The situation for both African and Asian elephants remains “exceedingly dire”, according to World Elephant Day organisers. To satisfy the growing appetite for ivory, traffickers increasingly are relying on aggressive poaching tactics-and poaching and trafficking have largely become the province of sophisticated, militarized networks of organized crime.
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Buyers of ivory express genuine concern about cruelty towards animals, but only less than one-third of them believe that elephants are “very endangered”, while others feel that buying small pieces of ivory would not have a huge impact on elephant populations.
And supporting elephant sanctuaries is another way. “Tusks hacked off. Even really young elephants are killed for the sake of their tiny tusks”.
I interviewed a number of ex-soldiers with the Lord’s Resistance Army, and they described hand-carrying ivory tusks on their shoulders 600 miles through incredibly dense jungle from Garamba National Park into the Central African Republic into South Sudan into Sudan, the Darfur region of Sudan, into a little area called the Kafia Kingi enclave, and there, they told me, is where Joseph Kony is today.
Take a look at a trailer featuring Christy and the warlords of ivory above. Through extensive media partnerships, IFAW’s public outreach campaign has successfully reached hundreds of millions of Chinese television viewers with the tragic facts around ivory.
In this context, “helping consumers to make the connection between their consumptive behaviour and elephant population viability is vital” and such a targeted appeal to these consumers “should spearhead the strategy to reverse the elephant crisis”.
This year’s event puts particular emphasis on the plight of the Asian elephant and its fight for survival. A 2014 survey highlights that of those who viewed the PSAs, 90 percent agreed they will not purchase ivory as a result. We have to be part of the solution too.
Additionally, domestic regulations and symbolic gestures like destroying huge amounts of ivory in public have attempted to send a message to those who supply the market. A recent study found that 100,000 African elephants were killed between 2010-2012 alone. Possession, bequests, or gifting of ivory items would not be regulated under the proposed rule. “The United States has a global obligation to help stop wildlife trafficking”. A prohibition on domestic trade would also reinforce the stigma effect discouraging people from buying ivory and it would make law enforcement easier since there would be no distinction between legal and illegal ivory – all of it being illegal.
The data shows that we are making progress.
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As many as 35,000 elephants will die this year despite the worldwide protestations of presidents, princes and prime ministers. It’s cause for celebration, but in this fragile equation, continued education is key. We are ignorant of the sentience of other living things.
