Asia is the prime destination, but last year two New York City jewelers pled guilty to trafficking in illegal ivory.
Yet the researchers think that many thousands of elephants died for the seized shipment alone and more illegal ivory has since been discovered.
In an indication of the amount of illegal ivory in circulation, authorities in the Asian port of Hong Kong have announced three major seizures of smuggled shipments since October.
The chief reason for the deteriorating situation today is the rising demand in Asia and the weak law enforcement against poachers and illegal ivory traders in central African countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, Huijbregts said.
In a statement reported by Reuters, a spokesman for eBay in London said it operated policies to "restrict the sale of ivory in accordance with existing international law" and was committed to working with IFAW to tackle the problem of illegal ivory sales.
We need governments on both the supply and demand side of this trade to work together and bring serious commitments to the table in March, when representatives for some 170 nations will come together in Thailand -- itself a major market for illegal ivory -- for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Vietnam, Laos and Mozambique have been ranked lowest in a report focusing on the illegal rhino horn, ivory and tiger-part trade.
Even as the world ivory market was supporting the South African experiment, it also provided the impetus for the poaching and illegal exportation of vast quantities of ivory from other countries.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in 1989 outlawed the international ivory trade and sharply reduced illegal killing in some countries.
"This demonstrates greater sophistication, organization and finance behind the illegal movement of ever larger volumes of ivory from Africa to Asia, " said Susan Lieberman, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Global Species Programme.
The ambassador said the embargo would favour the New Forces, arguing that they have always been able to obtain arms by illegal means, the BBC's James Copnall in Ivory Coast reports.
Almost immediately the price of ivory drastically dropped and within a few years the illegal trade ring had lost its energy and the massive wave of poaching had stopped.
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