China began implementing a complete ban on ivory trade from Sunday, AFP reported. It is a major step towards reining in what was once the world’s largest market for illegal ivory.
In the past 15 years, the demand for ivory in the Chinese market has caused a global collapse of elephant populations. Close to 30,000 African elephants were killed every year by poachers to meet the demand, National Geographic reported.
The forestry ministry said that the ban also extended to online sales and souvenirs that were purchased abroad. A partial ban had resulted in an 80% decline in seizures of ivory entering China, Xinhua had earlier reported. Sixty-seven official factories and shops dealing in ivory had already been shut down by March 2017, the news agency said, and the remaining 105 were closed by Sunday.
China had carried out a far-reaching public awareness campaign in the run-up to the ban, with messages of support from basketball player Yao Ming.
The World Wildlife Fund’s Africa Director, Fred Kumah, said that he was delighted with China’s decision, which he called “a significant step that should prove to be a huge boost to elephant protection efforts in Africa”.
China and the United States had agreed to “near-complete” ivory bans in an agreement signed in 2015 that prohibit the buying and selling of all but a limited number of antiques and a few other items.
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