Chinese thirst for ivory led African leaders to announce Africa's elephants will be extinct within 20 years.

At a forum of Africa nations held in Washington this week, it was revealed that the elephant population across the continent fell from one million 35 years ago to approximately half that number today. The United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species instituted a freeze on the international ivory trade in the 1980s, a move that showed some success in bolstering elephant numbers. However, African nations with a surplus elephant population began culling herds. By the late 1990s, poaching was again on in full force.

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In an effort to stem black market ivory, in 1999, legal ivory sales called "one-offs" began. The first was to Japan, supplied with 108,000 pounds of ivory from Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Botswana, the equivalent of 1,400 slaughtered elephants. After hard lobbying by a newly wealthy China hungry for a traditional luxury item, a 2008 one-off sold a staggering 110 tons of ivory that made its way to Chinese (60 tons) and Japanese (50 tons) workshops. The ban was effectively over, and legal ivory sales opened a back door to illegal supply flows.

China and Japan are not alone. Demand for ivory is high in Thailand and Vietnam, and ivory prices have soared to historic numbers, up to $1,500 a pound. The underground market for ivory has gone so high-tech to feed Asia's ivory addiction that Namibia, Tanzania, and Togo recently asked the United States for military-grade detection technology and attack vehicles to curb elephant slaughters and ivory transport.

Elephants, as the world's largest land animal, has one of the slowest propagation times. A typical pregnancy lasts nearly two years. Full maturation takes 14. The current birth-rate cannot keep up with poaching numbers.

The United States, which also has an ivory market, passed a ban on African ivory and maintains that even legal possession of ivory is against the law. The legislation is opposed by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and some Republican party members who see the prohibition as restricting gun access.

China, too, has its anti-ivory camps, most notably former NBA superstar Yao Ming, who lent his name to an anti-poaching campaign this year. Chinese officials have begun, with limited success, to clamp down on the illegal ivory trade. However, curbing the desire for ivory ware will likely prove harder to achieve.

TagsElephant ivory, poaching