Elephants In The Dust

representative of underlying trade trends which are only revealed following complex statistical modeling techniques using bias-ad- justed data. ETIS is able to provide relative, but not absolute, total trade quantities over time. While more and more countries are providing data to ETIS, participation by some countries, includ- ing a number of elephant range States remains poor. It is worth noting that Angola, Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Senegal, Somalia and Togo, all African elephant range States, and Cam- bodia, Laos and Myanmar, all Asian elephant range States, have never reported a single elephant product seizure case to ETIS over the 23-year period since 1989. Trends in ivory seizures Overall, using weight and transaction indices derived from the ETIS data, illegal ivory trade activity remained at or slightly above 1998 levels up to 2006. Subsequently, a gradual increase in illegal ivory trade activity commences, becoming progres- sively greater in each successive year, with a major surge in 2011. The frequency of illegal ivory trade transactions in 2011

was roughly three times greater than the level of illegal trade activity found in 1998. This applies to all categories of trade – both for raw and for worked ivory of either less than 10 kg; between 10 kg and 100 kg; and equal to or greater than 100 kg. The ETIS data establishes that the frequency and scale of large- scale ivory seizures continues to increase. Such seizures are indicative of the presence of organised crime in the illicit trade. From 2009 through 2011, 34 such seizure events occurred, a record number in ETIS. ETIS statistics indicate that Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania together accounted for 16 of the 34 large-scale ivory seizure cases recorded from 2009 through 2011. The total volume of ivory seized was 35 tonnes and accounts for 58 per cent of the total volume of ivory derived from the large-scale seizure events during this time period.

The sharp upward trend is being driven by a major increase in ivo- ry transactions in the equal to or greater than 100 kg weight class.

Ivory transaction index

500 Relative number of transactions

ETIS Transaction index depicts global illegal ivory trade activity in six ivory type and weight categories, providing a measure of the frequency of raw and worked ivory transactions occurring from 1996 onwards, with 1998 set to 100 to constitute a baseline for comparative purposes.

400

90% con dence intervals Transaction index trend

300

200

100

Baseline

0

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006 2008 2010

Source: ETIS, June 2012

Figure 12: Ivory transaction index.

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