No abstract

The Asian elephant Elephas maximus is of cultural significance for the Thai people. The development of legal protection for elephants in Thailand dates back to the 17th century, reflecting concerns about both human livelihoods and elephant conservation. The legal status of privately owned, captive elephants differs from that of wild individuals, with consequences for the lawful use of ivory from captive animals. Prior to 2015, the lack of comprehensive measures to control the Thai ivory market enabled the laundering of illegally sourced ivory in the country. The Thai government introduced legal reforms in 2015, imposing strict controls over the possession and domestic trade of ivory from captive Asian elephants, and aligning the protection of African elephants and their ivory with CITES regulations. Nonetheless, the sustainable use of Thai ivory remains disputed, and international pressure to close the commercial trade in domestic ivory persists. Here we review this complex situation, aiming to inform future reforms. Consolidation of laws related to elephants and ivory would facilitate law enforcement and compliance. Use of an electronic database would improve the monitoring of ivory movements and aid the implementation and enforcement of laws.

The elephant ivory trade remains controversial because of concerns about the extinction risk of elephants and the different needs of CITES member states.Thailand's situation is particularly contentious because of the different legal status among types of elephant ivory. Thai law allows the local sale of ivory from domesticated Asian elephants, which creates challenges for Thai enforcement officers in identification of ivory provenance. We investigated the capacity of non-destructive Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy (600-1700 nm), combined with Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), to discriminate between ivory from African, wild Asian and domesticated Asian elephants. Ivory spectra of 64 elephants were divided randomly into calibration and validation datasets. We were able to determine elephant ivory provenance at both the interspecies (African and Asian elephant ivory), and within species (wild and domesticated Asian elephant ivory) classifications with 100% accuracy. These results showed the potential use of handheld NIR spectrometers for rapid assessments of ivory provenance, as well as a forensic tool for wider enforcement.

The ivory trade is of global interest due to its impacts on elephant conservation. Thailand permits the domestic trade of ivory from domesticated elephants. Knowledge of the supply chain is important for managing this market in order to achieve sustainable benefits for both wildlife conservation and human livelihoods. We interviewed elephant owners and ivory manufacturers to conduct an analysis of the Thai ivory supply chain. Five key actor groups operate in this supply chain: elephant owners, intermediaries, manufacturers, retailers, and ivory consumers. Factors influencing the supply of raw ivory vary with harvesting, use, and sale destination but the financial needs of elephant owners and market factors are particularly influential. Elephant owner decisions also depend on elephant management, sentimental values, ivory beliefs, tusk forms, and legal awareness. These findings have the potential to inform the design of monitoring the Thai ivory market.