What is ivory?

Being a biological product, the tusks are comparatively soft. The hardness of the ivory and so the suitability for carving vary depending on the origin, the habitat and the sex. So ivory from West and Central Africa is supposed to be the best because it is harder. At the same time it is more elastic and therefore more suitable for carving than ivory from the eastern or southern Africa or from Asia.

What does ivory consist of?

The structure of ivory resembles the structure of bones. It consists mainly of calcium and phosphate. But it contains also minerals, the origin of which can be traced back to the places, where a certain herd of elephants searchedtheir feed and where they drank.

How long are tusks?

The tusks of the Asiatic elephants are generally smaller than those of the African elephants. The longest tusk of an African elephant measured 3.264 meters, the heaviest one weighed 102.7 kilograms.

With the Asiatic elephants, the longest tusk was 3.02 meters and the heaviest one weighed 39 kilograms.

Statistical data from the last decades make clear that the average weight of the tusks of African elephants decreased with an alarming rapidity. The decrease was about 0.5 to 1 kilogram per year. In 1970 the average weight of the tusks was 12 kilo. In 1990 only 3 kilogram.

How wide-spread is the ivory trade?

Before the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) prohibited the trade of ivory in 1990, 3/4 of the raw ivory in the world were worked in the carving workshops of Asia. From 1980 until 1986, Japan consumed most ivory. That means about 38 % of the annual total amount of 800 tons. The Japanese carvers used up the major part of the ivory for music instruments containing ivory components and for seals. Big ivory carvings existed and still exist aslo in China, Hong Kong and India. Here primarily jewellery and ornamental objects are made and sold to tourists.

What does ivory cost?

The price some people pay for the ivory is about 550 € for the raw ivory and 2000 € for for carving vary.

Increasing number of poached elephants in Africa; flourishing trade of ivory worldwide.
By Peter Baumgartner,
Nairobi

Only two years after The CITES conference for the protection of endangered species in Nairobi eased the interdiction of ivory trade, the illegal traffic in precious tusks and consequently the poaching have reached tragic dimensions again. Since the beginning of the year, just in Kenya 70 elephants were poached, which of course is only a fraction of the overall number of killed animals. The situation is disastrous primarily in those African countries, which suffer from civil war or from political disturbances, - that means there, where official control is insufficient or inexistent.
In 2002, three tons of ivory were confiscated in Tanzania, six in Singapore and three tons each in Egypt and in China. The major part of the tusks comes from Africa; their destination is mostly China, Where, due to the economic upturn, figures, brooches and cult objects are very much in demand.
North Korean diplomats are supposed to act as intermediaries and as couriers: It is easier for them to smuggle the tusks - declared as diplomatic luggage - from country to country.
When the interdiction of ivory trade was eased at the conference for the protection of endangered species, it was actually also intended that an extensive controlling system should be established simultaneously. Actually some countries of the southern Africa had only fought for the permission to sell their stocks of elephant tusks on exactly supervised paths.

Controls unfeasible

But the control is unfeasible. Except for Kenya, not even the beginnings do exist in any of the African or Asian countries. In Japan, which had been removed from the list of official countries of importation and which registers the origin of the ivory as well as the purchasers, the demand for ivory has drastically decreased. In return, China has opened huge markets instead of Japan.
Early in November, the next CITES Conference will take place in Chile. Kenya and India want to try to push through a strict embargo for ivory, as it had been set up in 1989. It put an end to the poaching of elephants then and reduced the shooting from ten thousands per year to a few dozens.