One third of licensed Hong Kong ivory retailers encourage buyers to break the law, report says

A third of all Hong Kong’s licensed ivory retailers have actively encouraged buyers to smuggle ivory out of the city without an export permit, which is illegal under the city’s laws, a new report by the wildlife trade monitor Traffic has revealed. The practice goes to the heart of the questionable conduct of ivory licensees who have long been suspected of engaging in the laundering of so-called “white gold”. Surveys conducted in 2015 and 2016 for the report found that a...