Laos plays host to thriving ivory market

China is following through on its promise to close down its domestic ivory trade by the end of the year, which means the door to one of the world's largest markets for elephant ivory will soon be shut.

When Beijing announced the ban in December last year, conservation groups welcomed it as 'the biggest and best conservation news of 2016'.

But already there are signs that business is moving elsewhere.

A new report by the Save the Elephants conservation group shows that Laos has become one of the fastest growing ivory markets in the world.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/laos-plays-host-to-thriving-ivory-market/9009828

Elephants still at risk with Laos replacing China as ivory market

An elephant is lifted by a crane in an upside down position during a relocation exercise from Chemeron Farm in Rongai, Nakuru County to Aberdare National Park, on September, 28, 2017. The African elephant is still under threat as a new market for ivory emerges in Laos on the border of Thailand.

In Summary

Poaching to satisfy demand for ivory by Asian markets has seen the worst declines in Africa’s overall elephant population in the past 10 years.

In 1979, when 1.2 million elephants roamed Africa, Kenya had 167,000, says the Kenya Wildlife Service. Today, the total elephant population in Kenya is estimated at 38,000.

The conservationists said the world needed to put pressure on the Laos Government and other countries around china, such as Burma and Vietnam, to act on the burgeoning trade, if efforts to conserve the African elephant are going to work.

It was something of a triumph when China announced earlier this year that it was going to enforce a ban on domestic ivory trade.

However, a conservation group that has been studying the situation now says the African elephant is still under threat as the trade shifts to Laos.

Conservationists working under the umbrella of Save the Elephants Foundation said Thursday that as ivory shops and carving factories closed shop in China following the State-sanctioned ban, more were popping up in the tourist markets northwest of Laos on the border of Thailand close to Burma and China.

The ivory researchers who have been trailing the trade in ivory around the world for decades say the Chinese have moved their trade across the border to maintain demand with a long cultural heritage in China, making the southeast Asian country the fastest growing market in the world.

To read the full article, click on the story title

TRAFFIC survey highlights Lao PDR’s dark trade in ivory

A recent TRAFFIC survey found more than 2,100 ivory pieces on sale in two luxury hotels in Vientiane. Lao PDR is playing a more prominent role in the international ivory trade than was previously thought, says a new report launched by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

The report points to the significantly higher volume of ivory items openly on sale in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) and the seizures of African ivory en route to the country as indicators of its growing involvement in the illegal trade.

The Role of Lao PDR in the Ivory Trade, which appears in the latest issue of the TRAFFIC Bulletin, details a TRAFFIC survey carried out in August 2011 that found 2,493 pieces of ivory, including jewelry, name seals and raw tusks, openly on sale in 24 retail outlets mostly in the capital Vientiane, compared to just over a hundred ivory items observed in nine shops in 2002.

International visitors appear to be the main buyers, especially in Vientiane where more than 2,100 ivory pieces were found on sale in two luxury hotels where ivory prices were quoted in US Dollars and Chinese Yuan, rather than in the Laotian Kip.


To read the full article click on the story title

Domesticated elephants poached for ivory

Ingrid Suter, ElefantAsia
10 September 2008
Alarming reports as Laos’ endangered elephants are being poached for the illegal ivory trade.
News of elephant poaching has been reported from Laos’ north-west province Sayaboury. In two separate incidences a total of five elephants were found dead with bullets to their head and feet. Occurring in May and August of 2008 both cases are believed to be linked. All five of the dead elephants were male and had their tusks extracted from their heads by the poachers. Some of the elephants were found to have also had their tails removed. Three of the deceased elephants were privately owned and two were from wild populations. Alarmingly this is the first time domesticated elephants have been reported as being poached for the ivory trade in Laos. District and provincial authorities are taking the matter very seriously.

With less than 1000 wild and 560 domesticated elephants remaining in Laos, poaching is a very serious threat to the entire elephant population. The interrelationship between wild and domestic elephants is still very strong in Laos, with poaching directly affecting the survival of both populations.

To read the full article click on the story title