Blanket ban on ivory sales long overdue; why wait?

The Legislative Council has just enacted long-overdue legislation which totally bans the sale of ivory and ivory products in Hong Kong from 2021, allowing a grace period. In adopting this phased measure, the city authorities are taking a welcome and important step toward helping to avoid the extinction of the African elephant, currently still endangered by poachers at the other end of this reprehensible supply train.

Some estimates put the number of African elephants still living in the wild in Africa, most of them on game reserves, at about three-quarters of a million. However, in order to obtain fresh supplies of elephant ivory, poaching continues in many of these African nations, a lot of which cannot afford to employ enough game wardens to put a complete stop to the slaughter. It is thought that more than 500 elephants are killed illegally in Africa each week to sustain this bloody trade. But this can be limited if Hong Kong and other more compassionate places can provide financial aid to these African countries to strengthen anti-poaching efforts.

Let us be clear about this: In order for a shining piece of carved ivory to be purchased to decorate your home or office, someone in Africa needs to kill an elephant to take its tusks. It is the very large scale of prohibited sales of these objets d’art which put these African elephants at real risk of extinction. This new law in Hong Kong is a step in the right direction but the rather long-term nature of its introduction here could mean several more years of poaching, leading to the deaths of thousands more elephants.

A month ago, authorities on the Chinese mainland took the bold and exemplary measure of totally banning ivory sales. This forced hundreds of ivory-trading wholesale and retail shops, as well as numerous ivory carving factories, to close and ended the careers of scores of (mostly elderly) ivory carvers. Thus the human economic costs involved in taking such protective measures, meant to preserve elephants as a living species, are not slight. These costs are, however, fully justified, bearing in mind the sordid nature of the trade.

Then we come to the oft-claimed attempted defense of Hong Kong’s own ivory traders: That they are selling ivory knick-knacks carved from old stocks of ivory. This means the elephants killed to obtain such tusks died before 1975, when initial steps were taken to end the trade by banning new ivory imports. The fact is that these traders have had decades to clear old stocks. Therefore, it would be unjustifiably lenient to give them three more years to offload such supposed old supplies and empty their shops and warehouses. Such a delay will inevitably lead to more elephants being killed as few could deny that new ivory is used to stock many of these shops and warehouses. By some estimates, there are about 77 tons of legal ivory still held in Hong Kong. If they could not have been used up over the past 40-odd years, what chance is there that an additional three years will enable such stocks to be exhausted? Many believe these old legal stocks have been preserved because of continued illegal importing of poached ivory to meet demand.

The other oft-claimed defense of ivoryselling shops in Hollywood Road is that they are marketing items made from mammoth ivory, obtained from the carcasses of pre-historic animals frozen in the icy wastes of Siberia thousands of years ago.

Both excuses have worn rather thin over recent years. Hong Kong Customs’ seizures of attempted illegal ivory imports have continued at a high level for years, proving that poached ivory remains a staple source of Hong Kong’s trade. We now bear the unpleasant reputation as one of the world’s leading hubs for ivory trade — much of it illegal.

Hong Kong’s ivory traders have known for years that the end of their unsavory trade was nigh; they have had ample opportunity to sell off old stocks and stop obtaining new ivory stocks. They should not be indulged further by a three-year phased termination of their businesses. Rather, as the Beijing authorities have bravely enacted, they should face a total ban on all ivory trading immediately — or very soon.

Taking such a measure now will minimize the chances of Hong Kong traders sabotaging the immediate and complete ivory ban on the mainland; it will send an important message to the poachers in Africa that their illegal provision of newly harvested elephant tusks is no longer needed, thereby giving the comparatively few African elephants still alive a stronger chance to avoid becoming extinct.