Cultural heritage

To protect ivory carving as an intangible cultural heritage, the State Forestry Administration is encouraging carvers to use their skills on other materials, and also invited some to keep their craft alive via written, audio and video records.

The Ministry of Culture will also help ivory sector employees to find other jobs: for example, by encouraging "master carvers" to work in museums repairing and maintaining significant works of art made from ivory.

"We haven't received any further enforcement notices from either the ministry or the administration. To be honest, as a businessman, it's not a big deal to shut down an old factory with just 30 employees," said Guo Jianhuan, president of Guangzhou United Enterprises Development Corp, which now manages the Guangzhou Daxin Ivory Carving Factory.

"But still, I hope the craft can be protected by the government as a cultural heritage, not by selling the works, but simply by allowing a few people to learn and perform the skills as an art form," he said.

Xiao Guangyi, chairman of the Beijing Ivory Carving Factory, said China's legal ivory market has a long history, which will make it difficult to enforce an immediate total ban and simply shut down all related enterprises.

"The simplest way would be for the State to purchase the entire stockpile of legal ivory and pass it on to museums or a few designated workshops for the masters. The commercial ivory trade would no longer be allowed, but art works could still be exhibited in museums and the carvers' skills could still be passed on," he said.

Contact the writer at yangwanli@chinadaily.com.cn