LONDON: Britain is proposing a near-total ban on the sale of ivory products as part of efforts to stop endangered African elephants being hunted for their valuable tusks.
Antiques containing ivory would need to be certified through radiocarbon dating to prove they were produced earlier than 1947 before they can be bought or sold in the U.K., under government plans.
The Times reported on Wednesday that antique dealers were exploiting a loophole that allowed experts to simply say they believed an item was crafted prior to 1947 without conducting checks.
Trading ivory products produced after 1947 is already illegal, but radiocarbon dating is a costly process and could act as a further deterrent to the sale of older antiques.
Britain’s governing Conservative Party had promised to press for a total ban on ivory sales in its most recent election manifesto.
Tens of thousands of ivory products exist in the U.K. as a remnant of the British Empire, when elephants in imperial colonies were slaughtered for their tusks.
An estimated 30,000 tons of ivory were moved out of Africa between 1860 and 1920, amounting to at least 1.1 million elephants, according to figures released by wildlife trade monitoring charity TRAFFIC last month.
A survey by the charity found the U.K. market had declined significantly but thousands of ivory antiques were still on sale with many being sold to tourists from East Asian countries, it said.
TRAFFIC’s ivory expert Tom Milliken said at the time: “Every country -- even those whose days of large-scale ivory demand have long since passed -- has a role to play in helping regulate the global ivory trade: the U.K. is no exception and needs to show strong leadership on the international stage.”
