Ivory trade rules tightening
Buying and selling ivory in the United States is about to get a lot harder, even if your grandfather brought the tusk hanging over your fireplace back from a safari 50 years ago.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a new rule Monday that eliminates almost all trade in ivory products, no matter how or when the object was acquired. If you have planned to sell something made of ivory, well, it better be at least 100 years old.
The Fish and Wildlife Service had allowed people to buy and sell antique ivory products for years after banning new ivory from entering the country. But the problem is that ivory poachers and traders can make an object look old when it’s not. Some unscrupulous antique dealers also sold items they knew were recent to make an extra buck by claiming they were antique.
African elephants are also more endangered than ever before. Criminal syndicates and terror groups use highly trained poachers with militarygrade weaponry to hunt elephants across Africa and have well-established supply lines. Poachers have killed 100,000 elephants in the last three years, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Cracking down on people buying ivory products is the only way to stop the slaughter.
“Strong laws around wildlife crime and strong enforcement of those laws are absolutely critical in deterring traffickers and poachers, and each country has an obligation to review and strengthen its laws, close loopholes and otherwise simplify the role of law enforcement in combating the illegal wildlife trade,” said Patrick Bergin, CEO of the African Wildlife Foundation.
I’ve written before that business people hold the solution to ending the ivory trade. We should join with the Fish and Wildlife Service in shutting down those who trade in the corpses or endangered species.