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A comment on China calls on US to follow its lead in eradicating ivory trade. Parent comment

Re:China calls on US to follow its lead in eradicating ivory... by buckbova on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @04:18PM (#9695000)
> ivory acquired before a worldwide ban in 1989

This allows those who own ivory, potential many historical, to trade in those pieces.

How does this contribute to extinction? Unless there's time travel involved.

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Re:China calls on US to follow its lead in eradicating ivory... by adamnemecek on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @04:23PM (#9695056)
Because it

a.) sustains a market for ivory

b.) a lot of ivory has falsified paperwork

c.) enforcement of these rules is costly and there isn't enough people to do it http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/overwh.... For example, the Fish and Wildlife service in New York has 6 employees which are supposed to be checking all cargo coming to NYC and NJ. That's very few people for the job.

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Re:China calls on US to follow its lead in eradicating ivory... by mcmahoniel on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @04:43PM (#9695215)
Maybe we need to start embedding RFID chips into (or laser etching) the existing ivory supply linking to a centralized database for confirmation.
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Re:China calls on US to follow its lead in eradicating ivory... by Phlarp on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @06:01PM (#9695864)
b.) A lot of ivory has falsified paperwork.

A centralized database just creates a lucrative side business for the sysadmins.

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Re:China calls on US to follow its lead in eradicating ivory... by Symbiote on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @04:26PM (#9695082)
Guessing: fake pre-1989 ivory (false certificates etc) made from recently killed elephants.

There are also lots of other endangered species, though the big mammals make the biggest news stories.

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