Ivory arranged to be set ablaze. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has lauded efforts by the British government to close its domestic ivory markets. [Photo/Ebru TV]
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) congratulates the British government on its plan to close – with some limited exemptions – its domestic Ivory markets.
It is understood that ivory (whether raw or worked) continues to be traded legally within UK and the other EU Member States, in auction houses, markets, shops and online – and that antique item can even be traded without permits or certificates.
The existence of legal ivory markets and exports provide opportunities for laundering illegal ivory.
The existence of these markets and exports also fuel demand for ivory within the UK and abroad and thus contribute to poaching.
KWS and Kenya welcome the plan by UK to close its ivory markets as this will obliterate any chances for opportunists, who may have in the past used the existing market in antique ivory as a cover for trade in illegal ivory.
Speaking at the start of January the UK’s Environment Secretary Michael Gove said, “The decline in the elephant population fuelled by poaching for ivory shames our generation. The need for radical and robust action to protect one of the world’s most iconic and treasured species is beyond dispute. Ivory should never be seen as a commodity for financial gain or a status symbol – so we want to ban its sale. These plans will put the UK front and centre of global efforts to end the insidious trade in ivory.”
Effective January 1, 2018, China banned the mainland domestic sale of elephant ivory and related products, a significant move toward slowing the annual slaughter of the largest land animals on Earth. The UK’s plan to follow suit could not have come at a better time.