China announces a 'game-changing' step for elephant conservation

China, the world's largest market for ivory, announced this week that it will shut down its trade in such goods by the end of 2017. This will close down the world's largest commercial ivory market, and could help elephant populations stabilize and recover in Africa.
The decision to close down its domestic commercial elephant ivory trade is being hailed as a potentially transformative step toward protecting Africa's elephants, which are being slaughtered for their valuable tusks that are made of