Trade in Asian elephant ivory in Sri Lanka

Elephants Elephas maximus have declined in range and number in the wild in Sri Lanka, from c. 12,000 at the turn of the nineteenth century to c.4000 t oday. While in the distant past the decline in elephant numbers was due lar gely to indiscriminate killing by sportsmen and trophy hunters, today eleph ants::are being killed primarily because they interfere with,:agriculture. Human-elephant conflicts have increased substantially in the recent past an d ivory poaching has become: a byproduct of such conflicts. Elephant tusks have been used traditionally in the ivory carving industry in Sri,Lanka sin ce the time of the ancient kings. Until the turn of the century, very littl e ivory was imported from Africa because there was a plentiful supply of tu skers locally available. Sri Lankan ivory carvers started to use African iv ory in 1910. Today ivory and fake-ivory products are sold openly to tourist s in some 86 shops in the island. Before the listing of the African:elephan t in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Spec ies (CITES), the value of raw ivory in Sri Lanka used to be $US228-285 per kg. After the listing, the price fell to $US72 per kg, reflecting a drastic drop in the demand for ivory from tourists. Many ivory carvers have snitch ed to other jobs or are using substitutes (such as bone and horn) to produc e fake-ivory carvings. Only about 7.5 per cent of bulls in Sri Lanka are tu skers and they are under poaching pressure outside protected areas. Given t he rarity of tuskers in Sri Lanka, promotion of trade in ivory products, ev en locally, may pose a serious threat to: their long-term survival in the w ild.