Africa's East Africa Illegal Ivory and Wildlife Trade Moves West to Nigeria, Congo

Nigeria, Congo Replace East Africa As Illegal Ivory and Wildlife Trade Moves West AOC Sustainability

For decades, Africa’s ivory and illegal wildlife trade was clustered in East African countries like Kenya and Tanzania, two nations taking aggressive action to protect their elephants. Consequently, the locus of smuggling has shifted west, to Nigeria.

As recently as summer 2016, Nigeria wasn’t even listed on the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) map of countries involved in the ivory trade. Five years later, Nigeria is the new hub for exporting illegal ivory and also pangolin scales.

According to a December 2020 report from the EIA (Environmental Investigation Agency), an analysis of ivory seizure data reveals the recent shift. Between 1998 and 2014, the top two countries associated with ivory seizures were Tanzania and Kenya, at 87.1 and 59.4 metric tons respectively. But between 2014 and 2018, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) climbed to the top of the list, at 30.5 and 21 metric tons.

In that same period, Nigeria was connected to 167.6 metric tons of pangolin scale seizures — more than four times the DRC.