This Day, That Year

40 years on

An item from Nov 23, 2001, in China Daily showed police checking ivory products in a crackdown in Fujian province.

In 1981, China signed the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. In 1989, the sale of ivory was prohibited worldwide

after the African elephant population fell to 600,000 from 1.2 million in a decade.

In recent decades, China has taken measures to fight the illegal ivory trade.

The country banned all imports and exports of ivory tusks and related products in 1991. Penalties, ranging from heavy fines to imprisonment, and even capital punishment, are imposed.

In early 2015, China announced a one-year ban on imports of ivory carvings, which has since been extended.

A year later, it declared a halt to the domestic ivory trade within a year. The ban on ivory trading took effect at the end of 2017.

All of the country’s about 150 ivory processing factories and sales outlets were shut down due to the policy.

The ban has been widely hailed by the international community as a policy that could help stop poaching and reverse the decline of the African elephant population.

Poaching is estimated to claim about 30,000 elephants annually.

To protect ivory carving as an intangible cultural heritage, forestry authorities have been encouraging carvers to use their skills on other materials and have invited some to keep their craft alive via writ- ten, audio and video records. In May 2006, ivory carving was included on the first National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.