View Images China is one of the worldâs biggest consumers of ivory products. By the end of 2017, it will have imposed a near-complete ban on buying and selling ivory.
Photograph by Cameron Spencer, Getty Images
As of December 31, Chinaâs legal, government-sanctioned ivory trade will come to a close. All of the countryâs licensed ivory carving factories and retailers will be shuttered in accordance with a landmark 2015 announcement from Chinese President Xi Jinping and then U.S. President Barack Obama.
China and the U.S. both agreed to ânear-completeâ ivory bans, which prohibit the buying and selling of all but a limited number of antiques and a few other items. The U.S.âs ivory ban went into effect in June 2016. Chinaâs goes into effect December 31, 2017.
China is widely believed to be the worldâs largest consumer of ivory, both legal and illegal, and it plays a major role in the yearly slaughter of some 30,000 African elephants by poachers. Ivory is in demand for intricate carvings, trinkets, chopsticks, and other items.
View Images A worker in Guangzhou in 2009 carves ivory into the shape of a Chinese deity. Government-licensed carving workshops like these, as well as licensed retailers, will close at the end of the year.
âThe Chinese government's ban on its domestic ivory trade sends a message to the general public in China that the life of elephants is more important than the ivory carving culture,â said Gao Yufang, a Ph.D. student in conservation biology and cultural anthropology at Yale University and a National Geographic Explorer, in an email. âThis is a significant step forward.â
An international ivory trade ban went into effect in 1990, but China continued to allowâand even promoteâivory sales within its borders. Its legal ivory supply came primarily from a one-time sale of ivory from a handful of African countries in 2008. But this legal domestic market has provided the opportunity for traffickers to slip illegally obtained ivory into Chinaâs legal supply. Many conservationists have said that this one-time legal sale helped drive a dramatic increase in elephant poaching.
View Images A visitor takes a picture of a carved ivory tusk at an exhibition in 2009. The Chinese government used to promote ivory carving as part of its cultural heritage, but the new ban on ivory sales to protect elephants reflects changing priorities, conservationists say.
âIt is difficult to predict to what extent China's ivory ban can reduce elephant poaching in Africa because many factors are at play,â Yufang said. âBut it has been observed that in China prices of ivory products have dropped considerably, and the market is already shrinking.â
Experts say the key to making the ban successful is enforcement and education. âLaw enforcement in China tends to be hindered by poor coordination between different agencies, unclear authorization and accountability, and a lack of capable personnel on the ground,â Yufang said.
While many Chinese are becoming more aware and sensitive to conservation and wildlife issues, ivoryâs draw as the ultimate status symbol has been hard to overcome. As National Geographic reported earlier this year:
In Chinese the word for ivory is xiangya, meaning âelephant tooth,â which has led many to believe erroneously that ivory can be taken from an elephant without inflicting harm. The nonprofit International Fund for Animal Welfare did polling in 2007 in China that found that 70 percent of respondents didnât realize an elephant had to be killed to take its ivory.
View Images Other than the threat posed by poaching, âfostering healthy coexistence between local people and African elephants,â is the biggest challenge says conservationist Gao Yufang.
Photograph by Carl de Souza, AFP, Getty Images
Chinaâs State Forestry Administration, the agency in charge of enforcing the new ban, is embarking on a campaign to make sure the countryâs citizens are aware of the law. Working with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Wildaid, China Wildlife Conservation Association, and the China-based SEE Foundation, an environmental NGO, there will be posters, videos, and articles spread across traditional and social media outlets telling people to protect endangered elephants by respecting the law and saying âno to ivory.â
In March the first wave of factories and retailers closed. A recent survey by the World Wildlife Fund and the wildlife trade monitoring organization TRAFFIC, however, found that only 19 percent of people surveyed knew about the ban. But once they were told of the ban, 86 percent of those surveyed said they supported it.
âBy closing its ivory markets, China is showing its commitment to end its role in the poaching epidemic plaguing Africaâs elephants,â said Ginette Hemley, a senior vice president of WWF and a TRAFFIC board member, in a press release. âIt is critical that efforts to enact the ivory trade ban are accompanied by efforts to change consumer behavior in order to reduce demand.â
nooneisanonymous on December 31st, 2017 at 15:07 UTC »
Laws can be passed but they should be enforced to be reality.
austinv11 on December 31st, 2017 at 14:51 UTC »
I wonder what steps the Chinese government will take to ensure the illegal ivory trade doesn't grow following this policy change
DeathbyFriedChicken on December 31st, 2017 at 14:22 UTC »
Thank god. In other news, China's illegal Ivory trade is booming.