China Sets a Deadline to End the Ivory Trade

On December 30, 2016, China's State Council published a timetable to shut down the country's domestic ivory market, then the largest legal one on Earth. The order gave the first wave of factories and traders until March 31, 2017 to close, with every remaining ivory processor and seller ordered out of business by December 31, 2017. It followed through on a commitment the presidents of China and the United States had made together in September 2015, at a moment when poachers were killing tens of thousands of African elephants a year to feed demand that ran heavily through Chinese carving workshops and shops. Conservation groups that had pushed for the closure for years treated the announcement as the real turning point, not just a promise.