Ivory Outlawed
UK Banning Both
Legal and Illegal Trade
The UK Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is in the process of implementing a
near-total ivory ban.
It can’t happen soon enough because elephant populations
continue to dramatically decline.
As recognized by the parties to the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
last September,
“Countries with domestic ivory markets that contribute to elephant poaching or
the illegal ivory trade should take all necessary legislative, regulatory and
enforcement measures to close such markets as a matter of urgency.”
Any legal ivory
market leads to a parallel illegal market
because ivory from recently killed
elephants can be made to look like old ivory, which is legal in many countries,
through processes like chipping, staining and cracking.
The UK has long
played a role in the international ivory trade.
During the colonial era, more
than a million elephants were killed to feed British demand for everything from
ivory ornaments and piano keys to billiard balls and cutlery.
Much of that
material remains in the UK today, fueling the market.
Trade data indicates that
the UK is still the world’s largest exporter of legal ivory, most of which goes
to Asian destinations like China and Hong Kong.
More
from Natural Awakenings
This article appears
in the October 2018 issue of Natural Awakenings.
No comments:
Post a Comment