http://www.reuters.com/article...dUSKCN0S90BB20151015


Green Business | Thu Oct 15, 2015 1:34am EDT


China slaps one-year ban on imports of African ivory hunting trophies

BEIJING



China slapped a one-year ban on African ivory hunting trophy imports, the state forestry authority said on Thursday ahead of a trip by President Xi Jinping to Britain, where members of the royal family have urged China to crack down on the ivory trade.

Conservationists say China's growing appetite for contraband ivory imports, which are turned into jewels and ornaments, has fueled a surge in poaching in Africa.

In March, Britain's Prince William urged an end to the trade during a visit to a Chinese elephant sanctuary in the southwestern province of Yunnan.

Xi is scheduled to travel to Britain between Oct. 19-23, where he will stay at Buckingham Palace, home to the royal family.

China's State Forestry Administration said in a statement posted on its website that it would "temporarily prohibit" trophy imports until Oct. 15, 2016 and "suspend the acceptance of relevant administrative permits".

It did not give further details, though the official Xinhua news agency said a government review is under way on whether to extend a separate one-year ban made in February on imports of African ivory carvings.

The policy also follows a deal to enact nearly complete bans on ivory imports and exports made during Xi's September state visit to the United States.

Within China, the trade and sale of ivory carvings are legal if the items were imported before the country joined the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1981, or come from a stock of 62 tonnes of raw-ivory bought from four African countries in 2008 as a one-time exemption.

The government releases a portion of that stockpile each year to ivory carving factories.

China crushed 6.2 metric tonnes (6.83 tons) of confiscated ivory early last year in its first such public destruction of any part of its stockpile. However, the country still ranks as the world's biggest end-market for poached ivory, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

In June, a Tanzanian government minister described elephant poaching as a national disaster, and urged China to curb its appetite for ivory.

(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Meanwhile, all the illegal ivory will continue to pour in.

No trophies imported but poached ivory is still OK?

M

what do you expect from a hog but a grunt

Be interesting to see what some of our operators and hunting association members will do with next years quota's... Some of them where shooting their elephant and selling the ivory to the Chinese ... Exporting the ivory as though it had been sport hunted. This all with the full knowledge and co-operation of the Zimbabwe parks dept. as always it's a money making scam, you had to get the "letter" from parks to authorize the elephant to be shot on behalf of the "Chinese client". Which cost $1000

Those that did so were no better than the poachers themselves. I for one, would like to see a list of all of the operators and hunting association members who participated in that.

Let's see if our contacts are able to get us a copy of one of the "authorization letters". We to think its high time to name and shame these greedy operators.