THE US ELEPHANT IVORY MARKET: A NEW BASELINE

The 2016 assessment reveals a significant decline in elephant ivory availability in historical physical markets like New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, potentially due to state-level bans. However, the market appears to be pivoting toward online platforms and states without strict regulations, such as Washington, DC and Oregon. The report documents 1,589 items in physical retail and 2,056 items across six online platforms, noting widespread confusion among vendors regarding legal exemptions and a trend of mislabeling ivory as 'bone' or 'mammoth' to evade detection.

• Physical ivory availability in the top three historical US markets—New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles—showed a massive reduction between 2006-2007 and 2016, with a combined total of 489 items observed in 2016 compared to 16,758 in the earlier study.
• The greater Washington, DC area, which lacked state-level ivory legislation at the time of the survey, had the highest volume of physical ivory items among the six cities surveyed, with 658 items from 68 vendors.
• Online platforms showed a significant presence of ivory, with 2,056 items offered by vendors in 47 states; Florida, California, and New York had the highest number of online sellers.
• Vendors frequently used deceptive labeling to sell elephant ivory, often misidentifying it as 'bone', 'celluloid', or 'mammoth' to bypass online filters or legal restrictions.
• There is evidence that ivory stocks are shifting from states with bans to those without, with some vendors specifically mentioning moving inventory to Las Vegas, Nevada.
• The most common types of ivory items found in physical markets were carved figurines, followed by jewelry and household goods.
• Analysis of LEMIS data from 2007 to August 2016 shows an increase in legal imports of elephant ivory tusks and raw items, while illegal imports of worked ivory and tusks decreased, but raw non-worked ivory increased.
• Many vendors in surveyed cities with active bans expressed confusion about the law and lacked the required documentation to prove legal provenance.

APA

Kramer, R., Sawyer, R., Amato, S., & LaFontaine, P. (2017). THE US ELEPHANT IVORY MARKET: A NEW BASELINE. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/759/81j6aqyzq6_TRAFFIC_US_Ivory_Report_2017.pdf

Chicago

Kramer, Rachel, Robin Sawyer, Sal Amato, and Peter LaFontaine. THE US ELEPHANT IVORY MARKET: A NEW BASELINE. WWF International, 2017. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/759/81j6aqyzq6_TRAFFIC_US_Ivory_Report_2017.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kramer |first1=Rachel |last2=Sawyer |first2=Robin |last3=Amato |first3=Sal |last4=LaFontaine |first4=Peter |title=THE US ELEPHANT IVORY MARKET: A NEW BASELINE |publisher=WWF International |date=July 2017 |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/759/81j6aqyzq6_TRAFFIC_US_Ivory_Report_2017.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kramer2017elephant, author = {Kramer, Rachel and Sawyer, Robin and Amato, Sal and LaFontaine, Peter}, title = {{THE US ELEPHANT IVORY MARKET: A NEW BASELINE}}, institution = {WWF International}, year = {2017}, month = jul, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/759/81j6aqyzq6_TRAFFIC_US_Ivory_Report_2017.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }