This act eliminated some of the confusion around the complex pre-existing laws that allowed determined individuals to outsmart the system without consequence. On July 6, 2016, a near-total ban on commercial trade in African elephant ivory went into effect in the United States. What does the ban on buying and selling ivory mean? Recently, funding for terrorist organizations has been linked to profits from the sale of ivory.

Worldwide, illegal poaching and wildlife trafficking is the 4 th largest international crime (behind drugs, counterfeiting and human trafficking). Most poaching is driven by the commercial demand for ivory and is done by heavily armed, dangerous criminals. Today, few poachers kill elephants for subsistence. Elephant dung is great fertilizer, and some plants must pass through an elephantвЂ™s digestive system in order to sprout. They rip out trees and roots making room for the grasses that other animals eat, and they dig water holes that many animals depend on. Without this guidance, herds with matriarchs too young to remember the previous drought can lose more than half of their calves in a drought year because they donвЂ™t know the way to distant water sources.Д®lephants play an important role in their habitat, and many other species depend on them. During years of severe drought, these older matriarchs knew where to lead the herd to find food and water. Poachers often target older females for their large tusks. Killing one elephant for its ivory has crucial impacts on the whole herd. Today it is estimated that there are fewer than 420,000 wild elephants left. From 2010-2012, 100,000 elephants were killed for their tusks. In 2011, 40 tons of illegal ivory were seized around the world, which means that approximately 4,000 elephants were killed for their tusks. In recent years, the demand has grown as the middle class in countries such as China and the United States has increased. In some cultures owning an ivory carving is a status symbol as ivory has always been expensive to purchase. Ivory is easily carved into beautiful decorative art pieces. Why is there a demand for elephant tusks? The only way to remove a tusk from an elephant is either through a very long, complicated dental procedure or to kill the elephant and cut the tusk out. Though we call it ivory a tusk is actually made of dentine, which is the same material found in human teeth. Elephants use their tusks to pry bark off trees, dig for roots and minerals, and for defense and sexual display. Tusks are rootless teeth that continue to grow in length throughout the lifetime of the elephant.

What is a tusk?Д«oth male and female African elephants have tusks. This is great news, but itвЂ™s important to note that this ban wonвЂ™t stop all ivory trading as long as thereвЂ™s a demand for ivory, elephants will continue to die.

A ban announced on 6/2/16 makes it illegal to buy or sell ivory in the United States. The demand for elephant ivory persists around the world, including in the United States, which ranks 2 nd as the worldвЂ™s largest consumer of wildlife products.

Ivory from elephants