ARTS AND CRAFTS: About 100 ivory products, mostly seals and small sculptures, have been sold annually in Taiwan over the past few years, mostly by art dealers in Taipei
Taipei Times
Date: Jul 15, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter
The sale of ivory products is to be banned in Taiwan from the beginning of
An elephant tusk is on display in an undated photograph.
Photo provided by the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau
2020 in a bid to protect African elephants, whose number continues to decline due to illegal hunting for elephant tusks, the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau announced yesterday.
The number of African elephants has fallen from about 508,000 in 2006 to 415,000 in 2015, and their existence is primarily threatened by poaching, the bureau said, citing the African Elephant Status Report 2016 published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
According to the report, African elephants might become extinct in 20 years if their number continues to decline at that rate, the bureau said.
Many nations in 2016 called for the closure of ivory markets to protect African elephants at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, it said. [FULL STORY]
