Thursday 9 June 2016

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
.
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.

No comments:

Post a Comment