（本文的英语源文本来自于51VOA，译文为本人原创，欢迎交流指正）
Almost a million elephants roamed Africa 25 years ago. Now there are fewer than half that many. The main reason - ivory. Despite a ban on ivory trade, poachers continue to kill elephants for their tusks. Now,China which is the destination for most of that ivory, will shut down its market.
25年前，大约有上百万头大象在非洲大陆漫游。如今非洲大象的数量连当时的一半都达不到了。其原因在于——象牙。尽管象牙贸易被禁止，但盗猎者仍在持续猎杀大象以获得它们的长牙。现在，作为大多数象牙货运目的地的中国将关闭象牙贸易市场。
CHRISTOPHER JOYCE,BYLINE: Wildlife experts thought that an international ban on ivory trade in1989 would slow or even stop the killing of elephants for their tusks.
CHRISTOPHER JOYCE,
BYLINE（署名：克里斯托弗·乔伊斯）:野生动物学家们认为1989年的国际象牙贸易禁令将会使猎杀大象获取象牙的行为减缓甚至停止。
It didn't. In fact,the killing got worse. That's mostly because the ban didn't cover older ivorytaken before the 1989 ban. So what's happened is people are still killingelephants, but passing off their ivory as old. And therefore legal to trade.John Robinson is with the Wildlife Conservation Society. He says efforts tostop the supply of ivory at the source inAfricahave not been very successful.
但事实并非如此，实际上，盗猎问题变得更加严峻。最主要的原因是由于这条禁令未将1989年禁令颁布以前获取的旧象牙列为禁止。所以导致了盗猎者仍在猎杀大象，只是将新象牙（做旧）冒充为1989年之前的象牙进行合法交易。约翰·罗宾逊一直在野生动物资源保护协会工作。据他讲述，在非洲采取的阻断象牙来源供给的做法不是很成功。
JOHN ROBINSON:Addressing the demand is absolutely essential if we're going to deal with the poaching issues.
JOHN ROBINSON（约翰·罗宾逊）:如果我们要解决盗猎问题的话，那么需求问题是绝对要处理的。
JOYCE: And the biggest demand for ivory has been in China.
JOYCE（乔伊斯）:而中国则是象牙需求量最大的市场。
ROBINSON: Almost all the ivory is for carving.China has had a history of doing so. Whole tusks are carved into elaborately assembled pieces of one kind or another.
ROBINSON:几乎所有的象牙都是为了制成雕刻品。而中国的象牙雕刻由来已久。完整的象牙将被精雕细琢，并巧妙地与其他一些相同或不同材质的雕刻件组合到一起。
JOYCE: NowChinahas agreed to close down that legal trade by the end of 2017. Robinson says it's an announcement conservationists have been waiting for since 2015 when U.S.and Chinese officials started negotiating an end to China's trade.
JOYCE:如今中国已经同意在2017年末关闭象牙的合法交易市场。罗宾逊称，生态环境保护者们从2015年中美两国政府，启动关于停止中国象牙贸易问题的谈判时，就期盼着这份声明了。
ROBINSON: Certainlyclosing down domestic ivory inChinawill have a dramatic impact. The Chinese market is the largest ivory market inthe world.
ROBINSON:当然，中国一旦停止国内的象牙贸易将会产生巨大的影响。毕竟中国是世界上最大的象牙贸易市场。
JOYCE: The Chinese government has laid out an extensive plan that includes putting ivory carvers to work on existing museum pieces or other projects.
JOYCE:中国政府已经拿出了一套涉及极广的解决方案，包括安排象牙雕刻的工匠到现存的一些博物馆里去，在其中的部分展馆或另外一些项目中继续从事雕刻工作。
The government says it will also educate the public on the consequences of ivory trading for elephant populations. The Obama administration already has shut down almost all trade in ivory in the U.S. Robinson says the Chinese decision may well convince other countries that trade in ivory such as Vietnam and Japan to do the same.Christopher Joyce, NPR News.
政府提出，他们还要将关于象牙贸易与大象数量之间的因果关系告知公众。奥巴马政府业已关闭了全美几乎所有的象牙贸易。罗宾逊说，中国的这一决定可能对其他一些允许象牙贸易的国家，例如越南、日本，产生积极影响，使得他们做出同样的决策。
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