Ethiopia cracks down on its illegal ivory market

(Correction: Because of an editing error, a story on yesterday's World page gave an incorrect month for raids on illegal ivory markets in Ethiopia. The crackdown occurred in January.)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Police and wildlife agents stormed into tourist shops earlier this year, looking for trinkets the government had long turned a blind eye to -- carved ivory from elephant tusks.

The morning raid in April on 66 shops in this capital city received little notice outside Addis Ababa. But international specialists on the illicit ivory trade hope Ethiopia's example will play a large role toward stopping sales from Africa to markets around the world, especially China and the rest of Asia.

''We are now using the Ethiopian model to show what all African countries should be doing in dealing with the domestic ivory market," Tom Milliken, director of east and southern Africa operations of TRAFFIC, the nongovernmental wildlife trade monitor, said in an interview last week from Harare, Zimbabwe. ''They deserve a lot of credit."

After months of planning and training, more than 200 Ethiopian authorities seized thousands of ivory bracelets, chess pieces, letter openers, and other carvings in one day, as well as skins of leopards, lions, and crocodiles, none of which can be sold without a license here. Trading ivory internationally is illegal.

''It will make a difference in protecting elephants," said Tadesse Hailu, head of Ethiopia's Wildlife Conservation Department. ''Even though we don't allow people to trade ivory without permits, the illegal trade was in the open for many years. But now we've had the training to stop it, we will make sure it doesn't happen anymore."

Milliken and others said Ethiopia decided to investigate its ivory trade after the country and several other African nations were named in 2002 among the world's top ivory markets by the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

''They were seriously embarrassed to be identified by name in an international resolution," Milliken said. ''This really grabbed their attention. Unfortunately, not all African countries have reacted in the same way."

In late 1989, the convention banned international commercial ivory sales, but ivory sales were still allowed in domestic markets. In 2002, after evidence showed that domestic sales were linked to exports, the convention strengthened a resolution that called for all countries to regulate domestic trade and ensure that ivory is not traded beyond national borders.

For countries that ignored the new resolution, the convention threatened to suspend all international wildlife imports and exports, which it regulates. It has applied that penalty on Nigeria and is considering doing the same to Mozambique and several central African nations.

Ethiopia took several actions. Officials surveyed its ivory market, and TRAFFIC held a seminar in Addis Ababa last year on rules governing wildlife trade as well as how the government could respond to illegal sales. Law enforcement sent letters to owners of the 66 shops, warning they would crack down on those who did not have a permit to sell ivory or other wildlife products; after receiving little response, officers raided the shops in January.

''They were able to shut down one of Africa's largest unregulated ivory markets," said Simon Milledge, TRAFFIC's deputy director in eastern and southern Africa who helped train Ethiopian law enforcement officers. ''It had not just a huge impact on Ethiopia's elephants, but also with cross-border populations in Sudan, Kenya, and, to a limited extent, DRC," the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But tourist shop owners, who are waiting to learn whether they will be charged for the alleged illegal sales, said they weren't given proper notice. They also believe the raids will not protect the country's elephant population. Several said that poachers in Ethiopia and neighboring countries would continue to shoot elephants for their ivory because of the surplus of buyers.

The world's largest markets for ivory are in China, Thailand, and other Asian countries, wildlife officials say. The sale of ivory to the United States is believed to be much smaller, consisting mainly of tourists buying ivory and bringing it back illegally.

''It's better to teach the peasants not to kill the elephants," said one shop owner on Churchill Road, who refused to be identified for fear that the police would raid his shop again.

However, when asked whether the shops created a market for the ivory, the owner said, ''Tourists are buying it. They are creating the demand."

Mihrete Adugna, 46, a friend of the shop owner, said he does not sell ivory and that the problem would not be solved until the economy improved and those living off the land can make more money selling crops such as coffee, bananas, mangoes, and corn.

Milledge said complaints from shop owners were ''just bitterness. They are losing out on income."

He said the government had licensed four of the 66 shops to sell ivory. The rest ''knew the law, they knew it was illegal," he said.

During a late August meeting in Cameroon of central African wildlife officials, Milliken told the story of Ethiopia's crackdown and urged them to start a similar program. He left guardedly optimistic.

He said officials are training workers so they can complete an inventory of ivory items for sale, ''all the ingredients brought to the fore by Ethiopia."

''But the central African region is hemorrhaging ivory into the international markets," he said. ''Plus, you have active war zones and large infrastructure developments, such as logging and road building, which is often associated with illegal ivory trade. It won't be easy."

John Donnelly can be reached at donnelly@globe.com