Ban on Wild Elephant Products Is Maintained

Back to Map Page April, 2000 Nairobi, Kenya   Several African states agreed to continue the ban on international ivory trade. (Image source: B. Barker.)   Elephants received a surprise defense against ivory poaching this spring at a United Nations meeting in Nairobi. At the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), delegates from 150 nations discussed strategies for controlling the loss of biodiversity caused by the poaching and marketing of skins, tusks, and other parts of endangered species. Before the meeting, five southern African states---Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa---had proposed plans to allow marketing of stockpiled elephant tusks. Sale of warehoused supplies would bring in valuable cash, but it would also open a flood of international trade and create new incentives for poachers to kill more elephants for their tusks. In the 1970s and 1980s, before elephants were protected by CITES, wild populations of African elephants were cut in half by ivory poachers. In 1989, CITES banned all trade in elephant products in an effort to protect the species from extinction. At the April meeting, the five African states agreed to compromise by continuing to ban trade in ivory until effective methods are developed to control poaching. The compromise allows these countries to avoid a permanent ban on ivory trade, but it also keeps down the economic incentive for poaching. However, the agreement does allow the sale of elephant hides. The reasoning is that hides are much harder to remove and much less lucrative than ivory, so most hides are likely to originate from legal sources. To learn more, see these related websites: Details of the CITES treaty Friends of Animals on CITES Report on 1999 ivory sale To read more, see: Environmental Science, A Global Concern, Cunningham and Saigo, 6th ed. Products from endangered wildlife, pp. 290-91 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, pp. 224, 300 Elephant poaching, p. 346 Environmental Science, A Study of Interrelationships, Enger and Smith, 7th ed. Managing ecosystems for wildlife, pp. 200-205 Human-accelerated extinction, pp. 207-12 Back to Map Page feedback form | permissions | international | locate your campus rep | request a review copy digital solutions | publish with us | customer service | mhhe home Copyright ©2001 The McGraw-Hill Companies. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. McGraw-Hill Higher Education is one of the many fine businesses of the The McGraw-Hill Companies.