Hong Kong, China Refuse to Obey Ivory Trade Ban

Two of the world’s most important ivory users, Hong Kong and China, shocked conservationists by saying they will not obey an international ban on ivory trade, the U.N. wildlife watchdog body CITES said today.

Five Southern African countries which had said they would continue their ivory trade have also entered formal reservations to the ban, but Hong Kong’s and China’s move was a severe blow to the battle to save the African elephant.

Britain lodged a reservation on behalf of its Hong Kong colony today with the Swiss government. The Swiss are entrusted with receiving responses to CITES, an acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

China also indicated last week that it would not follow the ban, a CITES official said.

The ban on trade in ivory was agreed to on Oct. 18 at an international conference in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“We’re surprised and dismayed. We think this is creating a real loophole,” Peter Kraemer, World Wide Fund for Nature conservation director, told a reporter.

Southern African nations led by Zimbabwe have argued that selling ivory legally would allow them to manage their elephant herds well.

But most conservationists concluded that only a worldwide ivory ban could save the animal. The African elephant population has dropped from 1.3 million 10 years ago to about 600,000, largely under pressure from poachers supplying the world market.

After heated debate, the biennial CITES conference in Lausanne decided to apply a ban starting Thursday. Countries have until midnight Thursday to announce that they will not follow the ban.

Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and South Africa have entered reservations in addition to China and Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong government said in October that it thought it would abide by the ban even though it believed that such a measure could encourage more poaching.

CITES says Hong Kong has an 800-ton stockpile of ivory. Craftsmen in Hong Kong and China carve ivory largely for re-export.