ICE IVORY to WHITE GOLD - Links Between The Illegal Wildlife Trade And The Trade In Geo-Cultural Artefacts Presented by: Dr Caroline Cox, Portsmouth Law School Could The Mammoth Save The Elephant? - Israel and Kenya's proposal was the first time that a proposal has been submitted to list an extinct species in the Appendices of CITES. - There is nothing in the Convention or Resolutions against listing an extinct species - Such a listing could be an important way to prevent extinction of other endangered species. - The genus Mammoths includes five extinct species in the family Elephantidae. This family also includes all the living relatives of the mammoths, the elephants. - Only the tusks of the cold-adapted Woolly mammoths have been used in recent decades for carving and for decoration. Recovered tusks from other species of Mammoths are apparently too brittle to be used for carving. - Large, whole Woolly mammoth tusks are distinguishable from elephant ivory by their shape (twisted and not straight), but sections of tusks as well as worked mammoth ivory, especially small pieces, are difficult to differentiate from elephant ivory. - However, it has been said that mammoth ivory carries a bad Fen Shui because it comes from an extinct animal. - Traders argue that "while there are still soon around, people will buy soon" (Toropov, 2021). Walking The Line(S)  Grade A mammoth ivory, nick-named "ice" by the ivory carvers, can easily be passed off as elephant ivory as it looks so similar, especially when carved into small items.  Unpainted cross sections can reveal cross-hatchings known as Schreger lines, which in mammoth ivory run through at a 90-degree angle rather than at a 115-degree angle as do those in elephant ivory  But this method does not work for carvings where the Schreger lines are not evident (such as small pieces that are not cross-sectioned). Ice Ivory For Sale - March 2021 - a rare 30,000-year-old blue woolly mammoth tusk, "the Ocean", goes to auction with a guide price of $70,000 - The most intact woolly mammoth skeleton ever found sold in December 2017 for $645,000. - November 2019 - 30,000-year-old Siberian mammoth tusk sells to Chinese buyer for $100,000 - July 2015 - Russian tundra mammoth tusks sell for $2.3 million A Mammoth Problem  The major legal (and illegal) exporter of mammoth tusks is Russia, in particular the Yukutia.  The majority of the world's mammoth ivory comes from Yakutia, Russia.  Mammoth tusks are imported via Hong Kong, one of the main trade routes into mainland China.  The trade has expanded from an average of less than 9 tons per year from 2000 to 2003 to an average of 31 tons per year from 2007 to 2013 and 100 tons in 2018.  Wholesale prices of mammoth ivory tusks have increased greatly due to the rise in demand in China.  For example, in 2010 the wholesale price for the top grades A and B raw mammoth ivory, averaged together, was USD 350/kg, while in 2014 comparable high-quality tusks were USD 1,900/kg on average, according to prices paid by some factories in Beijing (Vigne & Martin, 2014).  Today, the price is around USD $600/kg - a similar price to elephant ivory Big Tuskers of Yakutia - Of the 100 tons of tusks annually extracted in Yakutia, the regional government has estimated that 30 tones are illegally extracted, which is losing the regional budget in Yakutia significant funds. - The species from which most mammoth ivory is currently in trade, M. primigenius, was about the same size as living African elephants (Loxodonta Africana). - Woolly mammoth tusk is around 4.2 m long and weighs 84 kg. The Cost Of KOST  2018 exported. 100 tons of mammoth ivory were  Of that, 90% is destined for China because of the sheer size of the market and the ancient tradition of ivory and bone carving.  Russia now regulates the harvesting and exports of mammoth ivory, but a third of the trade is thought to be illegal  According to Russian law, only ivory that is already on the surface can be collected but this is ignored.  Mammoth ivory is classified as A, B, C, and D.  In Russia, it is now about 20-25,000 robles (US$260- 330) per kilo for A, and 1015,000 robles for B.  Intact tusks, with no cracks, are very valuable, but a pair of tusks from the same mammoth is the most valuable.  However, the demand (and the price) for mammoth ivory fell after China's elephant ivory trade ban in 2018.  • The Chinese mammoth trade is under microscope buyers are worried about buying elephant ivory that is being sold as mammoth in contravention of the law. Enter The World's Largest Online Auction Site - eBay has been identified as the "go-to" place to sell elephant ivory - despite the platform banning its sale since 2009 (BBC, 2022). - Sellers have been proven to sell ivory with excellent photographs and pseudonyms (bovine bone, Chinese bone, etc.) - eBay extended the ban to cover mammoth ivory in 2018 - The thimble shown here was advertised on eBay UK as "Thimble Leg! not Ivory! mammoth?" - In fact, the angle of the visible Schreger lines (<100 degrees) show it to be elephant ivory Parallels With The Illegal Wildlife Trade  There have been cases where shipments of legal mammoth ivory are used to transport illegal ivory from poached African elephants.  Research is ongoing to gauge how much this illegal practice might increase as ivory bans are applied.  Wildlife conservationists maintain that the trade in mammoth ivory fuels demand for ivory more generally, and that the mammoth ivory industry is likely to act as a foil for black market dealing in elephant ivory.