Ivory Trade Research: Causes And Effects Of Ivory Trade

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Introduction
Ivory has been used to make various items throughout history like, piano keys and buckles. It is considered valuable because it has a durable quality and it can easily be carved into anything. Over the years, ivory trade has been practiced by different cultures, which led to endangerment of animals. Every year, thousands of elephants are killed for meat and mostly for ivory. The high demand for ivory in Asia, USA and Europe led to confusion of the legal sale of ivory among the consumers since the criminals had also introduced the illegal ivory into the market. Poaching sabotages the population of animal species, hence the government should use all kinds of techniques to deal with poaching (Kabukuru & Wanjohi 72). Strict law enforcements should be introduced in order to take control of this illegal trade and save the endangered species.
The main reason as to why the Chinese president announced the ban on ivory trade in China was because, it is estimated that 90% of ivory pieces being sold are illegal (Economist 44). He declared that in order to prevent the legal ivory from being flown into the black market, audit and registration of unsold products should be conducted. The ban on ivory trade should be emphasized on, since the people who operate the legal ivory trade are the same actors who run the illegal market. According to a recent research, sales in China doubled due to high demand from consumers in need of chopsticks and jewellery (Moreto & William 320). In addition, due to the change of forested lands into plantations and developments in infrastructure by Indians, elephants were forced to live in small open areas that resulted to being easily traced by the poachers (Naylor & R.T 295). One tusk is estimated to weigh more than 250 pounds, hence the poachers sell the tusks at $1,500 in the black market.
Hawaii is known to have the largest remaining black market in ivory trade, with dozens of ships entering the Hawaii ports with the aim of making the illegal ivory trade. They use online trade in ivory, to advertise their products such as jewelleries and piano keys. (Zimmerman & Kevin 6). Most of these products are advertised as elephant ivory, yet they may have been illegally obtained since they do not carry any evidence to show that the products are being imported. During the passing of the ivory ban bill, conflict was experienced within the society since the country has been doing trading for more than 30 years. In Kenya, the bill on ban of ivory trade was passed with the aim of stopping poaching for the elephant population to increase and boost the country’s economy through tourism industry. In the year 2016, thousands of tusks obtained ille...