The United States clamped down on the domestic trade of elephant ivory Tuesday as part of a new drive to help African countries stem the threat to wildlife from poachers.
The White House administrative action bans all commercial imports of African elephant ivory, including antiques, as well as all commercial exports — except for bona fide antiques and certain other items.
The outlawed ivory trade is mostly fuelled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks and rhino horns are used in traditional medicine and to make ornaments.
Poaching has risen sharply in Africa in recent years where, besides targeting rhinos, gangs eyeing lucrative international markets have slaughtered whole herds of elephants for their tusks.
“This ban is the best way to help ensure that US markets do not contribute to the further decline of African elephants in the wild,” the White House said in a statement.
It said federal departments and agencies would immediately take actions to, among other things, clarify what constitutes an antique.
“To qualify as an antique, an item must be more than 100 years old and meet other requirements under the Endangered Species Act.”
“The onus will now fall on the importer, exporter, or seller to demonstrate that an item meets these criteria.”
Other measures include limiting to two the number of African elephant sport-hunted trophies that can be imported by an individual each year.
The crackdown on ivory is a key aspect of a new national strategy for combating wildlife trafficking, also unveiled Tuesday, that has been in the works for some time.
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