President and co-founder of the Born Free Foundation Will Travers OBE says the move is to send a message to poachers and ivory traders that there s no room for any future ivory trade.
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While in 2012 some 384 elephants were slaughtered for their tusks, in 2015 the number dropped to 96 in the entire country, where some 35,000 of the pachyderms live that attract thousands of tourists from around the world every year.
Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe were granted a one-time exemption from a global ivory ban due to their thriving elephant herds.
He backed called to ban all sale of ivory, saying unless urgent action was taken “we risk losing this magnificent animal”. Some critics had suggested that the money raised from the ivory sales could be used to develop Kenya and protect wildlife. “Kenya is making a statement that for us ivory is worthless unless it is on our elephants”, he added. They listened to the gust of wind feeding the flames, and the crackle of burning ivory, rhino horn and other items.
The tusks alone – from about 8,000 elephants – would be worth more than $105 million on the black market, according to wildlife trade expert Esmond Bradley Martin. “Before you, ladies and gentlemen, is the largest haul of ivory and horn ever to be destroyed in this manner”.
The ivory and horns from this burn is believed to come from 6,500 elephants and 450 rhinos, poached for their respective parts.
Mbathi, who oversaw the burn, explained how a fuel pumping system that combined kerosene and diesel had been built to aid the combustion of the pyres, which would take about a week to completely burn.
And as supporters of the burn have pointed out, selling the ivory instead of destroying would require selling it to corrupt markets.
President Ali Bongo of Gabon and senior officials from African elephant range states attended the historic torching of ivory and rhino horns that sought to re-enforce Kenya’s commitment to eradicate wildlife crimes. “We did it before and prices went from $300 down to $5 within three months of that fire”.
Conservationist Richard Leakey urged all African nations to destroy their ivory stocks.
While today’s burns are setting records, conservationist groups have noted that there’s quite a bit more work to do in order to preserve wild populations of elephants and rhinoceros.
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Cites banned commercial trade in African elephant ivory in 1989, but still permits one-off sales. And Kenya’s tourism makes up 12 percent of the nation’s GDP.
