Wildlife & Nature Economics
The Ivory Trade: To Ban or to Sell?
The economic debate over how to stop elephant poaching - total trade bans versus legal, controlled sales - and what evidence suggests about their effects.
African elephants have been poached in huge numbers for their ivory, used for carvings and ornaments, especially in Asian markets. How to stop it has been one of the fiercest debates in conservation economics.
The 1989 ban
In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, banned international trade in ivory. Poaching fell for some years after the ban.
One-off sales
Some southern African countries with growing elephant populations argued they should be able to sell stockpiled ivory from natural deaths and seizures, using the money for conservation. CITES allowed one-off sales in 1999 and 2008.
The economic arguments
For controlled legal sales:
- Legal supply could lower prices, making poaching less profitable.
- Revenue could fund anti-poaching and communities.
For a total ban:
- Legal ivory can provide cover for smuggling illegal ivory.
- Legal sales may increase demand by making ivory seem acceptable.
- Enforcement is difficult in countries with weak institutions.
The evidence
A study by economists Solomon Hsiang and Nitin Sekar suggested that the 2008 legal sale was followed by a sharp increase in poaching, supporting the ban side. Other researchers questioned the study’s methods. The debate illustrates how hard it is to measure effects in illegal markets.
Recent developments
- China, a major market, banned domestic ivory trade from the end of 2017.
- Several other countries closed domestic markets.
- Poaching levels declined from peaks in the early 2010s, though threats remain.
Beyond ivory
Similar debates apply to rhino horn, pangolin scales and other wildlife products.
A trader in a country with a legal ivory market mixes smuggled ivory with legal stock. Inspectors struggle to tell them apart. Supporters of a total ban argue that any legal trade creates such loopholes.
Legal sales can affect demand, stigma and enforcement, not just supply, making outcomes hard to predict.
- CITES banned international ivory trade in 1989.
- One-off legal sales were allowed in 1999 and 2008.
- Supporters of legal sales cite lower prices; ban supporters cite laundering and demand.
- Research on the 2008 sale suggested increased poaching, though it was debated.
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