China to End World’s Largest Ivory Market – Domestic Ivory Sales Banned by the End of 2017

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BEIJING (30 December 2016) — The end of the world’s largest ivory market was announced today by the Chinese government as it released a detailed timetable for ending its legal ivory trade. Domestic ivory sales banned by the end of 2017 with the first batch of factories and traders to close their business by 31 March 2017.

Last year, President Xi Jinping made a public commitment to phasing out the ivory trade, which may be falling out of favor with Chinese consumers. A recent survey by the conservation group Save the Elephants reported that ivory prices in eight mainland Chinese cities had fallen by half in a two-year period ending December 2015. Anecdotal evidence by WildAid campaigners in China indicates prices may have decreased further this year: Market inquiries in May 2016 found raw ivory prices of around $450 to $900, representing a decrease of 57% to 78% compared with the high of $2,100 per kilogram in mainland China in 2014.  A ban was first proposed to the National People’s Congress by former NBA star, Yao Ming, who also led documentaries on ivory trade for state broadcaster CCTV in partnership with WildAid.

WildAid CEO Peter Knights: “China’s exit from the ivory trade is the greatest single step that could be taken to reduce poaching for elephants. We thank President Xi for his leadership and congratulate the State Forestry Administration for this timely plan. We will continue to support their efforts through education and persuading consumers not to buy ivory.”

With China’s announcement international attention is now shifting to Japan, which voted against all CITES proposals to protect elephants and has insisted its trade is not tainted by illegal ivory. But a recent report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) found that the nation’s elephant tusk registration system widely allows for poached tusks smuggled from Africa to be sold legally in the domestic market.

“Japan is the last man standing as a major legal destination for ivory.” Knights said. “If Japan joined the global community on this we could consign the abuses of the ivory trade to history.”

The international commercial ivory trade was banned in 1989, following a decade of out-of-control poaching that decimated African elephant populations, from 1.3 million in 1979 to an estimated 609,000 by the late 1980s. As a result of the ban, poaching decreased significantly and ivory prices plummeted. But “one-off” sales of ivory in the late 2000s and the legal domestic trade in places such as Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Vietnam and the US have allowed for the laundering of illegal ivory shipments from recently poached elephants.

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(Featured image: wild elephants in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Credit Diana Robinson, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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WildAid is a non-profit organization with a mission to end the illegal wildlife trade in our lifetimes. While most wildlife conservation groups focus on protecting animals from poaching, WildAid primarily works to reduce global consumption of wildlife products such as shark fin and elephant ivory by persuading consumers and providing comprehensive marine enforcement. Recent WildAid campaigns such as the #JoinTheHerd initiative have brought together millions of people to speak out about the poaching crisis affecting African elephants. With an unrivaled portfolio of celebrity ambassadors - including Prince William and Yao Ming - and global network of media partners, WildAid leverages nearly $200 million in annual pro bono media support with a simple message: When the Buying Stops, the Killing Can Too. For more information, visit WildAid.org. Click to see author's profile.

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