In an unprecedented move Monday, the Chinese government publicly destroyed around 6 tons of elephant ivory seized from illegal trade activities. The gesture by the nation with the world's largest ivory demand is being regarded as a milestone by conservation groups, who say it is an important recognition of rampant elephant poaching and illicit ivory trading.
The ivory, which can fetch up to $2,000 per kilogram on the black market, was destroyed in the southern port city of Dongguan in Guangzhou province, an important transit and destination point in the global ivory trade.
"The destruction of seized ivory makes an important public statement that, in conjunction with other government-led efforts to reduce demand, has the potential to have a significant impact on the illegal market for ivory," Tom Milliken, an ivory trade expert with TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, told the World Wildlife Fund.
"China's actions, more than those of any other country, have the potential to reverse the rising trends of elephant poaching and illegal ivory trafficking," Milliken said.
Every year, about 30,000 elephants are killed for their ivory, and the surge in deaths is largely attributed to rising ivory demand in China and other Asian countries, the Human Society International said in a news release.
Humane Society of the United States president Wayne Pacelle expressed hope that China's public ivory destruction will send a firm message to poachers.
"This is a potentially game-changing development for elephants, and an indicator of a new resolve from the government of China to crack down on illegal killing of wildlife," Pacelle said. "With both China and the United States - the two largest ivory-consuming countries - taking very public actions against the ivory trade, we hope that the plans of elephant poachers are upended in a dramatic way."
A total of 6.15 metric tons of ivory was destroyed Monday by authorities who fed the contraband into two green crushing machines. The public event was China's first large-scale public ivory destruction, according to The Associated Press. The ivory destroyed - seized from shipments from Africa, carving factories and shops - was part of a larger ivory stockpile held by China, but the size of that stockpile is undisclosed.
China's public ivory crush follows similar ones by by the United States and other nations. In November the US destroyed 5.4 tons of confiscated ivory in Denver. In June, the Philippines burned or crushed 5 tons of seized ivory. In 2012, Gabon destroyed 5 tons of confiscated ivory.
Ivory has a long history of being used in traditional arts and crafts and the demand for ivory goods there remains strong, buoyed by a legal ivory market for any stock that pre-dates the 1989 international ivory trade ban. But loopholes, including a sanctioned "one-off" ivory sale by four African nations in 2008, have conflated the situation.
A 2008 study, for example, found that one-third of the ivory sold in the US under the pre-1989 rule was carved from ivory harvested more recently than 1989, according to the Humane Society. In China, about 90 percent of the ivory sold there is thought to be a product of illegal trafficking, the Humane Society said.