Making the ivory trade extinct: CY Leung’s call for Hong Kong ban hailed by conservation groups, slammed by local traders

The announcement by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to completely ban the ivory trade in Hong Kong has been branded “ridiculous” by Hong Kong’s small number of jewellers and carving manufacturers who continue to deal in ivory products, with one accusing the government of driving his business into “extinction”.

In his policy address on Wednesday, Leung pledged to kick start the legislative process to ban the import and export of elephant hunting trophies as soon as possible and explore enacting laws to completely ban the ivory trade.

“Hong Kong is being seen by the international community as an illegal ivory trade center. This has damaged the city’s reputation,” he said on Wednesday, adding in his address that “it is time to put a stop to it”.

READ MORE: Hong Kong government ‘open-minded’ about ivory ban in major policy shift

The policy turn won praise from British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, who on Thursday posted on Twitter: “Great news from Hong Kong as government signals the end to the domestic ivory trade.”

A global ban on the ivory trade, also covering Hong Kong, came into force in 1989. Permits were given for a handful of tusks, allowing them to be legally traded after the ban. There is an estimated 110 tonnes of the remaining stockpile of pre-1989 ivory in Hong Kong. But concern groups have said these pre-1989 tusks had been used in recent years as a front to launder ivory.

In 2014 Hong Kong’s Endangered Species Advisory Committee agreed to incinerate 30 tonnes of the city’s stockpile of confiscated ivory