The Politics of Banning Ivory in China

In February 2015, China announced a one-year ban on ivory imports. While many conservation groups such as the Environmental Investigation Agency denounced Beijing’s policy as “ineffective,” the San Francisco-based group WildAid said the ban is an important step in the right direction and part of a broader Chinese policy shift towards more progressive wildlife protection laws. Peter Knights is the co-founder and Executive Director of WildAid and joins Eric and Cobus to discuss why he is among the few conservation leaders who is actually optimistic about the Chinese ivory import ban, and will also talk about how he is leading a campaign to make animal conservation an “aspirational value” in China.{chop}