Ivory traders may be benefitting from Arab Spring

Read more: "Herd of ivory elephants reveals illicit trade in Egypt"

The Arab Spring in Egypt may be a triumph for people and democracy, but it's been bad news for elephants. The illegal trade in ivory may have benefitted from a lack of law enforcement. Much of the trade has been driven by unprecedented demand from Chinese tourists.

Between 1998 and 2005 Egypt's illegal ivory market shrank by 43 per cent, but a new report by TRAFFIC, the UK-based network that monitors the trade in wildlife, suggests that it is now shrinking at a much reduced rate ? perhaps as a consequence of recent political events.

"Any time you have political upheaval on the scale we're seeing in Egypt, it provides openings for illegal activities to take off, because everyone is distracted," says Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC's elephant-trade expert.

The new report by Esmond Martin and Lucy Vigne of TRAFFIC, shows that Egyptian authorities have made only two seizures of ivory since 2009. The sale and display of ivory has been illegal in Egypt since 1989, but TRAFFIC found 8343 ivory items openly on sale in Cairo in April last year, and 918 for sale in Luxor.

Milliken' says that demand for ivory has fallen in the west, but there has been a rise in interest from Chinese tourists. The solution is for authorities to crack down on the vendors, says Milliken.

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