Shoppers in Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, are greeted by gleaming white ivory statuettes and whole elephant tusks, but what tourists don’t know is they have probably been made from illegal African ivory.
Conservationists are concerned that loopholes in Thailand’s laws allow the ivory trade to flourish in that country, now dubbed the largest retail ivory market in the world.
This issue is likely to be discussed in October when Thailand plays host to the 13th Meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife and Fauna (Cites).
Since 1993, Thailand has been a signatory to Cites, which prohibits the trade in certain wild animal products — including ivory.
However, trade in products from domesticated animals is not prohibited, which gives unscrupulous traders in Thailand an important loophole.
They can claim their ivory was procured from Thailand’s small population of tamed, working elephants — currently estimated to be about 3 000.
”Domesticated elephants are not protected by wildlife laws. There is nothing that makes it illegal to sell ivory from domestic elephants in Thailand,” Robert Mather, WWF country representative for Thailand, pointed out.
”If you own an elephant and that elephant dies, you are entitled to sell the ivory from that elephant and there’s nothing to say that’s illegal. But the problem is that there is no system and no laws to manage and regulate this trade.”
Mather said it is very difficult to prove that ivory products in shops were made from illegally imported ivory and not from a domestic elephant.
He said there are not many captive elephants in Thailand with decent-sized tusks to provide legal ivory to the market.
”The vast majority of ivory sold here — between 80% and 90% — is from Africa,” he claimed.
According to a new study by Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network, ivory markets in Asia and Africa continue to be drivers of the illegal killing of thousands of elephants annually.
Functioning as major suppliers, manufacturing centres and end-use markets for ivory, Thailand and China in Asia as well as Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Nigeria in Africa were identified in the report as the six most highly implicated countries in illegal ivory trading worldwide.
Based on a statistical analysis of more than 9 400 elephant-product seizure records held in the Elephant Trade Information System (Etis), the Traffic report will be a formal agenda item for discussion at the Bangkok Cites conference.
In 2002, according to Thai customs records, ivory worth nine million baht (about $225 000) was seized in five separate raids at Bangkok International airport.
”Most of it [the ivory] seems to be coming in suitcases from African countries in airlines originating from Ethiopia and the Gulf countries,” Mather said.
China is the world’s largest consumer market for ivory and, according to Traffic, if the Chinese demand is abated, there will be a significant difference in the current upward trend of trade in illicit ivory.
”You can often tell from the design of the different products which target market they are aiming for. If you see ivory sculptures with Chinese gods and goddesses, these are obviously aimed at the Chinese market,” pointed out Mather.
Traffic’s director, Tom Milliken, principal author of the report to Cites, said progress is being made by China to crack down on the illegal ivory trade.
”It is enormously encouraging to note progress in China, where 182 elephant product seizures have been made and reported since the last Etis report [in 2002],” said Milliken in a statement.
”No other country has acted as decisively as China to improve law-enforcement effort and curtail the illicit movement of ivory. If this continues, we may see a downward trend in the future.” — Sapa-IPS