Azzedine Downes, CEO of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), said the agreement reached on Friday would play a key role in ending the poaching crisis across the globe.
"President Xi has delivered a tremendous victory in the battle to save elephants. China has slammed the door in the face of all those who are profiting from the slaughter of elephants," Downes said in a statement released in Nairobi, Kenya.
It is estimated that 35,000 elephants are killed every year, or one every 15 minutes, for the ivory trade.
Conservationists say rising demand for ivory and rhino horn in Asia has caused a poaching crisis in recent years across Kenya in particular, and Africa as a whole with over 1,000 rhinos having been killed in Africa in the last two years.
Downes said Beijing's ivory trade ban follows the announcement by President Obama of strict new ivory regulations which will lead to a massive reduction in ivory sales in the United States, one of the world's top markets for ivory.
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
