The Pros And Cons Of The Banning Of African Elephants

The population of elephants is declining at an alarming rate. The United States is making a stand against elephant cruelty. The United States implemented a new regulatory ban on ivory to raise awareness of endangerment to African Elephants. The ban was implemented for wildlife endangerment in hopes for other nations to follow suit. The African elephant is at risk of extinction because of a humans’ avarice for ivory. Elephant poachers are at an all-time high due to the demand of ivory in China. The United States is strategically outlawing the importation and exportation of ivory to fight against the slaughtering of elephants.

Ban of Ivory Research Draft
An estimated 35,000 elephants are killed annually to fuel the illegal black-market

Prior to 2014, trade on ivory was permitted in the United States if the ivory could be proved to be at least 100 years old (Mashberg, 2014, para. 14). Recently however, the United States expanded the regulations entirely with a new policy that began in June 2014 (Mashberg, 2014, para. 15). The new regulations state importing and exporting any amount of ivory is now illegal no matter how small it may be. However, the public may still own ivory, but you cannot sell or trade the artifacts. The only time ivory will ever be allowed to be sold is if it is under what is described as “impossible criteria” by ivory collectors in the United States (Mashberg, 2014, para 6). The “impossible criteria” described is any trade of ivory in the United States is prohibited, unless can be proven ivory was imported from one of the thirteen sanctioned docks in America (Mashberg, 2014, para. 15). The goals encourage a tight regulation on ivory have lead the public to the question and debate the realistic approach by observing the number of elephants being killed, what they mean for the population of elephants, and how the United States and countries across the globe should interpret the data being presented (Scriber, 2014, para.

We’re looking at our own house and how we can address our own consumption (para 9).
The United States has a three-part strategy to combat illegal trafficking of ivory in the nation (Fears, 2014, para.13). The first part of the strategy is to fortify implementation of the ban, and control the enforcements the United States has over importing illegal goods. The second portion of the strategy is to decrease black-market demand on wildlife artifacts. Lastly, the United States hopes to achieve a solid partnership with groups fighting against wildlife endangerment (Fears, 2014, para 13). However, poachers and black-market ivory sellers are highly elusive and difficult to stop.
The recognition of endangerment of the African subpopulation in Central Africa was not recognized until 2008. The second authorization was passed stating tusks were eligible for trade (Maisels et al., 2013, p. 2). Since endangerment was documented throughout the world, there has yet to be any strong regulations to counteract the monumental decline of the elephant population. The 1989 ban on ivory was the first step into making a difference for the elephant population that was dramatically decreasing (Underwood, Burn, Milliken, p. 1). Forest elephants have declined to 75% of their potential population range (Maisels et al., 2013, p. 2). Only around 7000 savannah