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Europe
In 1997, the European Union passed legislation that made the
domestic working and sale of ivory legal in all member coun-
tries, if EU regulations were satisfied (Martin and Stiles 2005).
Up until the 1980s, Europe was one of the largest importers and
manufacturers of ivory in the world. Following the CITES ivory
trade ban however, demand for new ivory fell significantly as a
result of greater consumer awareness about the harm that the
ivory industry caused to elephants. The ivory antiques market is
still strong, however, particularly in the UK, which predominates
in both the import and export of ivory (Martin and Stiles 2005).
Ivory market surveys in the past ten years have shown that
Germany and the UK have relatively large markets, while France,
Portugal, Spain, Italy and Belgium have small markets (Martin
and Stiles 2005; Knapp and Affre 2007; Martin and Martin
2009). Most of the ivory sold in these markets was pre-ban and
thus legal, although some illegal ivory was found, imported after
1990 mainly from East Asia and Africa. The ETIS reports show
that small to modest amounts of illegal raw and worked ivory are
seized in European countries (Milliken
et al.
2012). The Interna-
tional Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has signalled that illegal
ivory activity is worrisome both in the UK and on the Internet,
and that further monitoring is warranted (IFAW 2004; 2007).
A century ago this shop in Paris claimed to be the largest ivory outlet in the world, symbolizing Europe’s importance as an
importer, manufacturer and consumer of ivory.