China standardizes management over elephant ivory processing and trade

China has put its elephant ivory processing industry and product trade under standardized management, said an official with the State Forestry Administration (SFA) on Monday.

The ivory trade existed in China until in 1989 when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) declared both African and Asian, or Indian,elephants to be prohibited trade species.

As a member of the CITES, the Chinese government prohibited thetrade of ivory.

"The management of ivory processing and product trade should realize the goals not only protecting wild animals but also being helpful to the inheriting of the cultural relics of human beings,"Zhao Xuemin, SFA's deputy director, told an investigation group ofCITES.

Four years after taking tests on standardized management of ivory processing and product trade, China adopted a uniform marking system for all ivory products in May 2004.

At the same time, a database information system on all ivory products was established to ensure no illegal ivory enters the legal market.

While enforcing the standardization of the management on the processing and trade of ivory product, China has also strengthenedits efforts in cracking down ivory smuggling.

According to the SFA, in the past seven years, some 300 cases of ivory smuggling into China have been closed and nearly 40 tons of ivory been confiscated, half the world's total during the period.

"The current ivory processing and product trade of China not only conform to the rule of the CITES. Its actual implementation is more strict and effective," said Zhao.

Led by John Seller, the CITES Senior Enforcement Officer, the three-member group will pay a seven-day investigation trip, duringwhich they will check the ivory processing and product trade in major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, and Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.

Source: Xinhua