Ivory has long been a commodity. "The Book of Songs Truffle Flooding" says: "Yuan is as expensive as a tooth, and it has a lot of gold." Zuo Zhuan said, "Elephants have teeth to burn their bodies and bribe them." There was an ivory carving industry in the Zhou Dynasty. According to Zhou Li Taizai, the handicraft industry in the Zhou Dynasty was called "Eight Materials", and ivory was one of the eight materials. The Zhou dynasty stipulated that only governors could hold elephants, and in the Tang dynasty, officials under five grades could hold elephants.

In July 2008, the Standing Committee of the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora voted that China became the second largest legal importer of ivory in the world after Japan. Due to the sharp decline in the number of elephants in the 20th century, environmentalists hope to ban the ivory trade internationally in order to prevent the extinction of elephants. Their slogan is "No business, no killing". Some African countries, including Zimbabwe and South Africa, stressed the necessity of ivory trade. First, ivory trade is an important source of local income. Secondly, too many elephants will destroy local agriculture. Some economists, such as Hui Ge, think that banning trade cannot protect the elephant population. The main reason for the decline in the number of elephants is that the expansion of human beings has led to the reduction of elephant habitats. If the ivory trade can be opened and the property rights of elephants can be privatized to local people, they will try to raise elephants to earn continuous income. If the elephant trade is banned, local people will not protect elephants, and elephants will die from poaching.

At present, many countries prohibit the import and sale of ivory, or impose great restrictions on the ivory trade. Internationally, the ban on ivory trade has been reiterated many times. 1975 banned the ivory trade of Asian elephants, and 1990 banned the ivory trade of African elephants. In 2002, the United Nations allowed some countries to export a certain amount of ivory.

1999, a study by Oxford University shows that only 1% of the $500 million brought by ivory trade reaches Africa every year, and most of it is taken away by middlemen, so the contribution of ivory trade to African economic development is questionable. The global illegal wildlife trade is still rampant, which seriously affects global ecological security. The China Municipal Government attaches great importance to cracking down on illegal trade in wildlife such as ivory smuggling, and has formulated extremely severe punishment regulations, continuously strengthened the capacity building of law enforcement, improved the coordination mechanism of law enforcement, intensified law enforcement inspection, and implemented special crackdown actions, and seized a large number of cases of illegal trade in wildlife. The 6. 1 ton of ivory publicly destroyed this time was seized by China Customs and Forest Public Security in the law enforcement action against wildlife smuggling and illegal business operation.

Zhao Shucong, director of the State Forestry Administration, pointed out that protecting wild animals is the common responsibility of all mankind. As a responsible big country and a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, China has been committed to international cooperation in the field of combating illegal trade in wild animals, earnestly shouldered its international obligations under relevant conventions, actively promoted exchanges and cooperation with other countries and international organizations, jointly launched Operation Cobra to combat illegal trade in wild animals, and hosted and held international seminars and technical training courses for many times. In the future, China will continue to take effective measures, strengthen legislation and law enforcement, conduct extensive public education, and strive to make greater contributions to curbing the illegal trade in wild animals around the world.

Lu Bin, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, pointed out that China Customs, as the national entry-exit supervision and administration organ, actively fulfilled international conventions, strengthened the control of ecological civilization, and constantly cracked down on illegal activities such as smuggling of endangered species. As a member of CITES China Law Enforcement Coordination Group, China Customs has strengthened cooperation with convention law enforcement agencies and relevant departments, strengthened cross-border joint law enforcement cooperation, and carried out and participated in a series of special actions to combat the smuggling of endangered species, such as Operation Tiger, Operation Ape and Operation Cobra. According to statistics, in the past ten years, the national customs has investigated 930 criminal cases of smuggling endangered species, arrested and prosecuted 395 suspects/kloc-0, effectively deterring and cracking down on illegal smuggling gangs, and played a positive role in building beautiful China and protecting human homeland. The law enforcement achievements of China Customs have also been widely praised and recognized by the international community.

What is the crime of smuggling ivory? According to the criminal responsibility of "the crime of smuggling precious animals and their products banned by the state" stipulated in the second paragraph of Article 15 1 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), the judicial department believes that ivory and its products are precious animals and their products for import and export. If the smuggling of ivory and its products into the country is serious enough to constitute a crime, the criminal responsibility of the parties concerned shall be investigated for the crime of smuggling precious animals and precious animal products. How many years to sentence depends on the specific situation of smuggling. Those who are relatively minor shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and shall also or only be fined. If the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years and fined.

In addition, I would like to remind you that many people know that it is illegal to smuggle and sell illegal ivory products, but they do not know that it is illegal to consume illegal ivory products. According to the laws of our country, selling, buying and transporting any kind of behavior may be suspected of criminal offence. Consumption is a kind of gain. We should appeal to everyone not to consume illegal ivory products, and legal ivory products can still be consumed.