China imposes total ban on elephant ivory sales
Online and overseas purchases also forbidden as Beijing tries to stamp out market for the products
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China’s complete ban on ivory trade went into effect on Sunday, officials said, a major step forward in Beijing’s efforts to rein in what was once the world’s biggest market for illegal ivory.
“From today … the buying and selling of elephant ivory and goods by any market, shop or vendor is against the law!” the forestry ministry said on its official account on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
“From now on, if a merchant tells you ‘this is a state-approved ivory dealer’ … he is duping you and knowingly violating the law.”
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The ministry added that the ban also applied to online sales and souvenirs bought abroad.
According to state-run Xinhua, a partial ban had already resulted in an 80 per cent fall in seizures of ivory entering China. Domestic prices for raw ivory were down 65 per cent, it said.
The total domestic ban was announced at the end of last year.
By March, 67 factories and shops involved in China’s ivory trade had closed, Xinhua reported.
The remaining 105 were expected to close on Sunday.
China had previously banned imports of all ivory and ivory products acquired before 1975, after pressure to restrict a trade that sees thousands of elephants slaughtered every year.
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African ivory is highly sought after in China, where it is seen as a status symbol, and used to fetch as much as US$1,100 a kilogram.
Poaching in Africa has seen the elephant population fall by 110,000 over the last 10 years to just 415,000, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Despite an overall fall in poaching, Africa’s elephant population has declined in part because of continued illegal killing, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
