New capital of the U.S. ivory commerce: Washington, D.C.?

The seat of energy in the USA seems to be the brand new hub of the nation’s ivory commerce, in line with a report launched Wednesday.

Washington, D.C., had 3 times extra ivory gadgets on the market than 10 years earlier, the report discovered, and greater than any of the six main U.S. cities and 6 U.S. states surveyed.

The report, revealed this week by TRAFFIC, a non-profit that displays the wildlife commerce, presents a snapshot of the ivory commerce within the U.S. based mostly on gadgets on the market present in advertisements and retailers over a seven-week interval — and gives additional proof that latest clampdowns have but to choke off the illicit commerce for good. The truth is, crackdowns in California and New York precipitated their ivory markets to plunge, in line with the report. Sadly, it seems to have merely shifted the issue elsewhere.

“Limiting ivory trafficking at the state level is a really important step towards closing the illicit U.S. market entirely,” Peter LaFontaine of the Worldwide Fund for Animal Welfare, a collaborator on the brand new report, informed Nationwide Geographic. “[But] we want to avoid the ‘whack-a-mole’ scenario where ivory dealers simply pack up and move across a state border.”

A surge in demand for ivory lately has fueled a poaching disaster: Each quarter-hour, an African elephant is killed for its tusks. This has put some elephant populations at grave danger, with some 60 % of Africa’s forest-dwelling elephants worn out since 2002 alone. Poaching, in flip, has helped to gasoline a US$ 8 billion commerce that funds organized crime and terrorist networks all over the world — a rising risk to nationwide and international safety.

Click on on the hyperlinks under to study extra — and discover out what you are able to do to assist finish wildlife trafficking earlier than it’s too late.

Bruno Vander Velde is Conservation Worldwide’s editorial director.

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Cowl picture: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worker assembles confiscated ivory tusks on a tower for show earlier than crushing. (© Ivy Allen/USFWS)