This paper estimates the elasticity of elephant poaching with respect to prices. To identify the supply curve, the authors observe that ivory is a storable commodity and hence subject to Hotelling's no-arbitrage condition. The price of gold, one of many commodities used as stores of value, is thus used as an instrument for ivory prices.

Weak governance, corruption and shifting trade dynamics are significant factors seriously undermining the control of ivory trafficking throughout five countries in Central Africa, according to a new TRAFFIC study launched.

Surveys by TRAFFIC have found a huge fall in the amount of ivory openly for sale in Thailand’s Bangkok markets over the past two years from a high of 7,421 ivory items in 2014 to just 283 products by June this year – a 96 per cent drop.

Illegal rhino horn trade has reached the highest levels since the early 1990s, and illegal trade in ivory increased by nearly 300 percent from 1998 to 2011, according to a new report by USAID partner TRAFFIC.