Poaching of elephants and other species has increased in Africa, with products going mainly to Asian markets and for the bushmeat trade.
Esmond Martin and Lucy Vigne, authors of the report that was presented at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in Geneva this month , visited ivory carving factories and shops in parts of China in January. They compared the data with a visit in 1985.
Despite rigorous laws controlling the sale of ivory in China, the industry is booming and much of it is unregulated, they found.
"Chinese authorities produced in 2004 a system where every piece of ivory must have an identification card … 63% of at least 6500 ivory pieces being sold did not have the appropriate identification card," Mr Martin said in Nairobi last week. Read the full report here.
Source: Tom Kirkwood, Business Day.
