China is pushing for legal permission to trade in ivory, amid concerns from environmental groups that approval could put serious pressure on elephant populations.

As a meeting of the UN’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) starts in Geneva, China is seeking approval as a trading partner, allowing it to buy into a 100-tonne stockpile of ivory in Africa which Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe are authorised to sell.

However, environmentalists say China’s ivory trade is not regulated well enough and approval could allow illegal ivory into the supply chain, increasing demand and therefore increasing threats to elephants (BBC, AP, Independent).

Their concerns may have some foundation. AP reported two days ago that China lost track of 120 tonnes of ivory in 2003.

However CITES says China’s enforcement score for Ivory trading was 63% in 2008, up from 6% in 2002. Crucially, this score is above the level required for sales of the African stockpile (press release).

Image: USFWS