John E. Scanlon, Secretary-General of the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), said that with this step China is sending an unequivocal message - both domestically and internationally - that it will not tolerate this illegal trade.

The latest figures released through the CITES programme Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) show that we continue to face a critical situation with the poaching of the African elephant and smuggling of its ivory with an estimated 22,000 elephants illegally killed in 2012. In 2011, over 25,000 elephants were illegally killed.

Elephant ivory are mainly smuggled to China, Kenya, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Uganda, Tanzania and Vietnam. In this mid of last year, these countries adopted national action plans, directed at saving elephants, number of which is decreasing fast.