Ivory trade to end in China by 2017
China has announced a historic ban on all ivory trade and processing activities by the end of 2017, a move that follows a resolution at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in South Africa in October 2016.
China has the biggest ivory market in the world as the ivory trade could surpass £850 ( $1100) per kilogramme, The commercial processing and sale of Ivory will stop by 31st March 2017 and all registered traders will then be phased out by the end of the year. International market in ivory although closed since 1989, legal domestic markets have flourished in many countries around the world. During the past seven years poaching in Africa has seen Elephant population shrink by a third according to Great Elephant Census.