Tusk Tusk: The True Cost of Ivory

In China’s most elite circles, elephant ivory is seen as a pristine status symbol – elaborately engraved, strung into necklaces and bracelets, or whittled into little Buddhist statues and other trinkets. But the sourcing of those gleaming African tusks couldn’t be any less glamorous.

“The elephants are either shot or poisoned to kill them. Then the tusks are cut out – using an axe or other sharp instrument,” says Dr. Richard Thomas, a spokesperson for TRAFFIC International, which is campaigning vigorously against African ivory poaching and the smuggling of tusks to China.

Many of his fellow activists agree. A recent report by the WWF, which partnered with TRAFFIC on its campaign, indicates that 70 percent of the world’s illegal ivory demand lies in China. Public awareness has also grown as Chinese authorities crack down on the contraband shipments. As recently as October 21, four tons of tusks (worth USD 3.4 million) were seized in Hong Kong.

According to Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People (an independent newspaper covering animal rights issues), those tusks are often “removed with a chainsaw.”

“[They] brutally cut off their faces to get tusks,” says Michelle Zhang, a spokesperson for WildAid, an NGO that enlisted Yao Ming to be the face of its own anti-ivory campaign. Yao’s credibility and fame are key to combating ivory’s chic image among some of his peers in China’s upper class. In fact, experts say Chinese buyers are as culpable as the most ruthless African poacher.

“China’s economic miracle has led to greater buying power of ivory, and few potential consumers were exposed to the publicity surrounding the international trade ban of ivory in 1989,” Zhang says. That late-’80s ban was actually effective for a number of years, says Zhang. Such progress makes the recent spike in poaching, and the flow of RMB pushing it along, all the more tragic. “For a number of years, elephant numbers stabilized and poaching declined,” she says. Prices then shrunk to a quarter of previous levels as the global ivory market collapsed. “But some Southern African countries pushed for re-opening ivory trade for their stockpiles, and each time this was done, poaching increased again on speculation of a renewed market.”

Ashley Fruno, senior campaigner at PETA Asia, says the elephants are all too aware of the agony behind those stats and facts. “Like the hunting of other animals, gun shots sometimes leave elephants alive and injured, resulting in a slow and painful death due to gangrene or other disease,” she says. The animals are intelligent enough to mourn the loss. “Normally, they spend their entire lives in close-knit herds. Poaching splits them up, and orphans the young.”

Zhang says there are several alternatives that are far less bloody. Tusks can legally be removed from elephants that die naturally, although she admits that wouldn’t meet the growing demand that already outpaces aggressive poaching. A recent article in Time points to Russian mammoth tusks as a viable replacement, before conceding that connoisseurs prefer real ivory. That story refers to Hong Kong as the hub of tusk trading in China, and says the port city’s contraband ivory flow will stop if customer demand ebbs. But Thomas says the issue is more nuanced.

“Hong Kong is one of the entry points for illegal ivory to enter mainland China, but the routes used by smugglers will change depending on the level of enforcement activity, and therefore the risk of shipments being intercepted,” he says. The recent ivory seizures in Hong Kong are impressive, he allows, but without “adequate political will,” ultimately ineffective.

Thomas was, of course, referring to insufficient budgets and legislation. But An An Luo, a spokesperson for WWF China, says the PRC’s anti-ivory role should be far more active.

“We encourage Chinese ambassadors in African countries to educate the Chinese citizens working or travelling there, so that they’ll stop buying ivory and trying to take it back to China,” Luo says. “We want the governments to work together against the murder of these elephants, because this is a global issue.”

This article originally appeared on page 61 of the December issue of the Beijinger.

Photo courtesy of WildAid