Oleg Mitvol is currently taking part in the 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in The Hague.
"Following discussions the parties worked out a final document on introducing a nine-year moratorium on the ivory trade in Africa," the press release reads. "The only exception will be made for one-off sales of ivory (confiscated or collected from animals, which have died a natural death) registered as of January 1, 2007."
Elephant populations in Africa halved in the 1980s, after more than 500,000 animals were slaughtered.
At the conference a number of South African countries, such as the Republic of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Zambia, were in favor of the unrestricted commercial trade in ivory.
But Russia, Kenya and Mali put forward a proposal to toughen ivory trade regulations, the Russian Natural Resources Ministry said.
CITES is an international agreement between governments, which was signed in Washington in March 1973, and its aim is to ensure that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
