One-third of ivory items in US may be illegal: study

Yahoo News 5 May 08;

Nearly one-third of ivory items for sale in the United States may have been illegally imported after a US moratorium on the trade imposed in 1989, conservation groups said in a report Monday.

A survey conducted for the groups Care For the Wild International and Save the Elephants found that more than 24,000 ivory articles are for sale in the United States, making it the second biggest market in the world after China.

The survey of 657 outlets in 16 US towns and cities found that "perhaps 7,400 ivory items, or nearly one-third of the total, may have been crafted after 1989 making their importation illegal."

Nearly all of the ivory items in the United States, or 95 percent, come from China, according to the study's author, Esmond Martin, who has dedicated his 30-year career to ivory trade research.

The per-kilogram price of raw ivory is between 154 and 346 dollars, compared to 110 to 144 dollars in 1990, the report said.

The United States consumes less than one tonne of raw ivory per year, down from seven tonnes a year in the 1980s, it said.