Illegal Ivory Trade Thrives in West Africa

GLAND, Switzerland, December 15, 2003 (ENS) - The West African nations of Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal are failing to stem the illegal ivory trade that threatens the survival of elephants, conservation groups say. A new report from WWF and the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC finds there is more illegal ivory than elephants in these three countries.

The illegal ivory market is the principal force driving elephant poaching, the conservation groups say, and all three governments are in breach of ivory market control requirements under international regulations governing the trade in endangered wildlife species.

Undercover investigators visited nine cities in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal and found more than 4,000 kilograms (9,000 pounds) of ivory on public display - a volume that represents the ivory of more than 760 elephants.

According to recent data from the World Conservation Union (IUCN) there may be no more than 543 elephants in these countries.

Poaching driven by the illegal ivory trade - along with habitat loss - are the key threats to elephants in the wild. (Photo courtesy FAO )

These countries make up Africa's most troubled region for elephant conservation, according to the report.

It says inadequate domestic legislation and poor law enforcement in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal are threatening the survival of elephants in these countries and Central Africa.

"These studies show just a snapshot of the problem," said Tom Milliken, director of TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa and coauthor of the report. "When we factor in all of the uncontrolled manufacturing, buying and selling over a year, these numbers climb to frightening dimensions."

The IUCN estimates some 400 to 600,000 African elephants remain in the wild - down from as many as five million some 70 years ago.

International trade in ivory was banned in 1989 by through the international treaty known as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

African elephants are listed as endangered under CITES. The treaty does afford limited trade of ivory from several nations with existing stockpiles and at last year's CITES meeting, negotiators agreed to allow Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to make one time sales of ivory collected from elephants that died of natural causes or as a result of government regulated problem animal control.

No such sales are allowed in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal, the report says, but an illegal ivory market is flourishing in these African nations.

The conservation groups report that the wildlife authorities responsible for implementing CITES are systematically barred from the ports of entry and exit in these countries.

The elephant is the world's largest landbased mammal and one of the world's most intelligent species. (Photo by Hervé Morand courtesy WWF-Canon)

The report says the situation in Nigeria is the most alarming, with higher volumes of ivory identified than in a previous undercover survey carried out in 1999.

This country is already facing possible sanctions under CITES because of concerns about its ivory trade.

If Nigeria fails to comply with CITES requirements to regulate internal trade in ivory by March 2004, it could find that all legal trade in CITES listed wildlife species to and from the country is suspended.

The report says the principal buyers of the illegal ivory are expatriates, tourists, business people and some diplomatic staff from the United States, France, Italy, China and South Korea.