'Record Ivory Seizures' In 2011

More elephant tusks were seized in 2011 than in any year since 1989, when the ivory trade was banned. Discovery News reports,"TRAFFIC, which runs the ETIS database of illegal ivory trades, said there had been at least 13 large-scale seizures in 2011, totalling at least 23 tonnes of ivory -- representing about 2,500 elephants...As most large-scale ivory seizures fail to result in any arrests, I fear the criminals are winning," Milliken said.
International trade in elephant ivory was banned in 1990, and ETIS (the Elephant Trade Information System) holds the details of more than 17,000 reported ivory and other elephant product seizures across the world since then."