Chinese demand for elephant ivory drops, new report says

FILE - In this Thursday, April 28, 2016 file photo, confiscated ivory statues stand in front of one of around a dozen pyres of ivory, in Nairobi National Park, Kenya. A leading elephant conservation group said Wednesday, March 29, 2017 that the price of ivory in China has dropped as the country moves toward a ban on the legal trade of ivory this year. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) (The Associated Press)

prev next

FILE - In this Monday, April 4, 2016 file photo, a worker stands on a pile of elephant tusks in a shipping container, where they were stored before being burned in a pyre, at the headquarters of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) in Nairobi, Kenya. A leading elephant conservation group said Wednesday, March 29, 2017 that the price of ivory in China has dropped as the country moves toward a ban on the legal trade of ivory this year. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Thursday, April 28, 2016 file photo, a ranger from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) adjusts the positioning of tusks on one of around a dozen pyres of ivory, in Nairobi National Park, Kenya. A leading elephant conservation group said Wednesday, March 29, 2017 that the price of ivory in China has dropped as the country moves toward a ban on the legal trade of ivory this year. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) (The Associated Press)

A leading elephant conservation group says the price of ivory in China has dropped as the country moves toward a ban on the legal trade of ivory this year.

Experts say Chinese demand for tusks has been driving elephants toward extinction.

A report launched Wednesday surveyed the price of ivory in markets across China over the last three years and found prices had dropped from $2,100 per kilogram in early 2014 to $730 in February.

Save the Elephants says factors behind the drop in the price of ivory include an economic slowdown in China resulting in fewer people being able to afford luxury goods, and a crackdown on corruption dissuading business people from buying expensive ivory items as "favors" for government officials.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/chinese-demand-for-elephant-ivory-drops-new-report-says