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Ivory Frenzy
Description: In the beginning of the 19th century, there were more than 26 million elephants roaming Africa, but as of 1900 only 10 million lived in peace on Africa's land.
Importance: The population dropped so much that the elephant faced extinction. The Africans that were poaching off the land were only seeing the money and nit the harm that could come from all the killing. The African people did not understand that the elephant population was not able to keep up with demands. -
America's Interest and Demands
Description: According to an article entitled "The History of the Ivory Trade" on National Geographic, "Mass production of brushes, combs, piano keys, and pool balls fueled the ivory frenzy."
Importance: This mass production is important becuase the population of the elephants in africa dropped from 23 million to 10 million is a very short amount of time. If there was no damand for the ivory, there would be elephants roaming all over Africa. -
Decimated Elephant Herds- Asian Demand
Description: According to the titled article, "African elephant herds had been decimated to a shocking 1.3 million when Asian demand picked up."
Import: According the Animal Rights Action's article "Ivory Trade," "In Asia, many people believe that products made with certain animal parts have medical and mystical powers." Asia's interest and demand sent the Aftican elephant on a fast decline because their demand outgrew any othe country's. -
Ban on Ivory Trade
Description: According to New York Time's "Ivory Trade Is Banned To Save the Elephant," "The African elephant was classified as an endangered species today, October 16, in an effort to halt poaching by ivory hunters, who have drastically reduced its numbers."
Importance: The unsettling numbers that the elephant species faced were all because of the poaching that happened. Because of the ban, the elephants were able to recover and reach 1 million from 500,000 in just 10 short years. -
Sanctioned Sales
Des: CITES allow sanctioned sales on stockpiled Ivory.
Import: According to HIS's article "Ivory Trade and CITES," "... CITES approved a one-off sale of 49.4 metric tons of stockpiled ivory from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to Japan in 1999." The allowance of these sales will open up many opportunities for unsanctioned sales to happen worldwide. This sale will eventually turn devistating as it gets harder and harded to stop the sales across the world.
