It's Still Really Easy to Buy Illegal Ivory Online

As historic levels of poaching continue to ravage elephant populations, there's an obvious question to ask: Where are people buying all of this illegal ivory? Secret black markets and deep web forums would seem obvious candidates, but despite a global crackdown, ivory remains available on a far more visible marketplace: Rakuten, Japan's largest e-commerce site.

A new report from the Environmental Investigation Agency highlights the problem, with a survey of Rakuten's site producing thousands of ads for products made of elephant ivory. The EIA says this is far more than any other e-commerce site it's studied.

And indeed, a quick search of the site for ivory (象牙) produces results. Most common are hanko, the seals traditionally used to conduct business. According to the report, "from 2005-10, up to 87 percent of hankos produced in Japan – 94,620 hankos annually – were estimated to be produced from illegal ivory tusks." This huge set, which runs roughly $23,500, is advertised as being perfect for management types:

The ad features a helpful diagram showing how the hanko all come from the same tusk:

While some ivory available online is fake or actually made from the bones of another animal—the opposite is also true, with ivory occasionally billed as "ox bone"—the high-end stuff on Rakuten is surely the real deal. For example, this $80,000 hanko is too costly to be anything but actual elephant ivory, lest the seller lose his 4.88/5 star rating for being a fraud:

But hanko aren't the only ivory products for sale. If you've got a newly-promoted company vice president in the family, why not a set of gold and ivory chopsticks for a cool $5700?

The most expensive object I could find was this "god of longevity" statue carved from a large section of a full tusk that will set buyers back around $30,000:

Those should be enough of an example of Rakuten's ivory offerings, lest this turn into a shopping list for the unconscionably wealthy. The key point is that this stuff is incredibly easy to find; with Google Translate, it took a whopping five minutes to find everything above.

If you've found yourself asking what the hell all this ivory is doing on a Japanese version of Amazon, you're not alone. Largely, it highlights the patchwork regulation governing ivory worldwide. In 1989, ivory sales were banned internationally under the CITES convention following the decimation of African elephant populations.

But despite the international ban, pre-ban and antique ivory was still legal, and local regulations vary. For example, the United States, which has increasingly gotten tough on wildlife trafficking, only made a blanket ivory ban this year, and even then it allows for some exemptions. And in China, the world's largest ivory consumer, a public ivory destruction ceremony earlier this year belied the country's difficulties completely banning the ivory trade.

And so it goes in Japan. Despite promises that it will massively increase penalties for wildlife trafficking, Japan still allows a domestic ivory trade, and one that does a weak job of distinguishing between antique and illegal ivory. From the EIA report:

Japan’s domestic trade in elephant ivory is regulated by the Law for the Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (LCES) and implemented through its Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law (FEFTL) via the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)59 and its Customs Law60 by the Japanese Customs.

Unfortunately, enforcement by Customs officials and local police authorities is undermined by major loopholes in the LCES and authorities are unable to stem the flood of illegal ivory into Japan. The law does not distinguish legally acquired stock from illegal stock being laundered into the system.

In 2013, Rakuten reported revenue of more than $5 billion, a 29.5 increase over 2012, and with tens of thousands of third-party merchants on the site, a ban on ivory sales wouldn't amount to anything on the company's balance sheets. Other major e-commerce sites, like eBay, have had little problem shutting down ivory sales following pressure from activists and regulators.

But there's little such pressure in Japan. A previous EIA investigation found that ivory was also common on Amazon Japan, and that regulators have considered it a low priority. So what's the answer?

As is always the case with the wildlife trade, cutting down on sales means two things: Improving regulation and enforcement, while also pushing down demand. Even if regulators are reticent to crack down on Rakuten over elephant parts, convincing potential buyers that ivory represents the death of a species, not social status, would help deflate the market.