-China’s complete ban on ivory trade came into effect on December 31, 2017.
-All of the country’s licensed ivory carving factories and retailers have been closed.
-Chinese President Xi Jinping and then U.S. President Barack Obama had reached on a landmark judgement in 2015 to ban ivory trade.
-China and the U.S. both had agreed to “near-complete” ivory bans. It prohibits the buying and selling of all but a limited number of antiques and a few other items.
-The USA’s ivory ban went into effect in June 2016. China’s goes into effect December 31, 2017.
-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.
-China is believed to be the world’s largest consumer of ivory, both legal and illegal.
-African ivory is highly sought after in China, where it is used in intricate carvings, trinkets, chopsticks, and other items.
-Chin’s ivory demand had lead a massive poaching of elephant in Africa. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, due to poaching, the elephant population fall by 110,000 over the last 10 years to just 415,000.
