CITES was formed more than 30 years ago to ensure that international trade does not threaten the survival of wild animals and plants.

Nations voluntarily sign onto the convention. CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon says parties have legal obligations and if they do not comply with the convention they face possible suspension in the trade of some 35,000 species.

“So it is very much a hard law international convention and in fact it stands out amongst all of the conventions dealing with the environment for the teeth that it has,” he said.

Stockpiles from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana were traded to Japan and China.

Ivory that was confiscated in Singapore in 2002 and returned to Kenya was burned during the first African Elephant Law Enforcement Celebrations held on July 20, 2011 at Kenya Wildlife Services Field Training School at Manyani, Kenya. (Steve Njumbi / IFAW)

176 parties have signed on. But some countries in sub-Saharan Africa blame CITES itself — at least in part — for the surge in elephant poaching and illegal ivory trade.

CITES banned the trade in newly obtained ivory in 1989, but since then it has twice allowed African countries to legally trade ivory from elephants that died of natural causes.

Debate

Critics argued the so-called “one-off” sales wrongly sent a signal that it was legal to trade in ivory again and made it easier to launder illegal ivory with legal ivory. Opponents of the sales — like the Kenyan government — say this fueled demand and caught the attention of organized gangs that have set out to cash in.