China will have a timetable for the ivory ban by the end of this year

By the end of this year China will set a timetable to phase out commercial trading in ivory, a Chinese official said during a meeting with a U.S. delegation on Monday.

The comments were made by Yan Xun, deputy general director of the Department of Wildlife Conservation and Nature Reserve Management of the State Forestry Administration, during the eighth session of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue held in Beijing
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China’s promise follows the announcement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on June 2 that it will implement a “near-total” ban on ivory trade.

Cristian Samper, president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement that a ban in both China and the U.S. will send a message to the world that ivory markets are shutting down. “Elephants now have a fighting chance,” said in written statement to Sixth Tone.

The population of African elephants, poached for their tusks, has dropped to around 500,000 from more than 1 million in the 1970s.

Ivory haul worth millions of shillings stopped at Mombasa

Kenya Revenue Authority officials have intercepted a container containing Ivory estimated to be worth millions of shillings this morning at the Mombasa Sea Port barely a month after President Uhuru Kenyatta set ablaze 105 tonnes of Ivory at the Nairobi National Park.

The ivory was intercepted at a Container Freight Station by custom officials on Tuesday morning and investigation and verification procedures are underway, involving a joint effort by KRA and KWS officials.

Poachers sentenced to 120 years in jail in Southern Tanzania

Five people have been sentenced to a total of 120 years between them and must pay a fine of 335m/- for being found with two pieces of elephant tusks and nine tails of the wild animal, among other government trophies.

The sentence was imposed last Friday by Senior Resident Magistrate Pili Mande at Manyoni District Court in Singida Region, after convicting the five on the offence of poaching and various other related crimes.

The offences include being in unlawful possession of government trophies, which are two elephants tusks, two elephant tails, being in unlawful possession of firearms, that is three SMG, one Riffle and one homemade gun (gobole) and dealing with poaching.

They were caught by rangers in the Runwas Game Reserve which is part of the hard hit Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem.

Government of Tanzania requests an immediate global ban of ivory trade

The government  of Tanzania has submitted a special request to a United Nations council responsible for controlling illegal wildlife trade, pushing for permanent and immediate ban of ivory business in the world.

The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Prof Jumanne Maghembe, has said here that it was hard for the country to curb poaching without a combined effort from other international bodies. He was speaking during the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) annual meeting with editors and senior journalists from different media houses.

Prof Maghembe, who was the chief guest at the meeting, pointed out that the demand for government trophies was high in Asia, being sold as an essential commodity in China, further pointing out that the anti-poaching war needed collective efforts.