World's nations agree elephant ivory markets must close
Source: The Guardian
World's nations agree elephant ivory markets must close
With poachers killing an elephant every 15 minutes on average,
the pressure to shut down the legal trade in ivory is intensifying
Damian Carrington, Johannesburg
Sunday 2 October 2016 20.00 BST
Legal ivory markets across the globe must be urgently closed in order to combat the elephant poaching crisis, according to an agreement struck by 182 nations on Sunday.
The decision is significant in intensifying the pressure on countries that still host such markets, which conservationists say provide cover for criminals to launder illegal ivory.
The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), gathered this week in Johannesburg, agreed for the first time in its history that national ivory markets should be closed rather than regulated. All international trade in ivory is banned but many countries allow antique and other ivory pieces to be bought and sold domestically.
Domestic ivory markets are a highly controversial issue, but the Cites nations agreed unanimously that every country should “take all necessary legislative, regulatory and enforcement measures to close their domestic markets for commercial trade in raw and worked ivory as a matter of urgency.”
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/02/worlds-nations-agree-elephant-ivory-markets-must-close