Malaysian Customs officers uncovered illegal ivory concealed within secret compartments in a shipment. Credit: SAEED KHAN/AFP/Getty Images

It has been widely reported this week that Malaysian authorities have confiscated 24 tonnes of elephant ivory. If true, this would be the largest haul ever, and could make 2012 a record year for the total amount of illegal ivory seized. Nature takes a closer look.

What is the story behind this seizure?

Customs officials announced on Tuesday that they had confiscated 1,500 pieces of tusk at Port Klang, on the west coast of peninsular Malaysia. At a press conference, officials reportedly announced that the haul weighed 24 tonnes, had come from Togo via Spain, and was bound for China.

Some caution is urged over the weight of this haul, however. A 24-tonne seizure would be by far the largest illegal ivory haul ever, with the previous record standing at around 7 tonnes, found in Singapore in 2002. Last year, a Malaysian ivory seizure was reported as being 16 tonnes, but was later revised down to 1.4 tonnes, notes Tom Milliken, an expert on ivory at the wildlife trade-monitoring network TRAFFIC.

Still, the bust is clearly not small, and should be cause for concern. Milliken points out that, in 2011, Malaysia either confiscated or was a transit point or the stated destination for seven ivory shipments of more than 800 kilograms each.

“This latest seizure indicates a new trade route — West Africa to Spain, and then on to Asia via the Suez Canal. And it seems those behind the trafficking change their routes to try and avoid detection," Milliken stated in an e-mail. He adds that Cambodia first emerged as a destination in late 2011.

Is this part of a trend?

Credit: Data from ETIS, compiled by TRAFFIC on behalf of Parties to CITES

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has banned trading in elephant ivory since 1989, apart from in specific circumstances, such as the 2008 sale of existing stockpiles in several southern African countries.

But seizures of illegal ivory have increased recently. According to data from the CITES Elephant Trade Information System, the year 2011 broke all previous records, with 39 tonnes intercepted (see graph).

The driving force, says Drew McVey, an elephant specialist at the environmental group WWF, seems to be a growing demand for ivory in Asia. This has led to more sophisticated poaching in Africa, involving the use of equipment such as night-vision goggles and helicopters. “The concern is a lot of rebel groups are actually selling ivory as a means to generate income for themselves,” says McVey.

Can we trace these seizures back?

This seizure is unlikely to have come entirely from Togo, where the shipment originated, because that country is believed to have a very small population of remaining elephants.

To trace tusks back to their origin, a team led by Samuel Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle, has built a map of elephant DNA obtained from faeces samples from across Africa. By matching DNA from ivory samples to this map, they can determine its origins in many cases.

The team works with national agencies such as the Kenya Wildlife Service, as well as Interpol, and Wasser says that it has analysed and traced the origins of nine major seizures. He adds that he is hoping to work on the Malaysian catch.

“The enormous size of this seizure makes it extremely important to ascertain its origin,” he says. “As far as I know, our lab is the only one in the world that is currently able to track a seizure to its origin with high precision. Our unique ability stems from the comprehensiveness of our DNA reference map and the sophistication of our assignment methods.”

What does all this mean for elephant populations?

Most biologists consider African elephants to include at least two species — the savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). The ‘red list’ of threatened species, drawn up by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, lists African elephants as "vulnerable”.

“The scary thing is, we are seeing more regular larger finds of ivory at the moment," McVey says. "That means there are a lot of elephants disappearing."