The ivory confiscated by customs was poached and smuggled into China. If it continues to be sold, it will be tantamount to laundering illegal ivory and selling it legally. It will send a wrong signal to the market and make people think that ivory is a suitable luxury product. On the contrary,

further stimulate demand.

Some people believe that the reason why ivory can sell for high prices on the black market is due to the lack of legal sources, and that the legal trade of ivory should be allowed to combat illegal smuggling.

But in fact, even if there are legal channels, the cost of poaching and smuggling is far lower than the legal import of ivory.

Moreover, the coexistence of legal and illegal ivory products will greatly increase the difficulty of law enforcement by regulators. Unscrupulous traders' misguidance of the public has also stimulated the ivory market, driven up prices, and made illegal trade increasingly rampant.

Any market trade in ivory therefore contributes to the illegal ivory trade.

The amount of seized ivory is huge, the storage environment is demanding, and the storage costs are high.

African countries that own elephants are often in poor economic condition and cannot afford the high cost of keeping their ivory safe to prevent it from being stolen by criminal gangs.

Under the temptation of huge profits, it is inevitable for officials to commit suicide.

Instead of keeping the ivory, paying high storage fees, and trying to curb the greed of criminal groups and even relevant officials, it is better to simply burn the illegal ivory, which will also be a deterrent to the smuggling groups.