Measures curb illegal ivory trade in China(2)

"The highest sentence is life imprisonment, which is one of the strictest punishments in the world."

Yan said the administration has noted that tourists traveling to Africa often buy ivory ornaments and just carry them back to China, unaware that they are breaking the law.

"Chinese embassies in African countries are taking action by warning tourists not to bring those products back," he added. "Ivory products are easily detected when they go through customs and are confiscated."

As e-commerce emerged, Chinese wildlife management authorities have also taken steps to control crime in the business.

Over the past five years, concerted government efforts and significant progress have been made to implement the ivory product registration system and to raise public awareness, the International Fund for Animal Welfare said in its 2011 survey on China's ivory market.

The report said China has achieved progress in the control of online wildlife crime by educating the online industry and encouraging it to incorporate wildlife into online trade policies.

Taobao, China's largest online marketplace, banned ivory listings in 2005 and implemented the ban by education and detection of code words to eliminate the ivory listings.

The report also found that another website that traded in ivory - sc001.com.cn - has removed the ivory trading section and installed wildlife trade ban notices throughout the site.

"In 2011, not one wildlife listing was found on its site," the International Fund for Animal Welfare report said.

Taking a firm stand

Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said on Monday that China has taken a firm stand in the fight against wildlife crime in recent years.

From Jan 6 to Feb 5, China led an operation, code-named "Cobra", that involved 22 Asian and African countries, according to the State Forestry Administration.

The cross-border combat of wildlife crimes has uncovered more than 200 cases involving trafficked wildlife parts and led to the detention of more than 100 criminal suspects.

In the operation, 6.5 metric tons of ivory, 1.6 tons of shahtoosh (material woven from the fur of Tibetan antelope), 22 rhino horns, 10 tiger hides, as well as other protected animal and plant species and products derived from them were confiscated.

"This operation sends a powerful message to poachers and smugglers across the globe," said Edward Grace, deputy director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement. "Only as global partners can we protect the world's wildlife".

John E Scanlon, secretary-general of CITES, said that joint efforts integrating specialized investigative techniques are essential to combat transnational organized crime in wildlife.

"It shows our resolution and capability to push forward multilateral cooperation to crack down on the trafficking of wildlife products," said Yin Hong, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration.