Illegal ivory trade on rise, conservation group warns

TOKYO: The global illicit trade in ivory, which has been increasing since 2004, moved sharply upward in 2009, Britain-based wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC warns in a report released recently ahead of an international conservation meeting in March.

"The remarkable surge in 2009 reflects a series of large-scale ivory seizure events that suggest an increased involvement of organized crime syndicates in the trade, connecting African source countries with Asian end-use markets," the group said.

The rise also indicates that an action plan adopted in 2004 by parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, against such trade "has failed to drive any significant change over the last five years," it said.

The group said it will submit the report to the upcoming 15th meeting of CITES member countries, where another legal, one-off ivory sale to Japan and China, proposed by Tanzania and Zambia, is an issue on the agenda.

According to its analysis of 14,364 elephant product seizure records from 85 countries or territories between January 1989 and August last year, the adjusted trend for illicit ivory trade jumps in 2009 to over 25 tons, the second largest after a peak of 32 tons in 1998.