Forensic tools currently used to investigate ivory seizures are limited in their use because they are only able to detect point of shipment, which is not useful for stopping the poaching at it’s source.

A relatively new technique devised by Comstock et al. 2003, extracts DNA from ivory samples can provide a basis for using genetics to track the geographic origin of the ivory, identifying places that large amounts of ivory are being removed from. This can give valuable insight into current poaching hotspots where stronger anti-poaching efforts are required. Given that anti-poaching resources are limited, increasing protection and law enforcement in these areas while putting less in areas that show poaching to be less of a problem could prove a more targeted and effective way of stopping poaching. This will allow the same number of resources to be allocated in a more effective way.

This is especially important for forest elephants given the difficulty of detecting poaching in the dense forest of central Africa, and DNA analysis may provide one of the only methods to detect and monitor trade in forest elephant ivory. It can also provide a basis to understanding how timber harvesting, road building and construction and bushmeat trading are affecting the poaching rates of forest elephants if forest elephant ivory can be monitored.

Picture from Comstock et al. 2003, showing the microsatellite amplification of samples taken from two different elephant tusks