Ed Stoddard
18 November 2002
A UN decision allowing some southern African countries to sell ivory stockpiles after a 13-year ban is a significant moment in the history of a trade that has soaked the world's poorest continent in blood.
Last week's easing of the rules angered environmentalists who fear it may encourage poaching.
But traders vow there will be no return to the slaughter which halved the African elephant population to about 600 000 in just over a decade before the ivory trade was outlawed in 1989.
Along with slaves, gold and rubber, the allure of ivory drew Europeans to Africa's shores and played a major role in some of the darkest chapters of white colonial rule on the continent.
Demand for the coveted commodity massacred the elephants of Africa and the Middle East, which once numbered in the millions from the slopes of South Africa's Table Mountain to the Mediterranean coast in the north.
"So great was the demand for ivory from ancient civilisations that by 500 BC the Syrian herds had all been wiped out," writes Martin Meredith in his recent book 'Africa's Elephant: A Biography'.
Long prized for its texture, the ancient Egyptians found it to be ideal for carving luxury items such as bangles.
But it grows on elephants, not on trees, and so a remarkably useful tool provided by nature has proven to be the downfall of the world's largest land mammal.
The 19th century industrial world's appetite for the commodity seemed insatiable and ivory workshops churned out a wide range of products, from piano keys to billiard balls and snuff boxes.
That demand helped to fuel the "scramble for Africa" among European powers seeking to plunder the continent.
The scramble included Belgian King Leopold's ruthless reign in the Congo, which he established as his personal fiefdom, initially with an eye to the ivory trade.
The methods used for extracting ivory from native peoples by Leopold's men laid the foundations for a rubber regime that saw company agents cut the hands off villagers as they sought to terrorise the local population into meeting their rubber quotas.
Whole populations of African elephant were exterminated in the 19th century by hunters seeking ivory.
The ivory of the Asian elephant is considered brittle and is less coveted than Africa's.
But swelling human populations in countries like India have nonetheless cut its numbers to only about 50 000.
In the late 20th century, the rapid growth of Asian economies such as Japan's created new markets for the ivory of African elephants.
Its price soared from US$7,50 per kilogram in 1970 to $300 in 1989.
In Kenya, many game wardens died in the line of duty as they did battle with well-armed poaching gangs.
Lucrative prices led to a bloodbath in the bush that saw Africa's elephant population plummet from an estimated 1,2 million to 600 000 in the space of a little over a decade.
Conservationists argue this slaughter was stemmed by the 1989 global ban on trade in the product.
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