Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was expected to burn 15 tons of elephant tusks and rhino horns yesterday as part of efforts to curb poaching of the mammals in the east African country, the Kenya Wildlife Service said.
“Burning of contraband ivory, coupled with China stopping to import ivory for one year starting last week, will help greatly in the fight against poaching,” Paul Muya, the deputy spokesman for the service, said.
Poachers killed 164 elephants in Kenya last year, compared with 302 in 2013 and 384 in 2012, while 53 rhinos were killed last year compared with 59 and 30 in the previous two years, according to the wildlife service.
The government partly attributes the reduction in poaching to tougher laws.
Bloomberg