Due to the fall in elephant population from 1970 – 1980s, there have been regulations to ban the international trade in ivory for African and Asian elephant species (Stiles, 2004). One might ask what the monetary value for ivory is in the market that caused many elephants with tasks to suffer death. Based on the information by http://www.elephant.se/ivory.php,
- 1990s: USD$100/kg
- 2004: USD$200/kg,
- 2006: USDto $750/kg
- 2007: USDto $850/kg
Moreover, as elephants are able to yield 10kg worth of RAW ivory (Ferris, 2015), poachers can earn thousands from a single elephant! Ivory that has been carved, polished and made into a product can go up to USD$6,000/kg!
Despite campaigns and international bans on ivory trade, there still remain legal loopholes which enables the market to continue existing and thriving. This is the case of Thailand, which is considered to have the biggest unregulated ivory market globally (DLA Piper, 2016). According to an article posted on The Coconuts.co news by Goh (2014) , thousands of ivory products are being retailed at Bangkok.
Table 2: Total number of Ivory products in Bangkok’s retail outlets (Goh, 2014)
Jan’14 | Feb’14 | Mar’14 | Apr’14 | May’14 | |
Total | 11 322 | 12 534 | 10 712 | 13 821 | 13237 |
Note. Numbers are based on a report by Goh (2014) in Coconuts.co
With this overwhelming numbers, we can only just imagine how many elephants are being poached every year (probably tens of thousands).