Monday 24 December 2018

British ivory bill is 'best Christmas gift' for threatened elephants worldwide


The British government last Thursday banned the sale of ivory, shutting down one of the world’s largest legal domestic ivory markets.

With the British ivory bill being granted Royal Assent, most ivory sales will now be treated as criminal offences in the UK.

Mary Rice, executive director UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), said: “Following on the heels of China’s closure of its own domestic ivory market at the start of the year, this is the best Christmas present the UK could have given the world’s threatened elephant populations in Africa and Asia."

She aded that the bill being made into law is "an important move which recognises the need to take firm action to protect elephant populations from poaching and ivory trafficking"

Rice also urged the British government to offer necessary resources for proper implementation and enforcement of the act. She also called on the EU and Japan, two of the remaining legal ivory markets, to ban domestic ivory sales.

In January 2016, EIA led 26 organisations to petition the British government to shut its domestic ivory market.

The agency's 2017 trade study revealed the UK to be the biggest legal importer of ivory in the world – and the largest exporter of legal ivory to the trafficking hotspots of Hong Kong and China. Between 2010 and 2015, the nation exported more legal ivory than any other country, highlighting the significant role it plays in the international ivory trade.

Moreover, a government’s subsequent public consultation on a proposed ivory ban resulted in the participation of more than 70,000 people and organisations - with more than 88 percent in favour of a ban.

The UK’s new Ivory Act is one of the strongest ivory bans in the world and covers the vast majority of items in trade, subject to certain narrow exemptions.

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