China to ban trade and processing of all domestic ivory by end 2017

China is the world's biggest ivory market and it has decided to ban trade and processing of all domestic ivory by the end of 2017. This decision is taken in a bid to save the fast dwindling tusker population and the move has been hailed by activists as "historic" and a "game changer" for African elephants.
The decision has come following the imposition of a three-year ban on ivory imports in March this year, in an escalated fight against illegal trading of wild animals and plants.
This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 31 December 2016.

The ban will have a direct impact on 34 processing enterprises and 143 designated trading venues in China and dozens of them will close down by end March 2017. Before the deadline, law enforcement agencies will continue to clamp down on illegalities associated with the elephant's tusk.
This action will help revive the elephant population since hundreds of African elephants are killed every year by poachers to feed the burgeoning markets in China and Hong Kong. The result is that the numbers of Africa's savannah elephants have dropped to 3.5 lakh thousand in 2014. The international market in ivory has been closed since 1989 but domestic markets have continued in many countries around the world.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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