China has announced it will end its elephant ivory trade at the end of 2017. Helps start the year with knowing that will happen China says it will shut down ivory trade by end of 2017 China to Shut Down Its Ivory Trade by the End of 2017
The Chinese ban on domestic ivory sales is due to come into force very soon. An article I was reading in the paper the other day was saying that many Chinese people weren't even aware that elephants had to be killed to obtain ivory - there seems to be some idea that it is harvested from live animals like deer velvet. Anyway, obviously the ban within China isn't the end of the matter because there will still be illegal trade, and the legal trade will also simply shift to neighbouring countries such as Vietnam, but the legal trade in China is so vast that the ban will have a massive impact regardless. Here's an article from yesterday about the illegal trade through Japan: Japan’s inaction on illegal ivory exports threatens Chinese ban, report says
Yep: a country can value efficiency & bureaucracy, and still be inefficient because of her demographic & territorial vastness. Its not intent with the Chinese, but rather enforcing the action.
