Tragically, not all of the endangered tortoises survived the transport. A police officer has been arrested in the alleged smuggling case, authorities said.

Ivory may finally become a relic of a painful and destructive age of commodifying wildlife, and elephants may be spared widespread regional extinction if China can implement its 2017 ban on ivory within the year, as planned.

At the recently concluded 17th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Conference of the Parties (CoP17) - the largest meeting of its kind ever held - IUCN helped inform a number of landmark decisions on regulating sustainable and legal trade.