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Imperialism: Then and Now
3
The Ivory Trade
Before
Portuguese explorers first found profit in the
Ivory trade in the 1400's, as other countries noticed the profit Portugal found they began to join in on the trade themselves, in mostly East and Central Africa. During this time most of the hunting was done by native hunters. As time went on, however, traders would hunt elephants and force enslaved people to carry the Ivory over
long distances. These practices
quickly lead to the over hunting
of elephants.
Uses of Ivory
Uses of Ivory
Jewelry
Combs
Piano Keys
Billiard Balls
Teething Rings
Slavery in the Ivory Trade
Slavery in the Ivory Trade
As the ivory trade grew and the demand for ivory increased, the demand for slaves
that would carry the ivory over long distances. Because of this, the growth of the ivory trade was largely linked with the growth of the slave trade.
Ivory traders would travel inland and hunt elephants and capture natives. They would
then force the natives to carry large amounts of ivory back to the coast. When they arrived they would sell both the native people and the ivory for large sums of money.
Sources
Sources
https://www.thoughtco.com/ivory-trade-in-africa-43350#:~:text=By%20the%20800s%2C%20the%20trade,Africa%20and%20the%20Middle%20East.
https://www.nhregister.com/shoreline/article/Days-of-Yore-Ivory-the-plastic-of-the-1800s-13021940.php#:~:text=Its%20value%20from%20the%20late,rings%2C%20and%20many%20other%20whatnots.
Now
Due to the popularity of the ivory trade the
number of elephants living in the wild declined rapidly. There were around 26 million elephants in Africa in the 1800's, by 1989 that number was just 600,000. Thankfully countries noticed that there was an issue and made it illegal to trade ivory, due to the efforts the elephant population began to rise again. However, this does not mean that
elephants are completely in the clear. Poaching in
recent years has become a significant issue, in fact
2016 was the worst year for elephants in 25
years. There is still a lot of work to
do.
Resurgence of the Ivory Trade
Resurgence of the Ivory Trade
Many countries have already banned ivory and the
elephant population was on the rise, so the question is, why is there a resurgence of the ivory trade now?
Some Asian countries have been campaigning for the
legalization of the ivory trade and recently they got it. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) recently allowed some types of ivory trade under pressure from these Asian countries. This not only allows the sale of existing ivory stockpiles but also opens the floodgates for more illegal poaching of elephants. Estimates say that around 25,000 elephants were killed in 2012 alone as a result of this new policy.
Sources
Sources
https://disappearingelephants.com/overview/
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/history-ivory-trade/#:~:text=The%20main%20reason%20for%20CITES,and%20increasing%20poaching%20once%20again.
https://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/stopping-elephant-ivory-demand#:~:text=The%20illegal%20elephant%20ivory%20trade,the%20crossfire%20of%20wildlife%20crime.
Future
The question is what can be done to stop the illegal ivory trade? There are a few different options, first African countries could impose restrictions on the ivory trade to stop people from hunting elephants in places such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. However the responsibility doesn't stop there, it is also important for countries where ivory products are popular to bad
ivory trade in order to reduce the market for ivory
and make it less profitable for poachers to kill
elephants.
Timeline
Timeline
1989
1975
1976
1978
US banns the importation of all Asian Elephant ivory
The Asian Elephant is listed as endangered
The Asian Elephant's status is changed to threatened
CITES becomes effective and effectively banns international trade of ivory without proper
documentation
Sources
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/science/elephants-lions-africa-hunting.html
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/botswana-lifts-ban-on-elephant-hunting
https://elephanatics.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Elephant_Related_Trade_Timeline.pdf