On the same day as the UK and Taiwan announcing that they would be banning all domestic ivory trade, effective January 1, 2020, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) and the Royal Department for Protecting the Environment (Rangers) seized 23 ivory pieces, worth thousands of JDs, in south Amman.

The pieces were found by chance during a joint inspection session by the RSCN and the Rangers. They were confirmed as genuine after being inspected by local and international ivory experts.

This is the fourth time this year that the RSCN and the Rangers would have confiscated genuine ivory products in the Kingdom.

Some of the ivory pieces seized by the Rangers and RSCN. (Roya)

Ivory is typically obtained by killing elephants for their tusks. In recent years, up to 33,000 African elephants were killed annually for that purpose.

Besides elephants' tusks, ivory comes from teeth as well as tusks of a number of mammals.

Ivory trade is often illegal, therefore it is very important to know the type of ivory you’re dealing with before you purchase it, due to the laws banning the selling of some types of ivory.

Click here to learn how to spot genuine from fake ivory.