Why Hawaii鈥檚 new ivory trafficking bill could be a big deal
Good news for conservationists: Hawaii has that would ban the trafficking of rhino horn and ivory in the state.
If passed, the proposed bill 鈥� named SB 674 after the estimated number of elephants killed weekly for their tusks, according to reports 鈥� would prohibit selling, trading, possessing with intent to sell, or importing with intent to sell elephant ivory or rhinoceros horn within the state.
鈥淸T]he legislature finds that the most effective way to prevent the illegal trafficking of animal ivory and rhinoceros horn is to eliminate the markets for and profits of wildlife traffickers,鈥� according to the 10-page proposal.
Despite Hawaii鈥檚 relatively small population, the state is the third largest market for elephant ivory in the US, which itself is the second-largest ivory consumer in the world, by UK-based conservation group Care for the Wild. Hawaii鈥檚 new bill is the latest in a series of efforts to crack down on the ivory trade at both the state and federal levels.
Last year, the Obama administration announced a new聽聽that aims to strengthen the United States' role in addressing illegal wildlife trading. At the same time, the White House declared a聽聽"except in a very limited number of circumstances," released by the Press Secretary's office.
鈥淲e are seeing record high demand for wildlife products that is having a devastating impact, with species like elephants and rhinos facing the risk of significant decline or even extinction,鈥� Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell .
鈥淎 commercial ban is a critical element in the President鈥檚 strategy to stop illegal wildlife trafficking and to shut down criminal markets that encourage poaching,鈥� Ms. Jewell added.
and passed their own anti-ivory trafficking bills in 2014. California, Washington state, , and introduced similar legislation in January, putting momentum on the side of conservationists.
But critics argue that a full domestic ban would hurt small businesses and render ivory items worthless on legal markets without affecting demand in places where people would pay to poach elephants for their tusks.
鈥淚nstead of changing strategy and encouraging legal ivory trade to undermine the true criminals, governments and NGOs are doubling down in the US on broken strategies by banning domestic sales of ivory brought to the United States at least 25 years ago,鈥� according to the , a nonprofit group that supports a legal ivory trade in the US.聽
The group is one of a number advocating for "strategies that will actually save elephants" without affecting small businesses that depend on items that contain ivory, such as musical instruments, pistols, knives and other tools, and jewelry.
Though poaching levels in Africa dropped overall in 2013, the number of African elephants killed that year still numbered more than 20,000, by the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or CITES. , also published last year, estimated that in the span of three years, more than 100,000 African elephants were killed for their ivory.
Animal advocates and conservationists say that efforts to ban selling and trading ivory at the domestic level is an important step to reducing poaching and saving endangered species.
鈥淟egislation banning the trade in these products will reduce the demand, which in turn will reduce the killing,鈥� .
The Hawaii House of Representatives heard the new bill Monday and the Senate is set to hear it Thursday.
