Genetic Tool Could Curb Illegal Ivory Trade

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, September 29, 2004 (ENS) - A newly devised genetic test that can determine the geographic origin of ivory could be a vital tool in the battle to slow elephant poaching and to curb the illegal ivory trade, conservationists say.

The new test comes amid a flurry of evidence that the illegal ivory trade is flourishing, despite a 15 year international ban.

According to a report released this month by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, more than 4,000 elephants are killed each year to meet the demand for illegal ivory.

The volume of illegal ivory seizures has increased across the world since 1995 and three of the largest ivory seizures have occurred since 2002.

The new test could help curb poaching by showing enforcement officials where the illegal ivory is coming from, and it is currently being used to track illegal ivory seized in 2002 by Singapore officials.

The Internet has emerged as a new and challenging front in the illegal trade in ivory, in particular within the United Kingdom and the United States. This pair of pre-ban tusks is currently listed on eBay at $8,500. (Photo courtesy CITES )

Led by University of Washington biologist Samuel Wasser, the research team began the project by extracted elephant DNA from dung and skin biopsy samples collected from some 28 locations in 16 African nations.

Armed with that information, they developed a genetic map of tusk origin.

The research team identified genetic markers in elephant populations from one location to another, and used a statistical method to extrapolate genetic signatures to fill in gaps between sampled populations.

The study found that 50 percent of the samples tested were accurately located within 300 miles and 80 percent were accurate to within less than 600 miles.

Accuracy was much greater among forest populations, which are more clearly defined than savanna elephants because of the nature of the terrain.

Dr. Samuel Wasser with researchers Rebecca Nelson and Celia Fairbourn conduct DNA testing at Seattle University, Washington, on ivory intercepted by Interpol in Singapore. (Photo by S. Cook courtesy IFAW)

And it is within the dense forests of central and western African where elephants are currently being slaughtered wholesale, said Wasser, who is the director of the Center for Conservation Biology.

"My colleagues working in the forests are saying, 'There are no elephants left here,'" he said. "That is the problem - in the forest you do not notice the change in population until it is so dramatic that it is almost too late to do anything about it."

Wasser noted that the new DNA technique comes as there is mounting pressure to relax the 1989 ivory trade ban enacted under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The ban was put in place amid evidence poachers were slaughtering some 100,000 Africa elephants a year during the 1980s.

The IUCN-World Conservation Union estimates some 400,000 to 600,000 African elephants remain in the wild, down from as many as five million 70 years ago, and considers poaching and habitat loss the key threats to the species.

The species is listed as endangered under CITES, but the treaty did allow a one-time limited trade of ivory from several nations with existing stockpiles. Permission for a second one-time transaction is being sought at next week's CITES meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.

At the 2002 CITES meeting, delegates agreed to allow Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to make a one-time sale of ivory collected from elephants that died of natural causes or as a result of government regulated problem animal control. But to date these countries have not met the conditions set by CITES for this sale to go forward.

The elephant is the world's largest landbased mammal and one of the world's most intelligent species. (Photo courtesy Drakensburg Tourism)

"Once the door is cracked open, they try to force it open all the way," Wasser said.

Other African nations, in particular Namibia, are eager to get additional exemptions at the upcoming meeting of Parties to the CITES treaty.

But Wasser noted that a number of countries credited with legal ivory stockpiles appear to have replenished these supplies with poached ivory.

For example, the small central African nation of Burundi has a stockpile of 80 tons - despite the fact that it had only one elephant at the time of the ban.

The new DNA detection technology can provide accurate information on the source of Burundi's 80 tons of ivory. "This method could detect such restocking in the future," Wasser said.