BLENDING IVORY: China’s Old Loopholes, New Hopes – The Report - Elephant Action League
▻http://elephantleague.org/blending-ivory-chinas-old-loopholes-new-hopes-the-report
– Legitimate businesses and business people participate in and facilitate the laundering of illicit ivory through the legal ivory market by such means as 1) importing supposedly pre-ban, antique, and trophy hunting ivory, 2) the manipulation of the ivory registration system within China, 3) trading ivory privately and illegally without following the government’s guidelines and restrictions, and 4) the use of the existing huge illegal raw ivory stocks (>1,000 tons) in the hands of a few traders.
– Chinese traders now import ivory mainly via Hong Kong (or purchase worked ivory in Hong Kong), “legalize” it, and re-export the ivory to mainland China.