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WHEREAS, Increasing demand for ivory is fueling the brutal slaughter of African elephants; and
WHEREAS, Illegal trade in elephant ivory is the most significant threat to Africa's elephant populations and is driving the mass slaughter of elephants, especially across Central and Eastern Africa; and
WHEREAS, Approximately 35,000 wild African elephants were poached in 2012 because of the demand for their tusks, which contain ivory; and
WHEREAS, The wild African elephant population has declined from 1.2 million in 1980 to just 420,000 in 2012, and Central Africa's forest elephant populations have declined by 75% in the last decade due to illegal poaching for ivory; and
WHEREAS, Elephant ivory currently sells for about $3,000 per kilogram, representing a value of $20,000 per elephant; and
WHEREAS, With an estimated value between $10 billion and $20 billion per year, the illegal wildlife trade is a major trans-national crime run by professional criminal networks and is strongly linked to other trans-national organized criminal activities such as narcotics, weapons, and human-trafficking; and
WHEREAS, There is significant evidence that illegal trade in high-value wildlife parts, including elephant ivory, is being used as a source for financing criminal organizations and armed groups that pose a threat to U.S. economic and security interests in Africa and elsewhere, including the Lord's Resistance Army, al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda, Sudanese militias, and other groups with potential terrorist ties; and
WHEREAS, The State Department of the United States has provided that criminal organizations' involvement in wildlife trafficking "perpetuates corruption, threatens the rule of law and border security in fragile regions, and destabilizes communities that depend on wildlife for biodiversity and eco-tourism"; and
WHEREAS, In 1989, the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) banned the international commercial trade in ivory; a...
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