China will take stricter measures to control trade in ivory, extending a temporary ban on ivory imports through 2019.
China's State Forestry Administration (SFA) said that the country will prohibit ivory imports from March 20, 2016 to December 31, 2019 to control trade in raw ivory and derivative products, China News Service reported on Tuesday.
Two 1-year bans issued last year will also be extended to the end of 2019.
The trade and sale of ivory carvings is legal only if the ivory comes from items imported to China before the country signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1981 or from 62 tons of raw ivory bought from four African countries in 2008, as permitted by CITES.
Raw elephant ivory and products made from it should only be processed and sold at designated places by designated vendors, and each product must be individually cataloged and tracked with its own unique photo ID.
"The announcement is a very specific step toward implementing an agreement reached last year," He Yong, communications manager of nonprofit organization International Fund for Animal Welfare, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
China and the U.S. agreed to commit to enacting nearly comprehensive bans on ivory imports and exports during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the US in September 2015.
According to He, China still faces many challenges in ending the illegal ivory trade, including dealing with existing ivory stock and changing consumers' behavior when purchasing ivory products.
