subject: Thai Law And Ivory Trading [print this page] Thailand's legal system encourages plenty of debate internationally, over issues such a labor rights, environmental impacts and trademark violations, as the most prominent issues. One of the most emotionally charged issues is the sale of ivory in the country. Thailand, along with Africa, is one of the few places on Earth that supports native populations of elephants. They are often domesticated animals - and therein lay the problem in Thai law.
It would seem excessively regulatory to require pruned ivory from domestic animals to be registered with a national council; yet this legal ivory provides a 'cover' for illegal ivory being carved and sold in Thailand, and originating from either poached African or Thai animals. The legal issues can become complex - Thailand law firms take a look at the problems of the ivory trade.
The wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC says that Thailand harbors the world's largest volume of illegal ivory. The network makes the same point that many law firms in Thailand do - that the legal provisions allowing for the sale of pruned ivory and ivory from domesticated elephants cover for illegal trade in wild-caught elephants and poached ivory. Their market survey carried out in 2001 observed 26,000 individual ivory items for sale in Thailand's retail space. This was not a thorough review of retail businesses across the country, only a segment of the Bangkok market. In 2008, while less ivory was available in the retail market, more ivory retailers existed.
Thailand lawyers are starting to see small steps towards improving the laws in the country. Thailand is party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna; the convention effectively bans all trade in ivory products. Thai law officials have submitted reports to the conventions, which show some progress towards removing illegal ivory from the marketplace. There will need to be wider scale changes in Thai law, with the domesticated animal trade and the pruning of ivory from these animals much more highly regulated in order to see substantial change.
The problem that Thailand faces is that it ends up the brunt of another country's initial wrongdoing. In this case, African ivory from Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic create most of the volume of ivory to be found in Thailand. Legal services in Thailand observe that the penalties for trading in ivory are necessarily less harsh than that for actually poaching elephants or illegally obtaining ivory.
The poaching happens relatively little within Thai borders, yet the market here is the factor driving poaching in Africa. In many cases, it is not Thai nationals buying the ivory, but parts of our substantial tourist population who have little knowledge of the thorniness of the situation. They only know that there is ethically obtained ivory in Thailand, legal under Thai law, and want to purchase it.
In the meanwhile, some consumer organizations are taking matters into their own hands, rather than waiting for Thai law updates. EBay has banned trading in ivory on all of its sites worldwide - it said that the regulation was intended to protect buyers and sellers from accidentally buying an illegal item, and also to protect wild animals.
