CSI Wildlife: DNA Forensics Used to Prevent Elephant Poaching
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 08.21.08
Illegal Ivory Smuggling
The black-market value of elephant tusks has quadrupled since 2004. Even if over 68 tons of ivory have been confiscated over the past decade, poachers and smugglers are still doing good business and killing many elephants, including in countries where they are endangered.
New Weapon to Fight Poaching
But anti-poaching investigators have a new tool at their disposal. It's not a cure for the problem, but it should help them be more effective and target their resources better. DNA forensics can allow them to know from where the illegal elephant tusks are coming from. For example, 605 elephant tusks valued at $8 million that were seized at the port of Hong Kong were traced back via DNA to forest elephants that lived in southern Gabon, near the Republic of Congo border.
ENN:
"In big seizures, there's a very strong tendency to ship ivory out of a different country than where it's poached... It's a bit of a red herring," said Samuel Wasser, director of the University of Washington's Center for Conservation Biology and the lead author of the study, published in this month's issue of Conservation Biology. "The methods we developed are very important in that regard because it focuses where the poaching is ongoing."
There are already results. After it was revealed that most of the ivory seized in Singapore came from elephants in Zambia, that country's director of wildlife was replaced and its courts began to impose harsher sentences for ivory smugglers.
Update: CSI Wildlife Part Two: 2 Eco-Crimes Unmasked by DNA Forensics
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More on DNA to Fight Poaching
DNA Forensics May Prevent Elephant Poaching
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So sad :(
If we have this data available then HUGE (and I mean iro $25k) fines should be imposed by all countries on ANYBODY handling these - INCLUDING buyers. That way there would be very little incentive to handle these smuggled products. Expand the system to tiger and you could largely kill the market for tiger bone product and such like. People will be frightened to purchase if they know that their purchase can be identified for ever and that the fines will seriously affect them.
Naturally the same applies to dealers, except it should be an imprisonable offence with a minimum sentence of five years.
Although I find this news encouraging, I don't think it will curb the huge thirst for these "trophies". There are some significant cultural pillars that have to be dismantled in order to truly make a difference and stop poaching. We need to continue to work towards as much enforcement to keep the status quo. Until we make significant steps in education in consuming countries and work towards ending poverty in "producing" countries, demand will only continue to rise.
elephamts should not be killed curse all the poachers