AUTHOR Daniel Stiles
ELEPHANT IVORY TRAFFICKING
IN CALIFORNIA, USA
ABSTRACT:
Investigators comprehensively surveyed commercial vendors selling ivory in
Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, which previous surveys identifed
as the U.S. cities with the highest proportions of potentially illegal ivory
pieces and the largest ivory markets overall, behind New York City. The data
collection for this study was carried out between March 15 and April 11, 2014.
A total of over 1,250 ivory items offered for sale by 107 vendors was seen in
California, with 777 items and 77 vendors in Los Angeles and well over 473
ivory items and 30 vendors in San Francisco. In Los Angeles, between 77%
and 90% of the ivory seen was likely illegal under California law (i.e., post-
1977) and between 47% and 60% could have been illegal under federal law.
In San Francisco, approximately 80% of the ivory was likely illegal under
California law and 52% could have been illegal under federal law. There is
a much higher incidence of what appears to be ivory of recent manufacture
in California, roughly doubling from approximately 25% in 2006 to about
half in 2014. In addition, many of the ivory items seen for sale in California
advertised as antiques (i.e., more than 100 years old) appear to be more likely
from recently killed elephants. Most of the ivory products surveyed appear to
have originated in East Asia. While consumer demand for ivory items remains
high, there are signifcantly fewer vendors in California selling ivory items than
in 2006. Finally, both federal and state law enforcement of existing ivory laws
in California appears to be minimal and there is widespread confusion among
vendors about what constitutes the legal and illegal sale of ivory.
PAGE 1 | Elephant Ivory Traffcking in California, USA
INTRODUCTION
CRE
DIT:
KEN
YA W
ILDL
IFE
SER
VICE
T
he illegal killing of elephants for ivory, commonly known as ivory poaching, has
reached alarming proportions in Africa.1 A recent study estimated that over 100,000
African elephants were killed in just three years from 2010 through 2012.2 And a
series of elephant population surveys in Central Africa led to the conclusion that the African
Forest Elephant (
Loxodonta cyclotis
) declined in number by over 60% between 2002 and 2011,
primarily due to ivory poaching.3 Parts of eastern Africa have also been seriously affected, and
recent elephant population surveys have shown that elephants declined in Tanzaniaˉs Selous
ecosystem ¨C Africaˉs largest protected area ¨C from 55,000 in 2007, to 39,000 in 2009, to only
13,000 in 2013, mostly due to poaching.4 Southern Africa, a long-time haven for elephants, has
not been spared and poaching and ivory traffcking have increased in recent years.5
Likewise, seizures of illegal ivory have increased since 2009,
particularly of large (i.e., 500 kg) shipments.6 For example, in
2013, more than 41 met
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