Geography and World Events

Geography is not only the study of maps and of the features and contour of the land. It is also the study of how people, ideas, and material things flow across and around the globe. National borders may exist on maps, but they are often powerless to stop geographic flows across the world. An example of a tragic geographic process of flow is the illegal trade in elephant ivory. The migrations of elephant herds, the history of the ivory trade from the ancient to the modern world, and the attempt to save the elephants and ban the ivory trade are all examples of how life and culture flow across geography.

In addition, it is truly not possible to fully understand something if it is studied in isolation, or abstracted from the real world. To fully understand something, from culture to commodities, we must understand that thing in connection and relations to other things. The spatial connections between things, and the flow of money, people, ideas, and things must be examined to fully understand how things work and why they happen. Global geographic flows are an example of spatial interaction, an important concept in geography. Spatial interaction can be defined as “the representation and simulation of flows of activity between locations in geographic space” (Kemp).

Elephants have long fascinated human beings. There are many myths and stories of mass migrations of elephants across the world, and of elephants travelling great distances to reach legendary elephant’s graveyards. In actuality, elephants were used as pack animals for transporting people and goods, and as a military weapon. For example, the Carthaginian general Hannibal was famous for bringing elephants from North Africa into Italy during the wars against Rome. However, the trade in ivory, taken from dead elephants, originated at this time, as “During the days of the Roman Empire, the ivory exported from Africa largely came from North African elephants” (Thompsell). Thus, from the earliest days of human interaction with elephants, geographic flows were part of the story. The Romans were very efficient at building roads and creating trade networks linking together their wide-ranging territories. The ivory trade made use of the Roman’ networks of roads and sea travel, in an early example of how commodities flow across the globe.

Ivory remained a precious resource to many human cultures, which made ivory valuable and a source of wealth. As Europe emerged from the dark ages, and European traders and explores began travelling again to Africa and Asia, the flow of elephants and elephant ivory began moving again. Ivory came either from East or Central Africa, migrating first to the coasts, where it was loaded on ships and sent to European cities and trade centers (Thompsell).

As Europe entered the period of colonialism, the ancient ivory trade was often combined with the newly revived traffic in slaves, creating great tragic flows of slaves, ivory, and death that crisscrossed the seas, connecting Africa, Europe, Asia, and the New World. According to one source, “African and Arab slave traders traveled inland from the coast, purchased or hunted down large numbers of slaves and ivory, and then forced the slaves to carry the ivory as they marched down to the coast. Once they reached the coast, the traders sold both the slaves and the ivory” (Thompsell). From the coast, the ivory and the slaves flowed all over the world on ships. Both of these events created a diaspora which spread ivory, enslaved Africans, and the mingling cultures across the world.

The trade in ivory continued into the twentieth century, as ivory flowed out of Asia and Africa to collectors around the world. As has been reported, “In the mid-1980s, during the last great elephant poaching crisis, Africa lost nearly half its elephant population, roughly 600,000 animals, in a decade” (Christy). This reveals how global flows can be concealed as well as out in the open. Poachers travelled across national boundaries and snuck into animal preserves throughout Africa.The ivory was clandestinely shipped from ports throughout the world, with the ivory often disguised as a different commodity.This shows how global flow has as little regard for the law as it does for national boundaries.

Japan became one of the largest importers in ivory in this time. Eventually, a global resistance to the ivory trade emerged, which centered on protecting elephants from poachers. The resistance to the ivory trade is another example of a geographic flow, as it was not based in one country or continent, but occurred in many different places.

However, poaching and legal ivory harvesting continued, and in the twenty first century, there was an attempt to bring the global ivory trade back. As noted, “Today the poaching crisis has returned, owing largely to demand for ivory in Asia, where it’s carved into statues, bangles, and chopsticks. Roughly 30,000 elephants are killed every year by poachers” (Christy). This example reveals how global flows can change and develop over the course of history, as the population of elephants and nations alter, and the sources and destinations for the ivory changes with time.

This example also reveals how a change in culture or attitude can effect the shape and direction of global flow. For example, the killing of endangered species and the collection of ivory became unpopular (or less popular) in Europe and the United States, but grew in importance in Asia. Thus, while the flow of poachers into Africa remained relatively stable, the flow of ivory out of Africa changed main destinations and routes of travel several times. In addition, the money flowing from the purchasers to the poachers and smuggles is helping to destabilize regions around the world. While some poachers are simply criminals, others use the money to fund terrorist or subversive organizations, which in turn leads to a flow of violence and political trouble throughout regions in Africa and Asia.

The international Human Society (itself another example of human culture global flow) explains how the flow of ivory out of Africa and of foreign capital back to the poachers causes further destabilization of many regions. For example, they report that “community stability and regional security are seriously threatened as well. Several African militia groups, such as Janjaweed in the Sudan, Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, and Somalia-based Al-Shabaab, have engaged in elephant poaching” (Humane).

The flow out of ivory and flow in of money leads to a different type of flow in the region: instability. By creating political and social instability, these groups cause refuges to flee for their safety, which is another type of flow. Human refugee flow is one of the most harsh forms of flow. Thus, we can see how even different types of flows are networked, which demonstrates the accuracy of these concepts from geography.

Even trying to regulate and monitor a limited ivory trade has had devastating impacts on the world’s elephant population. In 1999 and 2008, limited sales of ivory were allowed, with the hope they would reduce the illegal trade from poaching, however, the legal trading had the exact opposite effect, as poaching actually increased, and elephant populations started to seriously decline again (Cruise). Thus, we can see that all aspects of the ivory trade represent examples of the geographic concept of network, which in turn enables the action of the geographic flow. Networks are ways different locations and regions deal with the distance between them. This occurs because of the reduction of the friction of distance, which increases flow. As noted, “Friction of distance has been reduced in many aspects of life with improved transportation and communication infrastructures” (Academy).

Another example of geographic concepts like flow and networks in action in the global ivory trade is the presence of domestic, legal markets for antique ivory, as “The international trade in ivory has been banned since 1989 but in many countries, including the US, UK and China, domestic trade is still allowed for antiques” (Milman). Antique ivory is old ivory from before the bans of ivory harvesting and trading. However, there have been cases of poachers disguising their illegal booty as antique ivory.

The domestic trade still has aspects of geographic flow, as trade occurs from region to region within a nation. In addition, the antique ivory had to arrive in the domestic market from a foreign source, again displaying aspects of network and flow.The domestic trade in ivory also influences the global flow of illegal ivory, as the domestic ivory market helps to demonstrate the demand for ivory, and this pushes the poachers to try and get more ivory to export. Ending the domestic ivory trade will help to reduce the geographic flow of illegal ivory as “The shutting down of domestic ivory markets will send a clear signal to traffickers and organized criminal syndicates that ivory is worthless and will no longer support their criminal activities” (Milman).

The international treaties that are now being signed to try and end the global trade and flow in ivory are an example of another cultural flow, political flow. The ideas about ending the ivory trade and protecting elephants are an example of ideas and culture flowing across the globe from people to people. Ideas from one culture can influence other cultures, especially as culture and communication become more global. As people, influenced by the global flow of these ideas pressure their governments to end the ivory trade, another cross boundary flow occurs, as nations sign treaty making the behavior on this issue governed by international law. Thus, the flow of illegal ivory caused other counter flows to try and combat it. For example, “A group of 182 nations struck an agreement Sunday, calling for the complete shutdown of all legal domestic ivory markets” (Parmar). The CITIES organization, which stands for the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species is another form of flow which evolved in response to the flow in ivory. Again we can see that flow is often a process which causes other flows. The entire action of flow implies that all the regions and cultures of the world are linked to each other.

When various international organizations examined the recent upswing in the demand for ivory and the number of elephants killed by poaching, the reasons they discovered are further examples of the flow of the ivory issue. Recently, the price of ivory has gone up because of an increase in demand for ivory in China. For example they discovered that “Most ivory, legal and illegal, ends up in China. The Chinese have long prized ivory, as a means of displaying wealth and to curry favor among business associates” (Lyons). The increase in demand causes an increase in price which causes an increase in the flow of ivory out of Africa, which in turn leads to a further reduction of the elephant population.

An interesting, new use of science to help map the flow of ivory has recently emerged. When people buy ivory, even legal antique ivory, they have no real sense of where the ivory came from, or if it was really harvested prior to the ban on ivory and poaching. Scientists have developed a method for using DNA testing to determine where ivory originates. Scientists first collected DNA information from existing elephant populations in Africa. This information also helped to map the flow of elephant migration. They then tested confiscated ivory, and determined the vast majority of it came from two locations in Africa: Gabon and Tanzania (Wasser).This information created a flow map of where the ivory originated from, which would allow better tracking of the ivory flow away from the poaching zones out into the international black market.

Works Cited

Academy. Module 1.2: Geographic Concepts. AP Academy.org. 2017.http://aphumangeog.weebly.com/module-12-geographical-concepts.html

Christy, B. Southern African Countries Are Trying—Again—to Legalize Elephant Ivory Sale National Geographic. 2016. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/wildlife-Namibia-Zimbabwe-ivory-trade-elephants-cites/

Cruise, A. Breaking: Pro-Ivory Trade Country’s Change of Heart Upends Elephant Debate.National Geographic. 2016. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/elephants-ivory-trade-botswana-cites/

Humane Society. Ivory Trade and Cities. Human Society International. 2016 http://www.hsi.org/campaigns/dont_buy_wild/african_ivory_trade.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/

Kemp, K. Encyclopedia of Geographic Information Science. New York, Springer Publishing, 2008.

Lyons, C. Why the Ivory Trade Must be Banned. Huffington Post. 2016 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/chantal-lyons/why-the-trade-in-ivory-mu_b_2583077.html

Milman, O. Ban on domestic ivory trade passes at international summit. The Guardian. 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/11/ivory-trade-international-agreement

Parmar, T. More Than 100 Nations Say the Legal Ivory Trade Must End. Time. 2016 http://time.com/4516137/cities-ivory-trade-end/

Thompsell, A. A Brief History of the Ivory Trade in Africa. Thought Co, 2017. https://www.thoughtco.com/ivory-trade-in-africa-43350

Wasser, S. Where is all the ivory from? Using forensic science and elephant DNA to stop poachers. The Conversation. 2015. https://theconversation.com/where-is-all-the-ivory-from-using-forensic-science-and-elephant-dna-to-stop-poachers-43443