The selling of pearl has been illegal since 1989 when a world-wide forbidding prohibiting the trade was introduced , but there ’s a loophole . It is perfectly effectual to betray and buy ivory product in many land provided they predate 1947 and so can be classified as antiques under EU regulation .
Now , an investigating carry out by environmental run groupAvaazhas revealed the unresolved trade in antique bone is hide a trade wind in lately poached ( and therefore illegal ) ivory .
Members of the group bought 109 ivory items from 10 European countries . With the help of investigator at the University of Oxford , the candidate used radiocarbon dating to determine the age of their acquisitions . This proficiency can not prove definitively when the ivory was extracted by poacher but it can tell us when the ivory grow and , therefore , give us some sort of meter reading as to when the animal was killed .
Three - quarters of the objects purchase contained pearl obtained after 1947 , which think of they can not be classified as antique . What ’s more , almost a fifth consisted of off-white from elephant killed post-1990 , after the international ban was established . At least one piece take ivory dating to 2010 .
" I ’m look at the gaud we bought on my desk , and to call back that an elephant with all the things we are memorize about them , about theircognitionand theiradvanced bon ton , and to conceive that one of them has die for this bracelet I ’m carry now , it makes you sick to your breadbasket , " Bert Wander , an Avaaz campaigner involved in the investigation , toldBBC News .
Of those bought in the UK , one - fifth of piece were unlawfully market as antique . Meanwhile , all the items buy in Spain , Italy , and Bulgaria and most of those from France , Portugal , and the Netherlands broke EU law .
The EU is already in the outgrowth of reviewing its limitation on ivory , theBBC report . While the European Parliament is proposing a blanket banning on the cut-rate sale of ivory , member state are working on their own regulations . In April , the UK parliament agree to implementone of the earth ’s problematic banson ivory , covering detail of all age .
Elsewhere in the world , Hong Konghas announced it will step by step phase out its tusk trade over the next three years , afterChinashut down its domesticated deal in December 2017 .
