the ivory shouldn`t be used. Most African countries are very poor, and this is one of the few natural resources they can exploit. But right now it is in a crisis situation,” said Diana E. McMeekin, vice president of the African Wildlife Foundation, headquartered in Washington.
”The threat to the African elephant is a very complicated thing. We thought we had 1.3 million elephants in 1979,” McMeekin said.
”In 1987 the best estimate was 750,000. The problem with that is 300,000 of that number is thought to be living in Zaire (which she said is not accurate with its statistics). That figure is 98 percent guess; we think we have many fewer elephants than that.
”Of course, the ones being killed have the biggest ivory. The adults are going. In a (natural, nonpoaching) culling process, they at least cull whole families.” Elephant family life ”is extremely analogous to the human experience. The female elephant never leaves the mother and aunt. The male stays with his natal group for 13 years and doesn`t reach his majority until he is 30 years old. So if you kill off the adults, what`s left is a confused huddle of juveniles that doesn`t know how to be adults.
”The demand for ivory is what`s causing the poaching to be out of control,” McMeekin said. ”If we stop buying ivory, we feel there will be repercussions worldwide. If we alone stop buying ivory in the U.S., that will not be enough to stop the problem.” But she thinks the rest of the world would follow suit: ”Traditionally, the U.S. can be the birthplace of an idea of this sort.
”In Africa, we provide assistance to antipoaching patrols, underwrite seminars for higher-level government decision-makers, establish wildlife clubs and conservation clubs for schoolchildren in Africa so they develop a conservation ethic, and provide assistance to parks and reserves in the way of Land Rovers, uniforms and tents.”
McMeekin, who lived for many years in Africa as a volunteer worker for the U.S. State Department and received many gifts of ivory jewelry there, added: ”I keep my ivory out of sight in a drawer unless I`m using it as a teaching tool. I`m not going to trash it; that`s not going to bring back any elephants. Until we can prove without a shadow of a doubt the elephants are safe, we have no moral right to be part of the problem.
”As far as I`m concerned,” McMeekin said, ”a person who has been educated to see this problem should avoid the purchase of ivory of any sort until we see the improved health of the African elephant.”
According to the Animals` Agenda, a magazine published monthly by the Animal Rights Network in Monroe, Conn., McMeekin is not exaggerating.
”The Nairobi-based United Nations Environmental Program has conducted studies showing that in just 15 years, Kenya`s elephant population has declined by 85 percent. The economic incentive, in countries where poverty falls to abysmal depths, seems to be the prime motive,” according to the publication.
”All-time-high ivory prices have climbed steadily since the early 1970s, averaging today approximately $82 a pound. Financial experts are also aware that speculators are hoarding the material in hopes of eventually making a
`killing` when acute global shortages develop. Meanwhile, the real killings are already taking place. The government disclosed last August that at least 92 elephants had been killed in the previous three months,” the magazine reported.
”Clearly the African elephant is on the threatened list of endangered species,” said Jorgen Thomsen, staff biologist for the World Wildlife Fund, whose work is ”almost exclusively with elephants.” He explained that ”the U.S. market for raw tusks is not great compared to other markets like Hong Kong and Japan. The U.S. market is mainly imported ivory products,” or worked ivory. ”The U.S. market is almost entirely made up of production from Hong Kong,” according to Thomsen.
”The value of this ivory is $30 million a year. The retail value markup is roughly 110 percent,” he added.
”Most of the ivory in the U.S. does come in with legal documents,” he explained, ”but that doesn`t mean it doesn`t come from poached elephants. Much of the ivory is laundered, confiscated by the government from poachers. Between 80 and 90 percent of all ivory comes from poached elephants. It doesn`t mean it is traded illegally.”
When the worked ivory does arrive in the United States, it does so with the scrutiny of the federal government.
A California wholesaler of ivory, an Indian named Subhash, who has a wholesale showroom in San Francisco and sells to shops in Chicago, said he does not sell a lot of ivory, only the new items made in the Orient. He explained the process.
”It is all carved and made in Hong Kong; they import from Africa,” he said. ”We have to be licensed to sell ivory. We are bonded people; we do import our ivory legally.”
This is done through a ”special certificate from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” he said. ”As soon as a shipment comes in, and it says
`ivory shipment,` my broker has to make an appointment with Fish and Wildlife. They will look at all the documentation.”
But he added that the new restrictive atmosphere ”has really affected the prices of ivory. It already has gone up. I was in China and Hong Kong in October, and it has gone up 30 to 40 percent. Anything that is monopolized is going to go up in price.”
(The African elephant and its smaller Asian relative are protected by laws in many countries and by an international treaty to control wildlife trade, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES, signed by more than 100 countries. CITES bans trade in ivory of the Asian elephant, of which only about 25,000 remain. The African elephant`s ivory must be traded according to a quota system instituted in January, 1986. The quota system allows the export of ivory only by nations that enforce antipoaching laws and have reasonable elephant conservation programs, according to David P. Greanville, executive director of the Voice of Nature Network, a television resource for the defense of animals and nature, headquartered in Westport, Conn.)
In an attempt to curb the widespread illegal trade of ivory, last September the U.S. Congress passed the African Elephant Conservation Act as part of the reauthorized Endangered Species Act of 1973. It sets up a fund for elephant conservation and bans the importing of ivory into the United States from countries that do not adhere to the CITES quota system. Ivory imported from intermediary countries must come from legal sources.”
This is an unusual move, Thomsen said, ”because it deals specifically with a species not native to the U.S., in an attempt to deal with the problem.”
Under the act, by the end of this year the secretary of the Interior must assess the management and conservation of elephants in African range states and implement a moratorium on ivory trade against CITES countries that do not help protect the animals.
Poaching isn`t the only reason the African elephant is disappearing, Thomsen said. ”Zimbabwe has a longstanding tradition of so-called culling. They have so few areas where they can have elephants, the elephants become a pest species. The government has a strict policy of keeping the elephant population at a strict number.
In Kenya and Tanzania, the internal sale and possession of ivory has been outlawed since 1986, Thomsen said. ”There is a poaching wave going through east Africa right now.”
The elephant population in these two countries has been ”hit very badly because of the demand for ivory; therefore the governments of both countries have succeeded in confiscating a lot of ivory.
”Poaching means the population is declining,” Thomsen said. ”That`s where organizatons like World Wildlife Fund come into the picture. We are working with both countries to raise the funds to improve antipoaching measures.
”Certainly if the current trends continue in Africa in the decline of the elephant,” Thomsen said, ”then ivory is a dying trade. It will all be gone soon.” –
