This is a fantastic question - as this is indeed done for other African animals, like crocodiles.
The biggest issue is that elephants cannot be profitably raised in captivity - they require too much food, too much space, and take too long to produce tusks.
...and if you allow them to roam in reserves, then poachers shoot them. I do wonder if it might work in another part of the world that could offer better security for large elephant reserves, without them impacting the native habitat.
It has also been tried with tusks obtained by elephants that naturally died, and that program failed due to smugglers bribing officials to insert poached ivory into the auctions [0].
I think the underlying issue is that demand is so high that there wouldn't be anywhere on Earth that could produce enough to stop cheap poaching in Africa, so it's easier to simply ban the trade entirely.
Maybe there's an opportunity for lab-grown ivory? [1]
You cannot grow them as a business model, however if you already have a preserve and elephants on them wouldn't a) be safer to remove the tusks from the elephants to make them less of a target and b) sell the removed tusks to fund your preserve ?
I had a friend who was a luthier, and in this tradition the father hands over the materials to the son, so that you may have wood that's been aging for 40 years, and a stockpile of ivory to use in the bows.
The biggest issue is that elephants cannot be profitably raised in captivity - they require too much food, too much space, and take too long to produce tusks.
...and if you allow them to roam in reserves, then poachers shoot them. I do wonder if it might work in another part of the world that could offer better security for large elephant reserves, without them impacting the native habitat.
It has also been tried with tusks obtained by elephants that naturally died, and that program failed due to smugglers bribing officials to insert poached ivory into the auctions [0].
[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...
I think the underlying issue is that demand is so high that there wouldn't be anywhere on Earth that could produce enough to stop cheap poaching in Africa, so it's easier to simply ban the trade entirely.
Maybe there's an opportunity for lab-grown ivory? [1]
[1] https://cen.acs.org/articles/96/i4/synthetic-horns-tusks-off...