HONG KONG, a leading center for the manufacture and export of ivory objects, has been exempted by the British Government from a worldwide ban on the trading of ivory that went into effect last Thursday.
But the exemption lasts only six months and applies only to an estimated 670 tons of raw ivory that Hong Kong manufacturers and dealers had in stock when the ban began. Moreover, a spokesman for the British Deparment of the Environment said ivory sellers in the British crown colony were prohibited by London from trading with any country that honors the global ban, including Britain itself.
Douglas Hurd, the British Home Secretary, told Parliament last week that the action would give Hong Kong traders time to dispose of their ivory and would enable carvers and other ivory workers to find other jobs. The spokesman for the Department of Environment said that the action was taken because ''we needed Hong Kong's wholehearted support in implementing the total ban'' on trading in ivory.
Under the terms of an international convention intended to stem the ivory trade and halt the illegal killing of African elephants, any of the convention's 103 member nations was permitted to opt out of the ban before it went into effect. China was the only ivory-consuming country to do so, and conservationists who keep track of the ivory trade say they believe that Hong Kong's huge mainland neighbor will become the main market for the colony's remaining ivory.
Five other countries, all African ivory producers, also exempted themselves: Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Malawi and Botswana.Continue reading the main story
Britain's decision was seen in London as a gesture of support to Hong Kong at a time when the colony's residents are jittery about what will happen when the colony reverts to Chinese control in 1997.
Nearly 2,000 of its residents earn their living as ivory carvers, according to the World Wildlife Fund. They are said to have had little work since several consuming countries, including the United States and Japan, stopped importing ivory last summer. Hong Kong also suspended its ivory imports then.
Most countries opting out of the ban had been expected to do so, but the British decision on Hong Kong came as something of a surprise to conservationists. They won a victory last October in Lausanne, Switzerland, when the 103 members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as Cites, voted to ban the ivory trade. Britain joined the vote, but abstained on a second vote banning trade in existing stocks.
Prices Fall Dramatically
The overall ban was intended to dry up the market in an effort to stop the illegal killing of African elephants by poachers, whose actions are widely blamed for reducing the continent's elephant population to 600,000 from 1.3 million a decade ago.
Several countries, including the United States, had banned ivory imports even before the new ban took effect, and conservationists report that worldwide ivory prices dropped dramatically as a result.
Not all African governments or all conservationists believe that a ban on ivory trade is the best way to protect the elephants. Some African countries, led by Zimbabwe, said that was why they would not take part in the ban. They point to what they say are their successful campaigns against poachers and their abundant elephant herds and argue that their conservation programs, involving the selective culling of herds, have enabled the elephants to thrive.Continue reading the main story