Dignitaries led by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta – who a year ago set fire to 15 tons of ivory – are expected to light a fuel gel which will flow into the center of each pyre and ignite pieces of confiscated endangered African sandalwood.
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ON April 30th Kenya is set to burn nearly its entire stockpile of ivory – a total of 105 tonnes of ivory and 1.35 tonnes of rhino horn – sending out the message that it will never benefit from illegal ivory again.
In 1989 Kenya first burned 12 tonnes of tusks, a landmark event meant to suppress the value of ivory. Elephant tusks can sell for around $1,000 a kilo on the black market.
We can not forsake our lofty ambitions. Elephant populations recovered to some extent.
The historic bonfires will be the largest-ever torching of ivory, involving 105 tonnes from thousands of dead elephants, dwarfing by seven times any stockpile burned before. Data from the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency indicates that 100,000 elephants were killed illegally between 2010 and 2012, an average of 33,630 each year – in excess of what is thought to be the average annual population growth rate of the African elephant.
Uganda and Rwanda have very few reported cases of poaching, although Uganda is being used by smugglers in the Eastern Congo and from South Sudan to traffic blood ivory through, and the new administration of Tanzanian President John Magufuli has cracked down hard on the syndicates with, of late, massive fines and decades-long jail terms handed down to culprits.
The ivory is getting through because people are prepared to pay for it. Stopping the men with arrows and the corrupt officials is just one part of the solution – the other is destroying the hunger for ivory. They were not subjected to the pressure that we brought on the world markets in those days.
This destruction of illicit wildlife goods dwarfs anything similar that has been done before.
Ivory burns and crushes are not merely symbolic gestures – they are tangible milestones that show a nation is serious about combating trafficking in ivory by unequivocally removing this ivory from any chance of being traded.
Kenya has had some success with both reducing poaching in recent years and encouraging networks of private conservancies that work with local communities to find ways to accommodate both livestock and elephant herds.
This approach should be abandoned, according to a wide range of NGOs. But the irony is that his family has been linked with the illegal trade of ivory! “Quite simply, we will not allow it”, Kenyatta said in the keynote speech at the summit.
Other methods of discouraging poaching, such as removing tusks and dyeing rhino horns, have been tried to limited effect.
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, conservationists have adopted increasingly modern anti-poaching efforts – surveillance drones, teams of armed guards, GPS-enabled elephant collars that send a signal when an animal is immobile, a sign that it might be in trouble.
Campaigners are also clear on the need for buyers of ivory to be targeted in campaigns to stop the trade.
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“We want to introduce a sense of embarrassment and shame to the use of products for ornaments, for statues or for eating implements”, Leakey said.
