REPORT: Reality Check – Japan’s Legal Domestic Ivory Market – Toward he 77th Meeting of the CITES Standing Committee (SC77)

• 11/03/2023
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The 77th Meeting of the CITES Standing Committee (SC77) will be held on 5^th to 10^th November 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland. Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund (JTEF) and Envitonmental Investigation Agency (EIA) published a briefing Document for delegates to SC77.

Overview

● Japan’s legal framework for the control of the trade in elephant ivory is designed and built to regulate and facilitate commercial ivory trade and support ivory traders.

● Japan’s ivory market is open – all pre-Convention ivory and ivory imported in the two CITES-approved sales can be traded.

● Japan should be included in the analysis of ivory seizures related to domestic ivory markets under Decision 19.99.

At CoP19 in November 2022, Parties agreed to launch an analysis of seizure data related to legal domestic ivory markets. An assessment of feasibility of the analysis will be discussed at coming SC77. If the feasibility is agreed, the analysis will be reported to SC78 in 2024 and CoP20 in 2025, The focus is whether Japan is included in the analysis of ivory seizures related to domestic ivory markets. If realized, given that many seizures of ivory sourced in Japan have occurred outside Japan, its market could be considered as “contributing to illegal trade” so that it should be closed.