Although trade in ivory has been illegal since 1989, according to wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, which manages the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), the number of large scale seizures of illegally traded ivory is at record high levels: 2011’s 17 seizures (totalling over 26 tonnes of ivory, which means over 2,500 elephants’ tusks) more than doubled the previous record of eight seizures that occurred in 2009.
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