China's crackdown on trophy hunting: Is it enough?
This week, China, the world鈥檚 biggest importer of illegal ivory, imposed a temporary ban on ivory acquired as hunting trophies.
China鈥檚 State Forestry Administration (SFA) said it would stop approving imports until Oct. 15, 2016, .
The policy听follows a one-year ban in February .听
Ivories acquired from big game hunting have long been sanctioned in China, but conservationists say, 鈥渋t stimulates demand for fresh ivory and is used to conceal the illegal trade.鈥�
at the time of the ban, "because the temporary ban prohibits only the import of ivory carvings, it does not affect China鈥檚 legal domestic ivory trade, which has prompted an increase in the price of ivory and provides legal camouflage for a booming trade in illicit ivory smuggled into China鈥檚 licensed carving factories and stores."
Conservationists say the new restrictions could reduce poaching. 鈥淟egal ivory trade has always been used as a cover to launder poached ivory, and when it was authorized by the previous administration in China in 2009, poaching escalated dramatically in Africa,鈥� Peter Knights, chief executive of听WildAid, an organization focused on reducing demand for wildlife products,听 on the group's website.听
Last month, President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China听announced an historic agreement to end the global trade in ivory.听US and China are the world's听two largest markets for illegal听ivory.
鈥淭he United States and China commit to enact nearly complete bans on ivory import and export, including significant and timely restrictions on the import of ivory as hunting trophies, and to take significant and timely steps to halt the domestic commercial trade of ivory,鈥� they said 听
This past July,听"committing all countries to ramp up their collective efforts to end the global poaching crisis and tackle the ." "The assembly said this should include strengthening legislation to prevent, investigate and prosecute illegal trading and called on all countries to make illicit trafficking involving organized criminal groups "a serious crime,"听the Associated Press reported.听
It is estimated that 100,000 elephants were killed for their ivory between 2010 and 2012, an average of approximately one every 15 minutes.听Valued at听 annually, illegal wildlife trade is one of the world鈥檚 most lucrative global criminal activities.
China鈥檚 new policy was implemented听just ahead of a trip by President Xi Jinping to Britain. Earlier this year, called on the Chinese president to end his country鈥檚 ivory trade.
