nservation groups worldwide, Great Britain is set to ban the sale of all forms of ivory, regardless of its age. Currently, ivory in Great Britain is allowed to be sold within the country or the larger European Union, if it was harvested before 1947. However, many smugglers were passing off newer tusks as being from this era, circumventing the ban and creating a market for poaching.
The bill, which is still to be presented to legislature, is not the first attempt to curb the sale of ivory. In Great Britain, raw African savanna and forest elephant ivory is illegal, though, until recently, antique processed ivory has not been. Under CITES, the international sale of ivory was banned in 1990, though several countries, like China and Japan, have allowed “one-off” sales of ivory from countries that elephants live in.
Currently, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists the Asian elephant as endangered and, though neither the African savanna elephant nor the African forest elephant are specifically mentioned, the African elephant is listed as vulnerable. Currently, 30,000 African elephants are killed every year by poachers to harvest their tusks. Poaching has increased recently, as the rise of the middle class in Asia has led to a greater desire for elephant tusks as well as rhino horn and tiger claws, teeth, and bones.
Public reception to the bill in the United Kingdom has been overwhelmingly positive, and the Secretary of the Environment Michael Gove has stated, “the abhorrent ivory trade should become a thing of the past.”
The only exceptions to the rule would allow for approved items of historical value and works of art containing ivory to be sold. Until recently, Great Britain sold more legal ivory than anywhere else in the world.