The Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) and the Environmental Jurists Association (EJA) today issued an urgent plea for Taiwan to halt the resurrection of the domestic ivory trade. The call follows a recent court ruling and administrative changes which have opened legal loopholes and threaten to revive the trade from the dead.

The organizations were joined by legislator Wu Szu-Yao and Taipei City councilor Chen Hsien-wei (both DPP), who backed the call.

Ivory still found in auction houses

Taiwan enforced a ban on the domestic ivory trade in 2020, maintaining exceptions for ivory products designated as antiques. The ban responded to a CITES resolution adopted by 182 countries to shut down their domestic ivory markets. However, ivory is still being traded in Taipei auction houses.

In July 2019, Taipei City authorities confiscated three sets of ivory products displayed at auction by Yu Jen International. The pieces included a pair of jasper vases with ivory bases, an engraved dangle charm, and a rectangular stamp. The authorities proceeded to indict Eunice Chang, general manager of Yu Jen International, for violating Taiwan’s ivory trade ban.

Legal proceedings

In the wake of the seizure, the Taipei City Archives (TCA) speedily announced a new set of procedures for the antiques designation of protected wildlife products. The move followed political intervention by a then-Taipei City councilor sought out by the auction house. In doing so, the archives allowed Yu Jen International to make the case that there were no mechanisms to apply for designation at the time of the confiscation, forming the basis of Chang’s legal defense.

This defense distorts the truth: Taiwan’s existing regulations on the designation of antiques have been in place since 2006 and are applicable to all antiques, including protected wildlife products. To date, Taipei City stands alone as the only jurisdiction in Taiwan which has established a separate, additional pathway for wildlife products.

In March 2022, despite TCA’s unusual move, the Taipei District Court sentenced Chang to a four-month suspended sentence for violating Article 40 of the Wildlife Conservation Act. Specifically, Chang was found to have displayed (for sale) and exhibited ivory products in contravention of the Act.

Unfortunately, the decision was overturned on appeal by the Taiwan High Court in August of that year. The judge ruled that the TCA were at fault for having failed to establish a process to designate wildlife products as antiques at the time of the alleged offences, siding with the defendant.

The ruling also stated that antiques need not seek formal designation so long as they meet the definition of antiques, validating the retroactive conferral of antiques status. Such a ruling, in fact, contradicts Article 35 of the Wildlife Conservation Act which plainly prohibits the display or exhibition of protected wildlife products “without the permission of the authorities.”

Prosecutors have since appealed to the Supreme Court to review the decision. The final verdict is yet to be determined.

Ruling threatens hard-won progress

The Taiwan High Court’s ruling has cleared a path for the use of the antiques exemption to skirt Taiwan’s ivory trade ban.

According to Taiwanese regulations, protected wildlife products only need to meet one of six broad criteria to be designated as antiques – such as featuring characteristics of local or ethnic customs, traditional techniques or artforms, reflecting historical eras or changes, or being scarce in number.

Taiwanese lax exemption runs counter to prevailing international trends. For example, the UK’s ivory trade ban imposes strict restrictions on any exemptions, including specific limits on age and the amount of ivory, while Hong Kong requires ivory products to have been taken from the wild prior to 1925 to qualify as antiques.

Since Taipei City opened its new application process it has received a flood of applications for antiques status. 123 ivory products have been designated antiques since the change, with analysis showing that less than one in twenty applications are refused. Previously, Taipei City had not conferred antiques status on any protected wildlife products.

Taiwan’s National Cultural Heritage Database reveals that Taipei City is the only jurisdiction in Taiwan to grant antiques status to protected wildlife products.

NGOs demand change

In light of the recent High Court ruling, EAST and EJA demand urgent reforms to halt the resurrection of the ivory trade in Taiwan, calling for:

• the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, MoA to abolish the antiques loophole in Taiwan’s ivory trade ban
• the Ministry of Culture to clearly define procedures for the designation of any protected wildlife products as antiques including tightened criteria (e.g. age of objects, evidence of origin and legitimacy of claims), involve experts in deliberations and set a cut-off for antiques designation applications
• increased checks on the ownership and trade of ivory and mammoth ivory products 

Media contacts

Kuo Hung-Yi, Lawyer, Environmental Jurists Association | +886 (9) 1143 8272
Yu-Min Chen, Deputy Chief Executive, Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan | +886 (9) 1015 0908