Staff writer

It was all done discreetly.

Nervous Japanese authorities did not divulge details of the nation's first legal ivory import in a decade to the media until the last minute.

Japan's Ivory Association did not hold a news conference, and the price tag on the shipment was not disclosed.

Their tactics seemingly turned out in their favor. There was no attack by environmental nongovernmental organizations to ruin the final stages of the historic event. There was no media hype.

Now, 50 tons of elephant tusks from southern Africa, unloaded and customs-cleared under the strict supervision of the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, sit in the warehouses of 15 importers in Tokyo and Osaka, waiting to be crafted into everything from name seals to picks for the "shamisen."

The news is good for ivory artisans and seal cutters. But the ramifications of last week's shipments are much greater than simply keeping the Japanese ivory industry alive.

It is an ambitious attempt by CITES to protect elephants through the ivory trade, an operation that once put elephants on the brink of extinction. The plan follows the principle of sustainable use, a new ideal in environmental protection.

"Revenue from the ivory sale will be used for elephant conservation projects in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, which will be very positive in elephant conservation," CITES Secretary General Willem Wynstekers told a news conference last week.

The one-time sale of ivory that had been stockpiled in the three countries during the ban was approved at a 1997 CITES meeting, on condition that all revenues go toward elephant conservation and that the tusks be harvested from elephants that died naturally or were killed for population control.

The southern African nations said their elephant populations have been increasing to levels that pose serious conflicts with local residents. The governments need money to protect elephants and their habitats so the creatures will not damage crops and villages.

With the elephant population estimated at 174,000 in 1995, the three former ivory-exporting countries are the only nations other than South Africa that have seen an expansion in the elephant population, according to data by the Swiss-based environmental group World Conservation Union.

"Part of the revenue will also be used to construct watering places in national parks so that elephants do not need to traverse the villages to drink," CITES official Mario Fernandez said.

The sales are also to be put into development of communities adjacent to elephant habitats, he said.

As CITES officials stressed, the deal is an experiment involving four countries and does not mean the full reopening of the ivory trade.

Still, environmental NGOs fear the U.N.-authorized sale will undermine the fight against poaching.

"Poachers and smugglers are good at finding loopholes, even in strict regulations," said Hiroko Sakuma of the World Wide Fund for Nature Japan. "Illegally traded ivory could get mixed with the legal ivory stock."

CITES and environmental groups pledged to closely monitor the illegal hunting of elephants and the tusk trade. Wynstekers vowed that the U.N. body will stop the project if any negative effect is found.

But Wynstekers also expressed his ambition to nurture the endeavor into a model of sustainable use if this first experiment is successful.

"We will continue to assess the situation closely over the next months and years to (verify) whether this can be followed up by other experiments," Wynstekers said. "I'm quite optimistic we can show it does work."

Even environmentalists concede that the cost of curbing poaching and protecting elephants places a large burden on local communities.

"CITES has put the question (of how we pay for elephant protection) before us," Sakuma said. "Just calling for conservation without dishing out cash does little."