中國單單禁止象牙可能會惡化大象的處境

China’s ban on ivory trading and processing has been hailed as a monumental step on the path to saving elephants from extinction. But if China does not simultaneously tackle its much larger illegal trade in ivory the ban could perversely make it more lucrative for the poaching gangs who massacre Africa’s elephants and ship their tusks to Asia.

中國已經禁止象牙貿易和加工，在拯救大象滅絕的道路上邁出了令人鼓舞的一步。但如果中國不能同時徹底解決更大規模的象牙黑市交易的話，反而會讓那些瘋狂屠殺非洲象並將其運至亞洲的偷獵團伙變得更加有利可圖.

The number of legal businesses being shut down is relatively small. The plan announced on 30 December by China’s central government will close “a portion” (the Guardian understands it will be roughly half) of its 34 licensed carving factories and 130 retailers before the end of March 2017. The rest will be forced shut by the end of the year

被關閉的合法企業數量相對較少。中國中央政府在12月30號宣佈了一項計劃，將再017年3月前關閉34家註冊的雕刻廠和130家零售商中的“一部分”（本報解讀是將近一半），剩餘的將在年底強制關停。

Ivory in those factories and retailers is not supposed to come from poached elephants – although some contraband is known to infiltrate the legal market. Instead legal ivory carvers are supplied by government-controlled stockpiles that mostly built up before an international trade ban was implemented in 1989. So the shut down will not directly stop elephants from being killed.

儘管有些走私象牙進入了合法市場，這些雕刻廠和零售商的象牙不應來自偷獵的大象。合法象牙雕刻商的象牙是由政府控制的儲備提供的，這些儲備是在1989年國際貿易禁令實施前積累的。因此部分工廠的關閉將不會讓大象遭捕殺的現象得到直接改觀。

The major ivory market in China is black and it has been estimated that 90% of all ivory pieces sold in China are illegal. (The percentage is less by weight because legal pieces tend to be larger and more ornate.)

中國主要的象牙市場是黑市，據估計，中國90%象牙片都屬於非法銷售。（按重量算，非法銷售的象牙片少於上述百分比，因爲合法的產品往往更大更華麗。）