Elephants In The Dust

the African continent, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa are presently the countries of greatest concern. More ivory is mov- ing through and out of these countries at the present time than any other countries in Africa. All along the trade chains in these countries and territories, organised criminal syndicates are an ac- tive force undermining international and national regulations that prevent trade in ivory. In sum, these nine countries and territo- ries are the players most heavily implicated in the illegal trade in ivory at the present time according to the ETIS data.

Another ten countries and territories – Cameroon, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Mozambique, Nigeria, Taiwan and Uganda – represent a secondary level of concern as they repeatedly play important supporting roles in the illicit ivory trade. These players rep- resent a mix of source, entrepôt/transit and exit countries for illicit consignments of ivory from Africa, while Taiwan is a potential transit point for ivory moving through Asia. Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Nigeria all have important unregulated domestic ivory markets in their major cities, while Nigeria, Mozambique, Uganda and Cameroon have been implicated in the large- scale movement of ivory, which indicates the involvement of organised crime syndicates.

Figure 14: Primary and secondary ivory smuggling routes in Africa based on a wide range of sources including both ETIS seizures and criminal intelligence.

49