LONDON: Kenya yesterday staged the largest burning of ivory in history, setting alight more than 100 tons of poached tusks in a ceremony signalling the country’s commitment to ending the illegal wildlife trade.
The 105-ton haul – eight times more than has been destroyed at once – went up in flames in Nairobi National Park in front of thousands of people, including presidents Ali Bongo of Gabon and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, UN officials, conservationists, business figures and politicians from around the world.
Kenya’s Wildlife Service said the stacks of tusks and rhino horn represent more than 8 000 elephants and about 343 rhinos, all illegally killed by poachers.
Speaking at the burn ceremony, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said: “A time has come when we must take a stand… Kenya is making a statement that, for us, ivory is worthless unless it is on our elephants.”
Using the hashtag #WorthMore Alive, Kenyan authorities aim to highlight the long-term economic value of elephants left alive. Kenyan-born actress Lupita Nyong’o took to Twitter to hail a “historic moment” for her country.
The African elephant, the world’s largest land mammal, faces extinction because of mass poaching fuelled by demand for illicit ivory, mainly in Asian markets. About 30 000 elephants are killed every year across the continent, a rate of slaughter that could bring about extinction within two decades. In the 1970s, Africa had 1.2 million elephants. It now has 400 000 to 450 000.
Bongo warned those making money killing elephants and rhinos. "To all the poachers, to all the buyers, to all the traders, your days are numbered."
The burn followed the Giants Club summit, a historic gathering of African heads of state, business leaders and conservationists dedicated to saving Africa’s elephants. Giants Club members Botswana, Gabon, Uganda and Kenya – who together hold over half Africa’s elephants – used the summit to announce front-line protection measures to preserve remaining elephant populations.
Speaking at the summit, Kenyatta said poaching posed a “direct threat” to Africa’s economic progress and pledged to seek a “total ban on the trade in elephant ivory at the 17th meeting of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (Cites) in South Africa later this year. Cites banned commercial trade in African elephant ivory in 1989, but has since permitted one-off sales, a move which many blame for the recent escalation in poaching.
Ivory burns have gained in popularity, partly because of their symbolic power, but also because stockpiles are expensive to guard and maintain. The first ivory burn took place in 1989 when Kenya’s then president, Daniel Arap Moi, incinerated 12 tons of ivory in Nairobi National Park, telling the press: “I appeal to people all over the world to stop buying ivory."