China to phase out ivory trade by year-end

Nation to join global efforts to protect elephants

China has vowed to play a more active role in the global effort to protect elephants after it announced a gradual phaseout of commercial ivory processing and trading, even as some Chinese ivory producers are projecting an increase in sales of the hard, white material in 2017 despite higher prices.

China will gradually stop the processing and sale of ivory for commercial purposes by the end of 2017, according to the central government website on Friday. The decision comes after the country imposed a three-year ban on ivory imports in March 2016 as part of a growing battle against the illegal trade of wild animals and plants.

The public security, customs, commerce and forestry departments will enhance their joint campaign against the illegal trade, processing and transporting of ivories and ivory products, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a press briefing Tuesday.

The move will affect the country's 34 processing enterprises and 143 designated trade venues, with dozens to be closed by the end of March 2017, an official at the State Forestry Administration was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as saying.

"We will stop producing and selling ivory from African elephants after 2017. We expect a rush to collect exquisite products this year before the ban takes effect," an anonymous manager at Beijing Ivory Carving Factory, which has been approved by the forestry administration, told the Global Times.

The manager said although ivory will not be commercially sold by those companies, the ban cannot exclude the possibility of being resold among collectors.

Another manager surnamed Zheng at Wenzhou Huabao Ivory Carving Co Ltd in East China's Zhejiang Province said she also expects the "collection spree" this year, saying prices will go up.

But data provided by WildAid campaigners in China seems to run against speculation. Data provided by WildAid to the Global Times on Tuesday shows that prices may have dropped further in 2016 after ivory prices in eight Chinese cities had fallen by half in a two-year period ending December 2015. Market inquiries in May 2016 found raw ivory prices at around $450 to $900, representing a drop by 57 percent to 78 percent compared with a high of $2,100 per kilogram in the Chinese mainland in 2014.

Before the deadline, law enforcement agencies will continue to clamp down on illegal activity linked to elephant tusks, the State Forestry Administration official said.

Many NGOs praised the Chinese government's decision. "This is a tremendous victory for elephants and we applaud for the decisive action and leadership on the issue," Azzedine Downes, President and CEO of International Fund for Animal Welfare, said on Friday.