“ We will take steps to ostracize totally the sales agreement of ivory in Hong Kong . It will be a full ban,”saidChief Executive Leung Chun - ying , the loss leader of Hong Kong , during his one-year insurance speech . As to when the full ban will come into force , the details are a little hazier . Leung said that they will do it “ as quickly as we can , ” phasing out the local trade , which will hopefully have knock - on burden to other markets .
The main market for which the ivory is destined is mainland China , which is think to make up around70 percentof the need for the production . While the implication and export of ivory is banned , the domesticated trade is still brandish , and despite no ivory officially enrol the urban center , the dealer have still managed to retain their stock at levels similar to when the spheric trade prohibition was put in place , even though since then much of the ivory has made its way to mainland China . In 2014 alone,47 millionChinese tourists visited the metropolis . Because of this , it ’s mostly adopt that traders are topping up their stores with illegal ivory from recently killed elephants .
Hong Kong is the chief hub for the illegal trade of ivory , with tonne of the poppycock being sequester every class . International Fund for Animal Welfare / Flickr CC BY - NC 2.0
News of the complete ban has been widely celebrated by conservationists , in the hope Hong Kong will finally bolt down the killing of elephant and the deal in their ivory . “ Hong Kong has always been the epicenter of that patronage , so we congratulate CY Leung and the governance for this historic step,”saysPeter Knight , the chief operating officer of WildAid . “ pair with a 50 percent drop in ivory prices in China over the last 18 month , the ending of the crisis may be in mickle . ”
It is tentatively hoped that this news will be a monolithic blow to the trade , efficaciously closing the primary means by which illegal off-white gets into the effectual market , and hopefully saving tens of thousands of elephant in the process .
principal simulacrum : International Fund for Animal Welfare / Flickr CC BY - NC 2.0
Top look-alike in text : carve elephant ivory on video display in the city . Carrie Kellenberger / Flickr CC By 2.0
