New research measures impacts of China’s elephant ivory trade ban

Research released last month by WWF and TRAFFIC, the wildlife monitoring network, found that there has been a substantial decline in the number of Chinese consumers buying ivory since the ivory trade ban went into effect on December 31, 2017. But there is still work to be done to diminish both the supply and demand for elephant ivory in China.

Of 2,000 Chinese consumers surveyed, 14 percent claimed to have bought ivory in the past year — significantly fewer than the 31 percent of respondents who said they’d recently purchased ivory during a pre-ban survey conducted in 2017. Some ivory sales have simply gone international, however: 18 percent of regular travelers reported buying ivory products while abroad, particularly in Thailand and Hong Kong.

TRAFFIC reports that all of the formerly accredited (i.e. legal) ivory shops the group’s investigators visited in 2018 have stopped selling ivory. But the illegal ivory trade has not been so thoroughly shut down. TRAFFIC investigators also visited 157 markets in 23 cities and found 2,812 ivory products on offer in 345 separate stores.

When China banned all commercial trade in elephant ivory and shuttered its domestic ivory markets at the end of 2017, conservationists applauded the measure. But they also warned that if China’s neighbors didn’t take similar action, the ivory trade would simply shift to those countries.

New research finds that those concerns were absolutely justified, though China’s ivory ban has had some decidedly positive impacts all the same.

Research released last month by WWF and TRAFFIC, the wildlife monitoring network, found that there has been a substantial decline in the number of Chinese consumers buying ivory since the ivory trade ban went into effect on December 31, 2017. Of the 2,000 Chinese consumers surveyed for a study titled China Ivory Consumption Research Post-Ban 2018, 14 percent claimed to have bought ivory in the past year — significantly fewer than the 31 percent of respondents who said they’d recently purchased ivory during a pre-ban survey conducted in 2017.

Chinese consumers overwhelmingly view the ban favorably, according to the survey, which found that 9 out of 10 respondents support it. Or at least, 9 out of 10 respondents said they supported the ban once they were made aware of it. Just 8 percent of respondents knew about the ban without having to be prompted, but that is twice the amount of awareness that existed pre-ban. These results suggest that, while word is slowly spreading, China needs to do more to increase public awareness around the ivory trade ban.

That’s especially true of the Chinese consumers who travel internationally, as the study found that 18 percent of regular travelers reported buying ivory products while abroad, particularly in Thailand and Hong Kong.

“We are seeing some positive trends in post ivory ban China that indicate the new legislative changes may be yielding positive results,” Margaret Kinnaird, Wildlife Practice Leader for WWF, said in a statement. “But persisting demand and a lack of awareness among consumers in some parts of the country as well as weak spots with insufficient regulation and enforcement means we need to redouble efforts in strengthening these areas.”

In another study, China’s Ivory Market after the Ivory Trade Ban in 2018, TRAFFIC reports that all of the formerly accredited (i.e. legal) ivory shops the group’s investigators visited in 2018 have stopped selling ivory. But the illegal ivory trade has not been so thoroughly shut down. TRAFFIC investigators also visited 157 markets in 23 cities and found 2,812 ivory products on offer in 345 separate stores. That’s 30 percent less ivory for sale than was found in a similar 2017 survey, but still a high level of trade considering that the sale and purchase of ivory is illegal.

Ivory trafficking hotspots identified by the WWF and TRAFFIC include a handful of provincial cities like Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, and Pingxiang, as well as the city of Dongxing, which sits on China’s border with Vietnam. In fact, according to the research, those five cities were the site of more than half of all the ivory products TRAFFIC found for sale.

Sales of illegal ivory online also have yet to be eradicated, though they do appear to be in decline as well. According to the study, the average number of new ivory advertisements have decreased by nearly 27 percent on websites and close to 11 percent on social media platforms since the ban went into effect.

“We are encouraged by the decline in both trade and consumer demand since the ban went into effect, but there’s still work needed to address the persistent demand and lack of awareness among consumers in some parts of the country,” Jan Vertefeuille, who oversees WWF’s ivory work, said in a statement. “And particularly concerning is the finding that people who regularly travel outside mainland China have actually shown an increase in intent to buy ivory this year.”

Xu Ling, who coordinated WWF’s and TRAFFIC’s research efforts in China, said that the findings support the call for China’s neighbors to take steps to outlaw the ivory trade in order to safeguard a future for elephants.

“Closure of the legal ivory market is a critical tool for Chinese government efforts and sets a benchmark for other countries and regions where domestic ivory markets remain active,” Xu Ling said in a statement. “Only a united global effort will achieve the goal of stamping out ivory trafficking for the benefit of elephant conservation.”

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CHINA’S VOW TO SHUT DOWN ITS IVORY TRADE BY THE END OF 2017 IS A ‘GAME CHANGER’ FOR ELEPHANTS

BEIJING — China promised Friday to halt its domestic ivory trade completely by the end of 2017, a decision greeted by environmentalists as offering real hope for an end to a poaching crisis that is wiping out tens of thousands of elephants across Africa.

“China’s announcement is a game changer for elephant conservation,” Carter Roberts, president of the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement. “The large-scale trade of ivory now faces its twilight years, and the future is brighter for wild elephants.”

China said it would begin phasing out the ivory trade in March and cease processing and trading completely by Dec. 31, 2017.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental advocacy group, said the news “may be the biggest sign of hope for elephants since the current poaching crisis began,” while Grace Ge Gabriel, Asia director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said she was “overwhelmed with joy.”

“This is great news that will shut down the world’s largest market for elephant ivory,” said Aili Kang, Asia director at the Wildlife Conservation Society. “Ivory traffickers have just lost one of their biggest markets.”

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Ivory trade to be banned in UK 'to protect elephants'

The sale and export of almost all ivory items would be banned in the UK under plans set out by the government.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has announced a consultation to end the trade in ivory of all ages - previous attempts at a ban would have excluded antique ivory produced before 1947.
The government says there will be some exemptions, for musical instruments and items of cultural importance.

Conservation groups have given a guarded welcome to the plan.

Growing market

While the UK has had a ban on the trade in raw ivory tusks, it has become the world's leading exporter of legal ivory carvings and antiques in recent years.

According to an Environmental Investigation Agency report, there were more than 36,000 items exported from the UK between 2010 and 2015, more than three times that of the next biggest exporter, the US.

Conservationists argue that these sales stimulate the demand for the product, and are linked to increased elephant poaching across Africa.

Prince William has long been a campaigner against against ivory trade and in 2016 urged the UK to pass a total ban on domestic sales.

At a wildlife conference in Vietnam, he said: "Ivory is not something to be desired and when removed from an elephant it is not beautiful.

"So, the question is: why are we still trading it? We need governments to send a clear signal that trading in ivory is abhorrent."

Prince William plea on ivory trade

Animals poached in 'horrifying numbers'

Can China's ban save elephants?

Previous attempts in the UK by the Conservative Party to limit sales of ivory have failed to get off the ground.

A ban on sales of ivory produced after 1947 was announced by then Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom in 2016 but a follow-up consultation never materialised.

However, a 12-week consultation on Mr Gove's proposals is due to start immediately, and draft legislation covering a ban on sales and exports is likely in the new year.

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Chinese Billionaire Announces Impressive Conservation Plan

With its national penchant for products made from ivory and rhino horn, China has not exactly developed a reputation for being a worldwide conservation movement leader.

But He Qiaonv, a Chinese billionaire and landscape planner turned environmental steward, stands poised to change that reputation, at least partly.

Earlier this week Qianov—one of China’s wealthiest women and most vocal conservationists—announced a $1.5 billion conservation plan that may very well be the largest-ever personal philanthropic donation for wildlife conservation, Bloomberg reported. The pledge is more than a third of her current $3.6 billion net worth.

The money will be used for a variety of projects that include helping preserve the Chinese snow leopard by creating and staffing two protected snow leopard reserves that will serve as pilot projects for future additional efforts. She also plans to build hundreds of urban classrooms that are intended to be used to teach hundreds of millions of people about conservation.

“[China is] pivoting to a new narrative in record speed,” Tom Kaplan, founder and chairman of Panthera, the leading wild cat conservation organization, told Bloomberg. “Their [global] reputation has suffered by being viewed as the scourge of the elephant and tiger—and they want to reverse this.”
Panthera will be He’s first international partner, receiving $20 million from He’s Beijing Qiaonv Foundation. That’s an enormous sum for Panthera, whose annual operating budget is around $14 million.

The billion-dollar conservation plan and the Panthera donation are just the latest efforts by He to improve the environment throughout the sprawling Chinese empire.

After creating the Qiaonv Foundation in 2012 she focused on establishing key conservation areas within the country, identifying native species in need of protection and supporting domestic NGOs to create changes that impacted global biodiversity.

The foundation currently has about 79 projects underway in 26 provinces, ranging from Asian elephant conservation to wetland protection.

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Seizures of elephant ivory hit 30-year high

Elephant ivory seizures have hit their highest level for almost 30 years while poaching incidents have stabilised, according to the world conservation body.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as Cites, said that last year about 40 tonnes of ivory were seized from poachers and from people trying to import into places such as mainland China and Hong Kong. It was the best return since 1989.

The organisation’s secretary-general, John Scanlon, said that the prospect of tougher enforcement, greater awareness about illegal wildlife products among the general public and a growing number of countries banning the trade in ivory appeared to have dampened enthusiasm in the market.

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Chinese Firm to Build US $40 Million Elephant Conservation, Breeding Center in Laos

A Chinese state-owned enterprise said on Saturday that it will build a U.S. $40 million elephant conservation and breeding center in northwestern Laos’ Sayaboury province and develop it into a for-profit tourist attraction by the end of the year.

At a celebration of the first World Elephant Day in the province on Aug. 12, the Sino-Lao Tourism Investment and Development Company Ltd., announced its plans to build the center in Sayaboury city for a species that has become increasingly scarce in the Southeast Asian country.

Company manager Mu Yian Yu told attendees through an interpreter that the company will invest $40 million in building the conservation center during the upcoming dry weather season which begins after October.

“The Sino-Lao Tourism Investment and Development Company will develop the center this year,” he said, adding that provincial officials have granted the firm a 50-year land concession for the center.

“In two years we will have boats, hot air balloons, and elephant shows,” he said.

A Sayaboury official, who requested anonymity, said the Chinese firm is building the elephant center as a tourist attraction.

“They are developing a tourist attraction in Sayaboury about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from here,” he said.

“It will be a big business,” he said. “The Chinese investor has already done some publicity. It’s all business nowadays. They are doing it for profit. Now they are spending U.S. $900 to feed a single elephant each month.”

The company rented about 50 elephants from Sayaboury residents for an event that attracted about 500 people to mark World Elephant Day, which was established on Aug. 12, 2012, to call attention to the plight of Asian and African elephants at risk because of illegal poaching, habitat loss, human-elephant conflict, and mistreatment in captivity.

“Every year we will mark this day and organize some activities to call on people to protect elephants and their habitat,” Mu Yian Yu said at the ceremony.

A Sayaboury resident who attended the event said he believes the Chinese are building the center in order to protect elephants in Laos and not to export them back home.

“The Chinese are doing business in our country,” said the Sayaboury resident who declined to be named. “Their purpose is to convince people to protect the elephants. These are all Lao elephants. I believe they will not sell these animals to China. They have a conservation center that can train them.”

Officials of Sayaboury province and the Chinese company estimate that there are about 850 elephants in Laos, half of which are domesticated elephants. In Sayaboury province alone, there are 250 domesticated elephants and 150 wild ones.

Not to everyone’s liking

Not everyone is a fan of wildlife conservations centers like the one the Chinese will build in Laos.

Edwin Wiek, founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, told RFA’s Lao Service that wildlife conservation efforts need to be backed by law enforcement to be effective at increasing animal populations.

“I never agree with the breeding programs for domestic elephants,” he said. “For instance, in Thailand … the population of elephants always increases because of real conservation [efforts] and enforcement of the law.”

Though Laos does have such a law, poachers continue to kill elephants for their tusks and hides, which they sell illegally, mainly to China.

“We have the law, but we do not implement it,” he said “It is not because of the law but the problem is that it is not enforced.”

“Lao is now considered a global market for wildlife,” he said, adding that the trafficking of wildlife has been increasing in the country.

Wiek said if there is no further deforestation and elephant hunting in Southeast Asia, future elephant populations might increase because of areas along the Thailand-Myanmar border where elephants can roam freely and breed naturally.

“To talk about elephant conservation, we must make laws to protect against deforestation and the illegal ivory trade,” he said.

Furthermore, Wiek questioned the motives behind centers that breed elephants in captivity.

“In fact someone may think that breeding elephants to have many calves is called conservation. That does not increase the number of elephants in the forest, but rather it is only breeding for business.”

Laos became a member of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a multilateral treaty protecting endangered plants and animals, in May 2004. The convention banned the ivory trade in 1989.

Though deforestation, particularly from illegal logging, is the main reason for the declining elephant population in Laos, pachyderms are also hunted and killed by poachers who smuggle their ivory tusks and hides outside the country.

Lao officials are known for the lax implementation and enforcement of laws prohibiting illegal logging and the smuggling of illegal wildlife, and border officials can easily be bribed to look the other way, experts say.

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China Poised to Close Ivory Factories

NAIROBI, KENYA —
China is preparing to shut down ivory factories Friday. It is the first phase of the government’s plan to end all domestic ivory trade this year. Kenyan conservation group Save the Elephants says that commitment has already had some impact.

Save the Elephants says the wholesale price of ivory in China dropped up to 60 percent in the last three years. The Nairobi-based conservation group says in 2014 a tusk sold wholesale for $2,100 per kilogram. In February of this year, an ivory tusk was sold at $700 per kilogram.

Save the Elephants researcher Esmond Martin did the study, which was released Wednesday in Nairobi.

“The government of China announced in December last year, 2016, it was going to close down the ivory factories, the legal ones and illegal shops,” Martin said. “So what we found was many of the shops are now, are diversifying, getting out of ivory, moving into other materials.”

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China to shut down all ivory factories, retail stores in 2017

China has shut down 67, or one third its ivory factories and retail stores, and will shut down the remaining 105 by the end of the year, according to the State Forestry Administration on Friday.

To further the protection of wild elephants, the administration said that the unsold and unprocessed ivory items can be transported to the remaining 105 factories and stores, but December 31 will be the last day of operations for the sale of ivory.

“The rest of the raw materials will be used in non-commercial activities, for example, restorations of antiques in museums,” said Zhang Dehui, Chief of Wildlife Conservation Division under the State Forestry Administration.

China’s ivory ban has led to a sagging illegal ivory market in recent years.

“China has been spearheading the effort to close its ivory market. This will help reduce the pursuit for profit in ivory and quash its consumption demand. Meanwhile, it will encourage other developing and developed countries to further clamp down on their relevant domestic ivory markets in a bid to save the wild elephant population,” said said Wang Aimin, Country Program Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society China Program.

China used to account for about 70 percent of the global ivory market, but it wants to honor its commitment to the protection of elephants.

“There are many other countries that still allow ivory processing and sales for commercial purposes. And commercial hunting of African elephants is not prohibited in some countries. We hope that these countries will evaluate their current policies on elephant protection and take further action,” said Zhang.

The State Forestry Administration said China has provided 10 million dollars to African countries for the protection of elephants and other wildlife. And more training programs will be launched by China for African countries in law enforcement to protect the threatened species this year.

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Hope for elephants: China vows to shut down ivory trade by end of 2017

China promised Friday to close down its domestic ivory trade completely by the end of 2017, a decision greeted by environmentalists as offering real hope to curb a poaching crisis that is wiping out tens of thousands of elephants across Africa.

"China's announcement is a game changer for elephant conservation," said Carter Roberts, president and chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund in a statement. "The large-scale trade of ivory now faces its twilight years, and the future is brighter for wild elephants."

The National Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental advocacy group, said the news "may be the biggest sign of hope for elephants since the current poaching crisis began."

In a statement released by its governing State Council, China announced it would "cease part of ivory processing and sales" by the end of March, and cease both completely by Dec. 31, 2017.

It was a massive step for a country that had previously argued that ivory carving was part of its national cultural heritage, and where intricately carved ivory items had become both a status symbol and a popular gift to grease the wheels of government and business.

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Elephant export to China halted

Zimbabwe’s state wildlife authority has halted the export of five more baby elephants to Chinese zoos following intense pressure from animal rights activists around the world.

In November, four juvenile elephants were sent to a Chinese zoo and a game park under a secret deal between president Robert Mugabe and the Chinese authorities. One of the calves has since died.

Yesterday, the Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said five remaining calves had been released from the makeshift enclosures they were being confined in in Hwange National Park and taken to a protected park north-east of Harare.

Zimbabwe: Wildlife Regulator Blasted After Baby Elephant Dies in China

The international body responsible for issuing trade permits for endangered species (CITES), has been strongly criticized for allowing the sale of four, wild caught, baby elephants from Zimbabwe to zoos in China, after one of them died from the trauma.

CITES went against its own regulations, which prohibit licensing the sale of endangered species for commercial purposes, by issuing permits for the wild caught baby elephants to be flown to two zoos in mainland China in November, 2012. The wildlife regulator is now being accused of turning a blind eye in Zimbabwe.

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Slaughtering Of Elephants Is Soaring Because Of China's Demand For Ivory

 by MARK MEMMOTT


"For the first time in history," hundreds of millions of people in China are now wealthy enough to buy jewelry, combs and trinkets made of ivory and that's led to a huge spike in the illegal slaughtering of elephants in Africa, The New York Times' Jeffrey Gettleman said earlier today on Morning Edition.



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China's elephants feel the squeeze

Dinah Gardner, Al Jazeera
December 16, 2008

China's wild elephants are so rare – there are only about 300 left in the southern province of Yunnan – that when American tourist Jeremy McGill stumbled across a group earlier this year in a nature reserve he whipped out his camera and started taking photos.

It was a move that almost cost him his life.

"I was alone when I came across the four elephants," he remembers. "One scooped me up into his mouth and bit me. My body was folded in half, my head between my knees, and then the elephant spat me out and stomped on me… Suddenly they stopped and walked away… I was found about an hour later just lying there with my intestines hanging out of my body."

A few weeks after McGill was hurled to the ground, a Chinese migrant worker was crushed to death by an elephant on his way home inside another nature reserve. In June, an elephant killed a female hawker at Wild Elephant Valley, the same nature reserve that McGill was attacked.

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Elephant cured of drug addiction

BBC News
4th September 2008

An Asian elephant that became addicted to heroin after being fed bananas spiked with the drug is to return home after undergoing a detox programme.

The four-year-old animal, called Xiguang, received methadone injections for a year at five times the human dosage, state media said.

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Protecting China's last elephant herd

GoKunming

15 February 2008

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In addition to sharing a border – and the Mekong River – with Laos, Yunnan province also shares China's last herd of Asian elephants, which in recent years has dwindled to only 400 elephants. The herd lives in nature reserves near the border between China and Laos.

This week the Yunnan Provincial Forestry Department met with their counterparts from Laos in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture to discuss ways to protect the endangered Asian elephant, which falls under China's grade-one protection for endangered animal species.

The representatives from China and Laos reached four major agreements:

1. To educate villagers about how to protect elephants

2. To tighten hunting gun controls

3. To draft a plan for cross-border elephant protection and apply for international funds, and

4. To plan next year's annual meeting in Laos

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Wildlife conservation campaign launched in China

TRAFFIC News Release

November 20, 2007

Beijing, China, 20 November 2007—An advertising campaign aimed at changing consumer attitudes about unsustainable wildlife trade was today launched in Beijing. The campaign, consisting of creative print, video and online advertisements, is part of an awareness-raising project between WWF, the conservation organization, TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, and Ogilvy, an advertising agency.

Each year, hundreds of millions of plants and animals are caught or harvested from the wild in China and then sold as food, pets, ornamental plants, leather, tourist curios and medicine. Although much of this trade is legal and does not harm wild populations, a worryingly proportion is illegal—and threatens the survival of many animal and plant species that are being pushed dangerously close to extinction.

The campaign aims to encourage sustainability in wildlife trade—by informing urban consumers about the environmental harm that illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade causes, and by providing guidance on how to counteract it.

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Heroin-addict elephant to rejoin herd after rehab

Reuters

August 30, 2007

BEIJING (Reuters) - A once drug-addled elephant fed heroin-laced bananas by illegal traders will soon return to the wild after being weaned off his addiction through methadone and round-the-clock care.

"Big Brother", a bull elephant that once "lived peacefully" with his herd near the China-Myanmar border in Yunnan province, was caught by traders in 2005, the China Daily said on Thursday.

"To control it so that it could lead the herd to where they wanted, the traders kept feeding it bananas laced with drugs," the paper said.

The traders, however, were caught trying to sell Big Brother and his herd after a tip-off to forest police.

By that time Big Brother had developed a raging heroin addiction and posed a danger to people if denied its fix, the paper said, citing police.

A drooling and twitching Big Brother had to be transported to a special park in the neighbouring island province of Hainan for treatment, after cold turkey proved so tortuous at a local centre that "even its iron chain could not contain it", the paper said.

After being diagnosed a heroin addict, park authorities in Hainan spent a year gradually weaning "Big Brother" off its dependence through methadone, regular bathing and massage.

Now clean, Big Brother will soon be returned home, the paper said.