An important finding was that there are many more
ivory outlets in Bangkok than the 39 that are registered
with the government, as the law requires. The number
of outlets found selling ivory in any one survey varied
from 61 to 120, up to three times the legal number.
In the Discussion, there is no clear comparison
of the current data with the same variables seen in
previous surveys. How does 2013–2014 compare with
2007–2008 (Stiles 2009)? A table would have been
useful.
Other deficiencies: a number of source citations
are given in the report, but there is no References
section. A few acronyms are presented, but there is no
acronyms section to decipher them (what is WARPA?).
TRAFFIC admitted that these were oversights, a result
of efforts to complete the report in time for release at
the CITES 65th Standing Committee meeting.
Overall, this is a disappointing report. However,
even with the methodological problems, the TRAFFIC
survey of Bangkok’s ivory market demonstrated that
Thailand is not complying with CITES resolutions or
living up to commitments it has made to control its
domestic ivory market. Thailand still faces a CITES
trade sanction if it does not address the unregulated
ivory market, and calls for domestic ivory trade in
the country to be closed entirely look increasingly
justified.