In March, ITV News highlighted the issue in its #StopSlaughter series which investigated the ongoing poaching crisis.
Advertisement
Africa is home to between 450,000 to 500,000 elephants, but more than 30,000 are killed every year on the continent to satisfy demand for ivory in Asia, where raw tusks sell for around US$1,000 (RM3,913) a kilo.
Looming in front of him was a massive tower of ivory-one of 11 starkly white pyres set up here at Nairobi National Park, a sprawling wildlife-filled oasis in Kenya’s capital city.
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.
A fire expert monitors the burning of confiscated ivory from smugglers and poachers, at the Nairobi National Park near Nairobi, Kenya, April 30, 2016.
Kenyatta said Kenya will push for the total ban on trade in ivory at the 17th meeting of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species to be held in South Africa later this year.
Kenya’s president has set fire to 105 tons of elephant ivory and more than one ton of rhino horn.
Yesterday’s event was the fourth time Kenya was destroying ivory stockpiles, bringing some level of nostalgia to those who were present in the country’s first ivory torching by President Daniel arap Moi. He said ivory has no commercial value.
“No-one, and I repeat no-one, has any business in trading in ivory, for this trade means death of our elephants and death of our natural heritage”, the president of Kenya said.
It’s unclear how many were occupied at the time of the collapse, Red Cross spokesman Abbas Gullet told CNN affiliate KTN.
He has demanded a total ban on trade in ivory to end trafficking and prevent the extinction of elephants in the wild.
“I think the government did the right thing in burning the ivory, at least poachers will know that their activities are illegal”, said Brian Kinyanjui, a conservationist in Kiambu.
Critics of the burn worry the destruction of this stockpile will increase the price of ivory in the black market and encourage more poaching.
Conservationist Richard Leakey refuted that idea at the burning ceremony.
Poaching has escalated to alarming heights in recent years, as 100,000 African elephants were killed between 2010 and 2012.
“If the killing continues as it is now”, said Isiche, “then we can not sustain the elephant populations in the next 20 years”. He said a previous burn actually led to lower ivory prices, from $300 to $5 within three months.
Advertisement
Kenya’s tourism, based mostly around its wildlife, makes up about 12% of the country’s GDP.
