Kenya Holds Large-scale Burning of Illegal Ivory

By June Kellum
July 20, 2011

In a high-profile ceremony Wednesday, Kenya burned several tons of contraband ivory confiscated more than a decade ago in Singapore.

This is the first time in over 20 years Kenya has burned ivory in large quantities. In 1989, 12 tons were destroyed as a statement against the poaching of elephants.

On Wednesday, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki set fire to 335 tusks and 41,553 hankos (carved signature stamps), which went up in a blaze of orange flames and black smoke at the Kenya Wildlife Service Field Training School in southwestern Kenya.

DNA testing of the ivory determined that most of it came from Zambian elephants, although some were from elephants in Malawi and Tanzania. The ivory was exported from Lilongwe, Malawi and more than seven tons were discovered by authorities in Singapore in 2002, according to a press release from the Environmental Investigation Agency in London.

Some of the ivory—as many as 196 tusks—will be taken back to Zambia and Malawi for prosecution evidence and educational research, according to the African Conservation Foundation (AFC).
Controversy

The burning, which took place on Elephant Law Enforcement Day, comes after years of lobbying and with continued controversy over the right way to manage Africa’s resources, according to the AFC.

Some conservationists say that burning ivory wastes a resource that could otherwise be put to into development and educational programs in Africa, while others, such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare, hail incineration of illegal ivory.

The World Conservation Trust Foundation (WCTF), which advocates managing elephant populations, holds that human needs must be balanced with elephant welfare, and that burning ivory deprives impoverished African communities of much-needed income.

“Some elephant populations in Africa have grown to the point where they endanger the welfare of local people by trampling crops and homes … In the west, the false impression has grown that all elephant populations are in great danger from man. The reality is that many elephant stocks are abundant. What is required is the proper management of their populations,” WCTF states on it’s website.

In a recent study, IFAW found that that ivory trade of “questionable legality” is active in Europe. It found 650,000 euro ($922,000) worth of merchandise for sale on websites in the U.K., France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Germany.

“Any legal trade in ivory encourages elephant poaching by providing a cover for illegal trade in ivory,” states the Director of IFAW’s Wildlife Trade Program, Kelvin Alie, on the organization’s website.

“The war on illegal ivory trade and elephant poaching can only be won by removing elephant ivory not just from international trade, but entirely from the global marketplace. If ivory had no commercial value, there would be little incentive for anyone to kill elephants for their tusks and one of the major threats to their survival would disappear,” Alie states.

The burning was carried out under the Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF), a wildlife law enforcement initiative.

The six LATF countries are Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Lesotho, Tanzania, and The Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), with Ethiopia, South Africa and Swaziland as signatories.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/kenya-holds-large-scale-burning-of-illegal-ivory-59334.html.