El Cid Gallery

Is Ivory trade legal?

Due to the rapid decline in the populations of the animals that produce it, the importation and sale of elephant ivory in many countries is banned or severely restricted.
On the other hand, legal trade in ivory is shore by the fact that it does not endanger any living species but only harvests the remains of over 10,000- 30,000 years old fossilized mammoth ivory.

Trade in the ivory from the tusks of dead mammoths has occurred for 300 years and continues to be legal.
In the recent years, global warming and intense melting of the tundra has exposed remains of innumerable raw ivory and mammoth bones that are ecological friendly and fill in the gap created by banning the elephant ivory.
Some estimates suggest that 10 million mammoths are still buried in Siberia.

The use and trade of elephant ivory have become controversial because they have contributed to seriously declining elephant populations in many countries.
Owing to the rapid decline in the populations of the animals that produce it, the importation and sale of ivory in many countries is banned or severely restricted.

Mammoth experts believe that the trade in extinct mammoth ivory is a good way of preserving ecological rich material which would have otherwise been ravaged by time and weather,
while over hundreds of tons of mammoth ivory is still lost in Russia due to poor preservation or over exposure due to natural weather conditions.

Mammoth ivory is the only type of ivory that is allowed legally to enter USA and many other countries.
Even conservationists are happy with this trade as it utilizes raw ivory that would have been wasted otherwise and also saves elephants from illegal poaching to cater to the demand of ivory.