The Times carries an article today: Britain to crack down on illegal ivory trade (paywall).

I read that last year WWF-Hong Kong and Geometry Global called for the completely new Chinese character for ivory.

They worry that the term xiàngyá 象牙 (2 characters, 1 word) misleads people into thinking the tusks simply fall out causing no harm to the elephant. (But actually elephants are killed for their tusks.)

• 象牙塔 xiàngyá tǎ （Ivory tower）
  
• 象牙海岸 Xiàngyá hǎi'àn （Ivory Coast)
  
• 狗嘴里长不出象牙 gǒu zuǐ li zhǎng bù chū xiàngyá：No ivory will come out of a dog's mouth. It is used to critisise someone who just can't say nice things. (Online: "filthy mouth cannot utter decent language.")