Market moving to smaller cities, warns WWF
China's burgeoning ivory ban has received overwhelming support from the Chinese public, said a report published by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and TRAFFIC on Tuesday.
Some 86 percent of 2,027 respondents from 15 Chinese cities supported the ban that was announced by the State Council in December last year, according to the report on China's ivory consumption in 2017.
According to the ban, China will stop all trading and processing of ivory and ivory products by the end of 2017.
More than half of ivory buyers have stopped buying and the ivory trade has dropped in the last three years in cities including Beijing and Chengdu where enforcement seems stricter and awareness greater, the survey found.
However, many Chinese are unaware of the ban, the report noted. Only 19 percent surveyed could recall ivory trade regulations without a reminder.
Ivory buying in China has shifted from first-tier metropolitan cities to second- and third-tier cities, the report warned.
"Since China's domestic ivory ban is on track and in place now and the number of ivory items on sale has declined, it is vital to be vigilant in monitoring its impacts as many challenges remain, such as ensuring stockpiled ivory is prevented from illegally entering markets at home or abroad," Zhou Fei, head of the TRAFFIC China Program and WWF China Wildlife Trade Program, said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.
The State Forestry Administration in March ordered 67 of 172 accredited ivory stores to close before March 31. The remaining 105 must close by December 31. In 2016, the amount of smuggled ivory seized in China fell 80 percent from previous peak years.
"By closing its ivory markets, China is showing its commitment to ending the poaching epidemic plaguing Africa's elephants," Ginette Hemley, WWF US senior vice president and TRAFFIC board member was quoted as saying in the report on Tuesday.
It was "critical" that efforts to ban ivory were accompanied by efforts to change consumer behavior in order to reduce demand, Henley noted.
"Most of us buy ivory through licensed outlets and know little about personal sellers or the black market. So the ban should be very effective," said a Beijing ivory buyer.
In early December, customs in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region confiscated more than 360 kilograms of smuggled ivory, worth more than 29 million yuan ($4.4 million).
