The race to save the elephants.

• Author: Frank, Mary Kate
• Position: Cover story

Illegal hunting, fueled by the global appetite for ivory, has put Africa's elephants at risk of extinction. Now the United States and China are teaming up to end the ivory trade and protect the species.

Last fall, rangers in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park made a gruesome discovery: the carcasses of more than 20 elephants, all killed by poachers. The animals had been poisoned and their ivory tusks hacked off to be sold.

The scene is grimly familiar in sub-Saharan Africa. Even in protected wilderness areas, rangers are no match for determined poachers, who kill an estimated 35,000 elephants annually for their valuable tusks. The illegal ivory is then smuggled to other countries where demand is high. There, it's carved into statues, jewelry, and other keepsakes that can sell for thousands of dollars each. This illegal trade has more than doubled since 2007, and it has pushed Africa's elephants toward extinction.

But now the animals are getting some help. Last September, China and the United States--the world's top two ivory markets--pledged to work together to end the illicit trade. In a joint announcement, President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to enact "nearly complete bans" on the import and export of all ivory and take steps to halt the domestic trade in both countries. The move signaled fresh hope for elephants and was a welcome moment of cooperation between China and the U.S., two powerful nations often at odds. Once in place, the new rules could be a major step toward ending the poaching crisis that threatens to wipe out African elephants.

"We currently face the risk of losing wild elephants during my lifetime," Obama said. "It'd be an unpardonable loss for humanity and the natural world. There's no question: We need to take urgent action to save one of the planet's most majestic species."

At one time, elephants in Africa were too numerous to count. What has brought the world's largest land mammal to the point of vanishing? Conservationists say decades of ineffective regulations have allowed the illegal ivory trade--and the poaching associated with it--to flourish.

For centuries, hunters have targeted African elephants for their tusks. (Far fewer Asian elephants are poached because only some have tusks. Most illegal ivory comes from African elephants.) Poaching spiraled out of control in Africa in the late 1970s as global demand for ivory grew. From 1979 to 1989, the African elephant population fell from 1.3 million to 600,000.

'The Whole Thing Exploded'

In 1989, the world took action. The United Nations' Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)--a treaty that governs wildlife trade--banned international sales of African ivory. The ban went into effect the following year but had several limitations. Among them: Trading ivory imported before 1989 remained legal.

At first, the restrictions worked, and elephant populations began to recover. Then, in 1999, CITES made a controversial decision. It allowed some African countries to auction 55 tons of stockpiled ivory to Japan, with the proceeds going toward conservation. In 2008, China was similarly allowed to buy 68 tons of stockpiled ivory from Africa.

The intention of those sales was to flood the market with legal ivory to lower its value, but the opposite happened. As more ivory became available, more people wanted it. As demand surged, prices rose, and China's ivory carving industry--which had declined under the ban--sprang back to life. China's government introduced an ivory product certification system meant to prevent illegal sales, but unethical merchants were able to dodge the rules.

"The ivory market in China is really impossible to regulate," says Grace Ge Gabriel, Asia regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). "Once legal trade was allowed, the whole thing exploded."

Elephants are the ones paying the price. Poaching has reduced the number of African elephants to about 500,000. The species is classified as vulnerable, meaning it's likely to become endangered.

China--where as much as 70 percent of illegal ivory ends up--has long had a love affair with the material. The ivory carving tradition dates back thousands of years. Ivory is prized not only for its beauty, but also for the healing properties many believe it to have. Ivory powder, for example, can supposedly do everything from cure a sore throat to clear up skin.

In the past, ivory products were a luxury only a privileged few could afford. That has changed in recent decades as China has enjoyed an economic boom. In 1978, the Communist country's...