Ivory Trade Case Study

By-

Divya Rai, Hitender Yadav, Madhur Mahajan, Kanishk Singhvi and Nirupam Gehlot

DIVYA RAI

AFRICAN ELEPHANT

IVORY TRADE

Ivory trade is often the illegal trade of ivory tusks from different animal’s like- Hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, mammoth and Asian and African elephants. It is also a very commercial type of trade.

Ivory trade is one of the oldest trade and is continuing since hundreds of years by people usually from Africa and Asia to other parts of the world mostly the regions like Greenland, Alaska and Siberia.

By trading continuously since so many years the existence of these animals is lowering down and therefore now these species come under the category of endangered species which further now has resulted

Tania Siyam

Facts-

Taniya Siyam was an art import and export dealer. She used to operate her business in Montreal, Canada and Cameroon and later on these became the fronts for smuggling products from endangered and protected wildlife species, which include raw elephant ivory. Later in summer 2002, she moved her base to Cameroon where she initially is from. In Cameroon, she planned a scheme to smuggle illegal wildlife products and deal it with partners in Canada and a partner in USA.

In November 2002, with the help of a business owner in Ohio, “The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service special agents were able to purchase a shipment of illegal raw elephant ivory from Siyam. The raw ivory tusks were concealed inside pottery, labeled as art, and sent by international courier from Cameroon, to Montreal, Canada. Once in Canada, the goods were repackaged and shipped by Siyam's Canadian partner, via the Canadian and U.S. Postal Service, to the Ohio business address”

Issue-

Was Taniya Siyam held liable for illegally smuggling of ivory?

Analysis-

At the end of 2003, the court found “sufficient evidence to charge Siyam with multiple felony Lacey Act and smuggling violations. The two elephant ivory shipments to Ohio were valued together at more than $158,000 and included parts from at least 21 African

Ashu Bhandari was sentenced to a month in prison, around 300 hours of community service, and fines and payments in excess of $1.1 million .

“GEM was also ordered to forfeit dozens of jewelry items, ten artistic sculptures and over 13,655 pounds of raw black coral, the total value of which, at current prices, exceeds $2.17 million. The aggregate financial penalty of $4.47 million makes this the largest for the illegal trade in coral, the largest non-seafood wildlife trafficking financial penalty and the fourth largest for any U.S. case involving the illegal trade of wildlife”.

“Black corals are valuable resources that serve as habitat for a myriad of species in the deep sea,” said Eric Schwaab, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service. “They are slow-growing, and some species can live for hundreds to thousands of years. Effective enforcement and regulation of their trade in support of CITES are among our most important tools in ensuring that collection of these species is sustainable and that their survival in the wild is