Magdalene's Journal: Massive Ivory sale gets mixed reviews from conservationists

According to National Geographic, the The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, came to a decision on June 2 to sell 60 tonnes of African Elephant ivory in a 'one time only' sale to Japan. The ivory coming from elephants in South Africa that had died of natural causes or had been culled legally. 30 tonnes from South Africa, 20 from Botswana and 10 from Namibia, with the profits going back to the conservation efforts in the 3 countries.

Kenya, other African countries and several conservation groups have opposed the sale citing that it would allow opportunity to launder large quantities of illegal ivory. There has been a global ivory trade ban in effect since 1989.

Trade in legal ivory, these countries argued, "provides an opportunity for laundering large quantities of illegal ivory."
The current black market price for ivory in Japan is $850.00 US a Kilogram.

The World Wildlife Fund is in support of the sale. Joanna Benn of the WWF Global Species Programme is quoted as saying there is no evidence that sales like this increase black market demand of ivory.

"This is probably going to be the most monitored controlled sale in the history of conservation, all the revenue from the stockpile has been pledged to go straight back to elephants and conservation," she said.

Recent research seems to point a finger at West and Central African countries as centres for black market ivory, while the 3 countries participating in the sale "have the strongest elephant management regimes anywhere in the world at the moment," Benn said. "This is why they've been so successful with their elephant populations."

The elephants were unavailable for comment.