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Chinese demand for elephant tusks outstrips enforcement

Growth in the illegal ivory trade, fueled by Chinese demand and surging prices, is outpacing law enforcers' efforts to stop the smuggling networks, according to a report by Save the Elephants and the Aspinall Foundation.

The Asian nation is the world's largest importer of illegal elephant tusks, which are mainly arriving from illicit "worked ivory markets" in the African nations of Angola, Egypt, Nigeria and Sudan, the non-profit agencies said today in a report. The wholesale price of raw ivory on the black market has tripled in the four years from 2010 to about $2,100 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) in Beijing, according to the report.

China believes it's important to protect elephants and other wild animals, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said last month. Three phone calls to the Beijing-based foreign ministry today went unanswered and the office didn't immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

"At the moment we are not winning the conservation battle against the elephant poachers, traffickers and consumers of ivory," according to a statement by the U.K.-based charities accompanying the report. "Laws are in place but even in China they are not being adequately enforced. The system is presently out of control."

More than 20,000 African elephants were poached across the continent in 2013, leveling off from a 2011 peak yet remaining "alarmingly high" and exceeding the animals' population growth, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. The total African elephant population is estimated at between 470,000 and 690,000, according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

Trade Reignited

While CITES in 1990 banned the trade in ivory, in 2008 it allowed a limited quantity to be sold from Africa in a move that "reignited" the ivory industry, the group said.

Most of the ivory brought into China today doesn't pass through the government's licensed ivory-carving factories, according to the report.

"The Chinese government has increased law enforcement efforts in recent years, but official inspections of retail outlets, which are found scattered across the cities, are not frequent or rigorous enough to drastically eliminate these loopholes and illegal activities," according to the groups.

The report was based on field work by researchers with Save the Elephants and the Aspinall Foundation in Shanghai and Beijing from April 30 to May 28.

Ivory smugglers supply a growing middle class in China eager to display new wealth. The country also has a long history of carving the tusks for art and the material is shaped into Asian designs of Buddhas, dragon bracelets and necklaces to attract buyers.

"China holds the key to the future of elephants," Save the Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton said in the statement. "Without China's leadership in ending demand for ivory, Africa's elephants could disappear from the wild within a generation."

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