Ivory Poaching Has Increased Since International Ban

Last week, two jewelers in New York City were charged with possessing millions of dollars worth of illegal ivory. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said at a news conference, “It’s booming here and pushing both species of elephants to the brink of extinction.” In June, more than a thousand elephant tusks were incinerated in Gabon by President Ali Bongo to demonstrate his efforts to end poaching. Ivory poaching was banned worldwide in 1989; however, just last year the number of elephants killed for their tusks reached an all-time high. International anti-poaching program Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants explains that poaching is most common in impoverished places where there is a lack of law enforcement and a high demand for ivory.