"A lively illegal trade in ivory is now flourishing in three populous states in West Africa, conservation groups say.
They found more ivory in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal than the countries' own elephant populations could produce. The wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic and the global conservation group WWF say West Africa's vibrant ivory markets spur the poachers on.
They believe much of the ivory their teams found will have come from animals slaughtered by gangs in central Africa. Any international ivory trade must be sanctioned by Cites, the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Sidestepping the law
Domestic trade within a country is a matter of national legislation. Ivory Coast banned the trade in 1997, and it is supposed to be controlled by law in Senegal and Nigeria. But a report by Traffic and WWF says investigators found more than 4,000 kilogrammes of "illegal" ivory on public display in nine cities in the three countries."
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3314069.stm