World's Biggest Ivory Market Shutting Down—What It Means
Today China closes the first of its state-licensed ivory carving factories and retailers, a move conservationists hail as a big step toward saving elephants from extinction.
Today one of the world’s largest domestic markets for elephant ivory begins to wind down. China is closing 67 of its licensed ivory facilities, including 12 of its 35 ivory carving factories and several dozen of its more than 130 ivory retailers, according to a notice from the country’s State Forestry Administration, which oversees wildlife trade issues. The rest will be closed before the end of the year.
The Chinese market is believed to be one of the major drivers of elephant poaching in Africa, which has suffered a massive decline in elephant numbers in recent years. Some 30,000 elephants are killed by poachers each year, a rate that will extinguish Africa’s elephants within just a few generations if
