Demand for ivory in China has dropped by more than half since a domestic ban on trade was introduced in 2017, according to an annual survey of consumers.
Conservationists have given a cautious welcome to the findings, with the news tempered by the updating of the “red list” of threatened species, which reported a further decline in Africa’s elephant numbers.
Interviews with more than 2,000 consumers in China, funded by the World Wildlife Fund, found that 81 per cent of respondents would not buy elephant ivory, compared with 50 per cent when the domestic trade ban was introduced.
“The Chinese ivory ban is a game-changer that helps in turning the tide against the illegal ivory trade that claims thousands of elephants each year,” Zhou Fei, chief programme officer of WWF China, said.
He credited a “zero tolerance” attitude to the illegal wildlife trade by various groups in China, including customs officials, internet companies and the travel industry. Wholesale prices for ivory have also fallen globally since the 2017 ban.
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The study has been carried out in 15 cities over the past four years and is the largest assessment of changes in attitudes to ivory consumption, purchasing rates and intention to purchase, as well as awareness of the Chinese ivory ban over time.
The results of the survey were not entirely encouraging, however. Regular overseas travellers from China have increased their rate of ivory buying since the domestic ban on sales was introduced and say that they intend to continue buying it.
China’s longstanding legal ivory market was the biggest in the world and was a major driver of the elephant poaching crisis in Africa.
In 2015, during a visit to China, the Duke of Cambridge, patron of the British conservation charity Tusk, discussed the dangers of the illegal wildlife trade with President Xi.
Charlie Mayhew, founder and CEO of Tusk, who accompanied Prince William on his visit to China, said that few thought that a change of attitude was possible.
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He said: “Prince William will be heartened by these latest findings. It is encouraging to see the trend is continuing downward, although there is no room for complacency given there are die-hard consumers who still wish to buy ivory.
“We’ve come a long way since Prince William first raised the issue of banning the ivory trade directly with President Xi in 2015 and many thought it would be impossible to get China to shift.”
In March the global authority on wildlife protection reported that the numbers of forest and savanna elephants in Africa had been devastated by poaching and encroachment.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that forest elephants, which have now been confirmed as a unique species, had been hit particularly hard. Their numbers fell by more than 86 per cent over three decades. They are now “critically endangered”; the next category is extinct.
The population of African savanna elephants has shrunk by at least 60 per cent in 50 years, with the species degraded from “vulnerable” to “endangered”.
