‘There’s no law enforcement’: Laos has become the world’s fastest-growing ivory market, thanks to Chinese demand
Hong Kong is considering its own ban on the ivory trade but it would come into effect in 2021 – which may be too late for African elephants
Surging demand from Chinese visitors has made Laos the world’s fastest-growing market for ivory, conservation group Save the Elephants said on Thursday.
China, currently the world’s largest ivory market, has pledged to phase out its sales by the end of the year but with ivory trinkets still popular among Chinese consumers demand is shifting across the border.
Ivory sales have increased dramatically in Laos, Save the Elephants said in its new report, blaming lax enforcement of anti-ivory laws and lower prices.
Chinese visitors buy 80 per cent of the ivory on sale in the landlocked southeast Asian country, the report said, while in the two main ivory marketplaces in the capital Vientiane and Luang Prabang the number of shops increased more than tenfold between 2013 and 2016.
It can be stopped, but the difficulty is there’s no law enforcement going on in the areas where the Chinese are
“Although we’ve had much significant movement on curbing the ivory trade, the earth is not out of the woods yet,” said Save the Elephants’ founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton at the report’s launch in Nairobi.