The long-running debate over elephants has focused on the benefits that income from ivory sales may bring to conservation and to local communities living side by side with large and often dangerous animals against concerns that such sales may increase poaching.
The baseline data will make it possible to determine objectively what impact future ivory sales may have on elephant populations and poaching.
In a related decision, the Standing Committee decided that Japan had established a sufficiently strong domestic trade control system to be a trading partner allowed to purchase the ivory when sales eventually proceed.