China Bans All Commerce in Ivory

betzner

betzner

Joined
Jan 23, 2007
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New York Times - "China announced Friday that it was banning all commerce in ivory by the end of 2017, a move that would shut down the world's largest ivory market."

"Wildlife advocates have said for years that the most important step in putting pouchers out of business would be ending the ivory trade in China."

"In the announcement, the State Council, China's Cabinet, said the shutdown of the market would occur in phases throughout 2017. A designated group of legal ivory processing factories and businesses will be forced to close by March 31. The Ministry of Culture will help workers in the ivory industry, including master carvers, find related jobs."
 
I hope it works but with China you never know. Too bad they didn't do it sooner .
 
mete said:
I hope it works but with China you never know. Too bad they didn't do it sooner .
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no country's actions are immune to skepticism these days. I've been following China's moves wrt ivory for awhile now, and this ban is the culmination of many small and not so small steps. One of those steps, in my opinion, was the US taking a position.
 
All these people trying to save elephants, and none of them live next to one. I hope the continent can come up with a management solution for the herds moving forward.

This is a huge change. But they still gave themselves 365 days to be the worlds "last" supplier as well. Thailand still has a small market I believe, but it didn't seem to be exploitable like Africa's large unpatroled expanses.
 
Ron, Imay be wrong,but my recollection is that Thailand is a big "supplier"
ron_m80 said:
All these people trying to save elephants, and none of them live next to one. I hope the continent can come up with a management solution for the herds moving forward.

This is a huge change. But they still gave themselves 365 days to be the worlds "last" supplier as well. Thailand still has a small market I believe, but it didn't seem to be exploitable like Africa's large unpatroled expanses.
Click to expand...
 
ron_m80 said:
All these people trying to save elephants, and none of them live next to one. I hope the continent can come up with a management solution for the herds moving forward.

This is a huge change. But they still gave themselves 365 days to be the worlds "last" supplier as well. Thailand still has a small market I believe, but it didn't seem to be exploitable like Africa's large unpatroled expanses.
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I don't live next to you, but don't want to see you killed to harvest your teeth.
 
Willie71 said:
I don't live next to you, but don't want to see you killed to harvest your teeth.
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While I agree with you, as a fellow Californian, I understand his point. Here they want to save everything, even things that are overpopulated and dangerous to humans. They sit around and dream up all kinds of silly ways to erode our gun rights and outdoor activities, so when a Californian like me or him hears about a ban on something or another, our first reaction is to wonder what type of liberal hippie nonsense is being forced upon us today. I could spend all night pointing out the logical inconsistencies of our Department of (in)Justice but I'll do my blood pressure a favor and leave it at that.

I know it's not really right, but we've been conditioned by our own government's stupidity to have an anti-government bias. I admit I know next to nothing about the ivory trade, but I do know that flat-out bans suck and are just a lazy, ham-fisted way to "deal with" an issue that does more for the supporting politicians' resumes than whatever they're pretending to care about. Blanket bans create black markets, which are far worse than a regulated but above board market.
 
there is a forum for politics. This isn't it.
 
betzner said:
New York Times - "China announced Friday that it was banning all commerce in ivory by the end of 2017, a move that would shut down the world's largest ivory market."

"Wildlife advocates have said for years that the most important step in putting pouchers out of business would be ending the ivory trade in China."

"In the announcement, the State Council, China's Cabinet, said the shutdown of the market would occur in phases throughout 2017. A designated group of legal ivory processing factories and businesses will be forced to close by March 31. The Ministry of Culture will help workers in the ivory industry, including master carvers, find related jobs."
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So the commercial value of elephants will drop markedly; is this supposed to be a good thing?

n2s
 
For those of you asking questions, my only objective in starting this thread was to inform in broad stroke. There is much to be learned by using the search field on your computer - what's the old saying - not my job?
 
not2sharp said:
So the commercial value of elephants will drop markedly; is this supposed to be a good thing?

n2s
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Given that it will only affect the commercial value of dead elephants, the ivory trade mostly benefits brokers not communities, that it's a black market value within Africa and that nobody benefits from an extinct species, I would say yes this is a pretty good thing.

I have to wonder whether this will affect how much "pre-ban" ivory is around. There has long been a thought that pre-ban ivory often isn't. Time will tell.

Hopefully the park rangers in Kenya (etc) can have a break from being shot at by poachers too.
 
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If the governments that confiscate poached ivory would put it on the market at pricing well below market value, it would destroy the ivory trade.
Simply making something illegal does little to correct a situation. The US position of "We don't know what is what, so we'll ban it all" is an example.
No one wants to see elephants slaughtered, but blanket bans do little to address the poaching problem.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
If the governments that confiscate poached ivory would put it on the market at pricing well below market value, it would destroy the ivory trade.
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I remember thinking the same thing when the Kenyan (? ) confiscated ivory stockpile was destroyed not long ago. I think it would be effective but it would probably also be seen as intolerable by the rest of the world.

In keeping with the forum we're in, I am curious to know how people think this will affect knives, whether ivory is important to custom knives etc.
 
Chris Larrikin said:
Given that it will only affect the commercial value of dead elephants....
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But, the commercial value of live elephants include being a hazard to traffic and human kind and a massive crop destroying varmint. It will be interesting to see how many of these 6 ton animals will be allowed to roam wild. Ivory was a leading cause of poaching; but, perhaps not the only reason for shooting them.

Kaharati+pic+two.JPG


above: elephant crop damage.

story:
http://laikipiaruralvoices.blogspot.com/2013/12/elephants-destroy-farm-produce-in.html

n2s
 
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