Moreover, this market based strategy will contribute to breaking the cycle of poverty in many communities through grassroots development. Whilst also preventing the economic marginalisation that seems to push people into the practice of poaching and the illegal ivory trade in the first place.
In conclusion, there is a vast array of approaches that can be put into practice in order to combat the illegal ivory trade. However, none of these strategies will be successful enough to make a substantial impact whilst there is still such high demand for ivory itself.
Moreover, it must not be forgotten that there are various other substitute sources of ivory that can, if utilised by the wrong people, severely undermine any efforts to prevent the trade and that will also maintain the demand for ivory (whether it be legal or illegal).
For example, there are still extremely large quantities of mammoth ivory left over from the ice age, not to mention the large volumes of hippo, walrus and sperm whale ivory (not all of which comes from natural mortality).
Solutions will be most effective where multiple policies are implemented at the same time on both the demand and supply side of the market. On the supply side, working with and educating the local African communities to gain respect and appreciate elephant life is vital in order for the population to thrive. On the demand side, key consumers must be kept under careful control. In countries where ivory is a part of everyday culture and demand is relatively price inelastic, a steady input of legal ivory should be allowed to flow through the market to prevent consumers from drifting to less legitimate sources.
If these economic policies are carried out and enforced effectively, and are used in conjunction with a crackdown on any illegal elephant poaching activity, then this could possibly begin to solve the ever present issue of the illegal ivory trade.
Abridged from the EPQ of
Krishna Kadiwar
Year 13