Walking by a store in Vietnam and peering into the window, sitting in the glass cabinet, there are beautiful works of art carved in a piece of white material. That is ivory. People would believe it is a fabulous and magnificent piece of art, but not many people think back to where it came from. The process of turning the tusk of the elephant into a piece of art is unknown to many. As many people still believe ivory products can represent social status and wealth, the ones bearing the consequences of the decline of elephants are nature and many other species that depend on the elephants. Today, even though many elephants still can be found in zoos, not many people know that an estimated 10% of the remaining elephant population are being slaughtered each year, simply for their high-commercial-valued tusks (Law Endangered Elephants). As more social issues are rising to the surface, people should also recognize the issues humans have created to animals and nature. The United Nations has created 17 Sustainable Development Goals, also known as SDGs, addressing the current global issues. Ivory trade lies under Goal 15: Life on Land, as ivory trade has and could continue to bring huge impacts to the animals and the ecosystem. Humans are the biggest enemy to many animals that have never had any deadly predators, including elephants. As poaching numbers increase and more and more elephants are disappearing from the forests and plains, people have started to realize that ivory trade has made huge impacts on not only the elephant species, causing decline in the population, but also making significant impacts on the ecosystem, and the solution to these problems are needed to be found.

 

Defining Ivory and Ivory Trade

Ivory trade is something that few people know and are exposed to, and the existence of ivory trade is still a question to many.

What is Ivory Trade

Ivory trade is the commercial trade, nowadays illegal trade, in many countries of the ivory tusks of hippopotamuses, walruses, narwals, mammoths, but most commonly – elephants. Because the African elephants have large tusks that have high commercial value in it, rather than the Asian elephants that develop smaller tusks, more of the African elephants are illegally killed by poachers for their tusks and then sold at a high price, often to Asian countries (Ivory).

Uses of Ivory

Ivory is often processed into chopsticks, chess sets, jewelry, name seals, and many other decorative items such as religious art pieces carved out of pieces of ivory. In the past, ivory was also used for the white keys on pianos, furniture inlays, and even everyday items such as combs (Ivory).

In China, ivory is a luxury item that flaunts wealth and is a status symbol. Some buy ivory because of spiritual and religious reasons, believing the biggest animal on earth would protect them by buying ivory. Some buy ivory products as a gift, some even to bribe government officials. It is beautiful, carries cultural significance, and it is rarer and more valuable than gold or silver, which makes it a great gift (Ong).

In the past, ivory was widely used, even in furniture and on instruments. Overhunting the elephants has not been an issue in history, but the continuing hunting of the elephants over decades and centuries has brought a continuous decline in the elephants’ population as technology and transportation has improved.

Demand in Ivory

As ivory symbolizes wealth and social status to many, countries such as China, the United States, Vietnam, Philippines, and other Asian countries are in high demand of such rare and precious material. According to National Geographic, less than a third of the people believe that elephants are very endangered, and many ivory buyers do not think buying a piece of ivory would make a huge impact on the population. For example, the Vietnamese who believe that they need to buy as many ivory products as they can since the elephant populations are already declining so fast (Strauss).

Many of the African countries that are home to the elephants’ experience poverty and political corruption, so poachers will try to hunt elephants for their valuable tusks and sell at a high price to those countries in demand of ivory. This results in smuggling of ivory products, even after the bans of legal ivory trade in several countries (Linder). Adding on, many African countries such as Zimbabwe need the revenue of ivory sales to fund conservation efforts. Zimbabwe has a stockpile of ivory from elephants that died from natural causes, worthen near 13 million US dollars. Their budgets are tight, and the government has higher priorities such as funding health and education (Ganesan). Many countries need the money from ivory trade for more critical issues they need to solve first.

As many people and countries who import and supply ivory have less to no education on the endangered animals, the demand will continue. And as a result, if there is demand for ivory, there will be ones who try to supply.

Process of Obtaining Ivory

Ivory can be obtained from the elephants that have died of natural causes, but it is not as efficient as obtaining ivory from hunting the elephants. A third of the elephant’s tusk is embedded in the bone sockets of the elephant’s skull. Because cutting the visible parts of the tusk is not as valuable, killing the elephant and cutting open the face and skull of the elephant is necessary to obtain the full tusk that could be sold for more money (Ivory).

 

Population and Specie Impacts

As the demand for ivory has rapidly increased, the supply will also have to. The number of elephants needed to be poached for their tusks to supply the ivory markets will be increasing along with the demand for ivory.

Ivory trade has made a significant impact on the species, not only on the population, but also on the evolution of the species and the mental health of the animals.

Locations of Poaching

The combined population of 420,000 to 650,00 African Savannah elephants and forest elephants spread across 35 to 38 African countries. 80% of the population is concentrated in the southern and eastern African countries, 50% of which live in Botswana, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. The remaining 18% of the forest elephants and 2% of the savannah elephants spread across western and central Africa (Wittemyer).

However, only 20% of the population live in protected areas such as national parks and conservation areas. The remaining population are past the boundaries of the national parks and conservation areas, and often overlap with inhabited areas with humans (Wittemyer).

Wildlife trafficking is often carried out by well-armed groups in regions with weak laws and borders. And the elephants living in protected areas still cannot avoid being poached. Some people who sell ivory face little to no risk of being enforced by law even lacking proof that the item is legal because the bans of importing ivory have not been strictly enforced in their country (Law Endangered African Elephants).

Population Decrease

As the number of elephants being poached has rocketed past the number of newborn elephants each year, the population of the elephants starts to dramatically decrease.

After World War II, conspicuous consumption surged, and over-hunting for ivory drove severe declines in the population of elephants in the 1970s and 1980s. Over the past century, the population of the African elephants have decline from over 5 million to less than 500 thousand today (Ivory Trade). An estimated 35,000 elephants by National Geographic – 10% of the remaining population – are being illegally killed each year for their tusks (Law Endangered African Elephants).

In Botswana, a country considered the safe haven for the elephants, between 2014 and 2018, the number of elephant carcasses found in just this country increased by 593%. From 2017 to October of 2018, 385 elephants were poached. The elephant population just in the central southern region of Tanzania fell from more than 34,000 in 2009 to less than 8,000 in 2014 (Maron).

The largest subspecies of the African elephants, the Savannah elephants, has declined by 60% since 1990; forest elephants have also declined by 86% since 1990. Because of this, all African elephant species has been listed as “vulnerable,” the Savannah elephants listed as “endangered,” and the forest elephants listed as “critically endangered” (Wittemyer).

There have been huge decreases in the population of elephants in the past century, mostly due to human activity, especially poaching. As 10% of the remaining population of elephants are being killed each year, the elephant species could be lost within 20 years.

Mental Health and Evolution Impacts

Elephants are species that live in close-knit communities and require regular parental guidance and role models to be present to teach the young. Infant elephants learn lessons critical to their survival and behavior from their mothers. Ivory trade has made the young elephant generation lose the guidance and role models they need from the older generations as more and more elephants are being killed for their tusks. Their sense of wisdom is unable to be passed down through generations. Increasing numbers of young elephants are starting to fend for themselves. The behaviors of the young elephants’ consequences in the increasing numbers of violent clashes between elephants and human communities, putting the nearby villagers in danger (Kielburger).

During the Mozambican Civil War, both sides financed their efforts by killing elephants for their tusks (Preston). Research done by National Geographic has found that a third of the female elephants born after the Mozambican Civil War in 1992 never developed tusks. 51% of the female elephants that have survived the war, above 25 years old, are tuskless. South Africa, a country with a history of substantial elephant poaching for ivory, has had significant effect on the female survivors and their daughters. 98% of the 174 female elephants in the Addo Elephant National Park were found tuskless in the 2000s. And an increasing number of male elephants born after 1995 in southern Kenya have been reported to have developed tusks 21% smaller than the tusks of the male elephants in the 1960s (Maron). The tusks are a key tool for the elephants to strip tree bark for food, dig holes for water, and to defend themselves. Without the tool, they would need to adjust their behavior in order to still survive in the wild.

Elephant poaching has not only caused huge decreases in the population of elephants, but also made changes in the young generations and destroyed the balance in their communities. Elephants have been evolving to lose parts of themselves to keep the species alive due to elephant poaching for their tusks.

 

Ecosystem Impacts

Not only has ivory trade made significant impacts on the species itself, but the decline in the elephant population has also imbalanced the ecosystem and affected many of the plants and animals that depend on elephants.

Maintaining Plant Species

Many of the plant species rely on spreading their seeds to various places through animals and insects, and elephants are one of those.

Forest elephants play a huge role in maintaining the rainforests in the world. Elephants are one of the most effective seed dispersal agents and can disperse up to 346 seeds//day. The decrease in elephant species and population can result in the highly specialized plant species being dispersed in lower quantities and smaller distances or even not dispersed at all (Yemane). Food passing through elephants helps transfer nutrients, organic matter, and seeds from elephant droppings into the soil. Many precious and key hardwood species rely on the journey through the guts of the elephants to start the germination process. Preserving the trees and plants in the rainforests is crucial to help alleviate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide (Saving Elephants).

Elephants play a vital role in the ecosystem, maintaining many other plant species. The decline in elephants will also result in the decline in plant species that heavily rely on the dispersal through elephants as less seeds are being transferred by the remaining population that could continue to decrease due to elephant poaching for ivory.

Supporting Other Species

Elephants can open dense woodlands and allow new plants to plant on the forest floor. This vegetation is the food supply for large herbivores which then eventually turns into the food of carnivores. It also provides a hospitable environment and supports a vital wildlife habitat for myriad other herbivores and carnivores (Saving Elephants).

Tree felling by the elephants can release nutrients and increase productivity in the ecosystem, clearing trees in woodlands can help open springs and increase ground water, trampling down tall sedges and promoting growth of high-quality grasses can help open pastures to other herbivores (Saving Elephants). They also help keep trees and shrubs below a certain level, which provides silage for herbivores (Yemane). The elephants make huge contributions to the forests, to the ecosystem and other species. Along with the decline of the elephants, the ecosystem will start to be imbalanced.

Elephants are a keystone species believed to help maintain food webs. The removal of the species will result in catastrophic consequences. Such as in the Uganda’s Murchison Falls Park, when elephants were excluded, all the important grazing grasses disappeared. Along with the disappearance of the grazing grasses, grazers such as wildebeest disappeared because they lost their primary food source (Saving Elephants).

As important nature conservers, the existence of the elephants is important to many other animal and plant species that depend on them for a source of food and to reproduce. With the ivory trade bringing dramatic declines in the populations of elephants, it could result in losing other animal and plant species that are in need of the elephants and their jobs. Preserving the elephants is not only protecting one species, but also many other species directly or indirectly related to them.

 

Solving the Problem

As ivory trade has caused huge impacts on not only the population and the animal, but also in the ecosystem and other species, ivory trade is a problem that needs to be alleviated and solved, and countries need to take action to start to protect the animals. Luckily, many countries have started to realize the problem ivory trade has brought to the elephants. Many countries have started creating laws and regulations against ivory trade.

Closing Domestic Ivory Markets and Banning Ivory

China, the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, the European Union, and many other countries has started closing domestic ivory markets and banning legal ivory trade. The United States as the earliest countries, has banned domestic ivory markets in 2016, followed by UK and Singapore the same year. China, the country with the highest ivory demand and biggest ivory markets, has fully closed its legal domestic ivory market at the end of 2017. Hong Kong has also followed and banned all ivory sales in 2021 (Bischoff). In July 2017, the Japanese internet retailer “Rakuten”, the world’s largest online ivory seller, has announced to phase out ivory (Muruthi).

By closing domestic ivory markets, it has depressed the prices of ivory and driven down the demand for ivory. The prices of raw ivory have fallen by two thirds between 2014 to 2017 due to China’s commitments to end ivory trade (Muruthi). By limiting supply. There is nowhere for the ivory to go, therefore reduces the incentive to poach. Closing domestic ivory markets has also influenced consumer behavior. A recent survey conducted by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Traffic Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC) has shown that 31% of the potential buyers of ivory in China have responded that they would no longer buy ivory (Bischoff). After China had implemented a domestic ivory ban in the end of 2017, the seizures of ivory entering the country has declined by 80% (Muruthi). The bans in China have had significant effect on the amount of ivory being bought. However, just outside China’s southern borders, ivory is still on sale in countries such as Laos and Vietnam. Chinese tourists are still able to purchase ivory products at a cheaper price (China’s Ban). The other Asian countries with open ivory markets today are facing substantial pressure to make action.

Spreading Awareness

In 2016, the Kenyan government lit the largest ivory burn, destroying 105 tons of elephant ivory. Following in August 2017, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation hosted an ivory crush in New York City’s Central Park, destroying two tons of ivory (Bischoff). Many countries have started protesting against ivory trade by destroying the ivory stockpiles they own and have confiscated. Enforcing public education and spreading awareness about the bans of ivory trade, especially in the countries that have high demand for ivory and still allow legal ivory trade will be the next step that the governments and organizations need to take in order to alleviate the rapid declines in the elephant populations. Only stopping the demand for ivory will help stop the poaching.

As ivory trade has been bringing enormous impacts to the elephant population, the species and the ecosystem, people need to recognize the catastrophic impacts humans have made to Earth and wildlife. People need to take action to alleviate the issue and make up for the disastrous choices humans have made to fulfil their desires. Conserving animals has become one of the most critical issues, as it has been included in the 15^th Sustainable Development Goal: Life on Land. The impact we have brought to wildlife is massive. Today, ivory is no longer a commercial item. When the demand for ivory stops, the ones who try to supply it will stop too. Earth is the home to both humans and many of the other animals and living organisms, not only ruled by humans.

 

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