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Back in March, inside West London’s Portobello Road antique market on a typical Saturday morning, a visitor picks up a white 10-centimeter-tall representation of a man playing a flute. The piece features intricately carved details, such as the man’s gown and his facial expressions. Its edges are yellowing, a sign of aging.
“This was made from ivory in the 19th century,” says the store’s owner, Justin Gerrard. “Seven hundred pounds for you. You can trust me that it’s an authentic antique.”
He is also attempting to sell a small ivory Buddha, for 300 pounds ($427), and a large ivory teapot with floral decorations, for 25,000 pounds. Elsewhere on Portobello Road, retailers are selling palm-sized ivory elephants, ivory cigar holders, an ivory depiction of the head of a Greek god, and even cutlery with handles made of ivory. Online, there is even more antique ivory on offer.
Up until last month, the sale of antique ivory remained a lucrative business, even though the trade in new ivory is officially banned throughout the world. But the trade in antique ivory in the United Kingdom is soon to come to an end as well, as the British government follows China’s lead and bans the sale of all ivory, including antiques sold in such places as Portobello Road.
In early April, Britain’s environment secretary, Michael Gove, announced that the UK will bring in a near blanket ban on the trade in ivory in response to consultation carried out last year.
The ban, which has been widely welcomed by conservation industry specialists, makes exceptions for only a few niche categories of ivory products, including museum collections, musical instruments, and antiques that have less than 10 percent ivory content.
However, the government has not yet announced the timeline for the implementation of the ban.
Endorsement
Many industry specialists have endorsed the government policy.
“The UK government has taken a momentous step,” said John Stephenson, CEO of the charity Stop Ivory. “The proposed ban, with its narrow and clear exemptions, places the UK at the forefront of the international determination to halt the extermination of elephant populations by banning trade in ivory.”
Charlie Mayhew, CEO of the charity Tusk, added: “We are delighted that the government has listened to our concerns and, given the overwhelming public response to their consultation, is now moving decisively to introduce tough legislation to ban the trade in ivory in the UK.”
The consultation, which ended in December, received more than 60,000 responses from British groups and individuals. The overwhelming majority of those commenting were in favor of a total ban on the sale of ivory, an industry that has been in existence for thousands of years and which peaked in the 19th century on the back of the Industrial Revolution and the penetration of sub-Saharan Africa by European traders.
Ivory is a hard white material that started out as the tusks and teeth of animals. It was widely used in the past for a range of things including the making of false teeth, piano keys, chess pieces, and all kinds of decorations. The rising value of ivory led hunters to almost wipe out entire species in their quest for it.
Between the early 1900s and 1979, the elephant population in Africa fell from an estimated 5 million to 1.3 million, and between 1979 and 1989, it halved again.
Some estimates suggest 35,000 elephants are currently being killed each year to fuel the ivory trade, putting populations under severe pressure.
The British government banned ivory trading in 1990, but back then exempted the sale of ivory antiques made before 1947, which created opportunities for ivory traders to make new ivory look old and continue selling it.
The age of pieces can only be accurately accessed through carbon dating, something that is expensive to carry out. Most antique pieces have been passed down through the generations, so do not come with certificates, making the sale of fake antiques even easier.
China had been the world’s largest market for ivory for many years before Beijing introduced a ban on all ivory trade in 2017.
At a meeting between President Xi Jinping and then-US President Barack Obama in 2015, the two leaders decided to take action.
Over the following three years, China gradually implemented its ivory trade ban and, by March 2017, the Chinese government had closed 67 of its licensed ivory facilities, including 12 of its 35 ivory-carving factories. It had also shut down more than 130 ivory retailers. By December 2017, the ivory trade in China was completely banned.
We are delighted that the (British) government has listened to our concerns.” Charlie Mayhew, CEO of Stop Ivory, a charity
Clampdown
China’s clampdown has pushed down the price of ivory, leading to a 65 percent reduction in the number of elephants being killed in the past three years, according to the charity Save the Elephants.
China’s actions were praised by Botswana President Ian Khama, who earlier called on Britain and the European Union to follow China’s lead.
“When you look at the other countries coming on board — for example, China — I think they are setting a wonderful example to follow, whether it’s the UK or the European Union,” Khama said at the anti-poaching summit in Botswana.
British nongovernmental organizations are also using China as an example when putting pressure on the UK government.
“Although the UK’s antique ivory market is small in trading volumes, banning this market is an important symbol of commitment to stopping the ivory trade,” said Mayhew.
More than 100 countries have banned the ivory trade. Conservationists have urged China and the UK to take a joint leadership role and urge the remaining markets to follow suit and impose bans of their own, or increase enforcement efforts.
“If China can, side by side with the UK, call other leaders in the world to do the same, that will have an important impact,” said Tanya Steele, chief executive of the World Wide Fund for Nature in the UK.