China's Plans for Near Complete Ban on Ivory Business 'Well Received'

(Beijing) – China's controversial legal market for ivory exists because the country imported 62 tons of elephant tusks from African countries in 2008 in a one-off sale authorized by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the primary international agreement protecting the animal.

CITES effectively banned the global commercial trade in African elephant ivory in 1989 by placing the species on its top list of protected animals. It grants exemptions, however, to trade that took place before the ban went into effect in 1990 and allows businesses to continue under certain circumstances such as when the ivory is regarded as a hunting trophy.