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James Morgan / WWF-Canon via AP
Seized elephant tusks and ivory ornaments go up in smoke Wednesday in Libreville, Gabon.
The Central African nation of Gabon on Wednesday burned all the elephant tusks and ivory ornaments it had in its stockpile -- an amount equivalent to 850 elephants -- so that smugglers, via corrupt government officials, won't get their hands on the black market commodities treasured in China and other parts of Asia.
"Gabon’s elephants are under siege because of an illegal international market," President Ali Bongo said. "I call on the international community to join us in this fight" by cracking down on smugglers and buyers. "If we do not reverse the tide, the African elephant is in serious trouble."
The international wildlife monitoring agency TRAFFIC is among those that fear skyrocketing prices for ivory will tempt more government officials across Africa to join the illegal trade.
"If not managed properly, ivory stockpiles in the hands of government suddenly 'get legs'," Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC's ivory trade expert, said in announcing the burn. "Zambia lost 3 tons of ivory from the government’s strong room just last week and Mozambique lost 1.1 tons in February."
"Gabon’s actions effectively keep the ivory out of the way of temptation," he said.
Kenya last year burned several tons of seized tusks and ivory as well, though that was not so much to deter temptation as it was to send a signal about the rampant illegal trade, where tusks can sell for hundreds of dollars a pound.
TRAFFIC's data showed record levels of tusk and ivory seizures last year.
Even before the spike in recent years, Africa's elephant population is estimated to have shrunk from 1.3 million in 1979 to 450,000 in 2007.
Worth some $10 million on the black market, nearly 11,000 pounds of ivory was burned on Wednesday -- including almost 1,300 pieces of rough ivory made from tusks and almost 18,000 pieces of worked ivory.
The international community in 2008 did try to ease the demand -- and the high prices that lure poachers -- by allowing Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to sell their stockpiles, but prices continued upward.
The same strategy by Gabon would also fail, the conservation group WWF told msnbc.com.
"Commercialization would encourage additional elephant poaching," said Lee Poston, a spokesman for the WWF's U.S. office. "Like illegal drugs, seized ivory has no legitimate monetary value."
Gabon is home to more than half of Africa's remaining forest elephants.
Lee White, head of Gabon's National Parks Agency, said Africa had lost nearly 80 percent of its forest elephant population in the last 20 years.
"Gabon is the last sanctuary," he said at Wednesday's ceremony, Reuters reported. "For example, there are now 20 times more elephants in Gabon than in the Democratic Republic of Congo, even if that country is 10 times larger than Gabon."
But even Gabon is threatened. Two elephant massacres were reported in the last year and Gabon has had to create an elite military unit to protect its wildlife.
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In neighboring Cameroon, several hundred elephants were killed earlier this year for their ivory -- inside a national park.
China was allowed to purchase tusks and ivory from the authorized sale in 2008, but conservationists say buyers there have abused the system by forging documents.
"It's essential that, given China's insatiable appetite for ivory, its 'ivory trading nation' status be revoked," Will Travers, head of the Born Free Foundation, said in a statement.
The issue is expected to come up at a meeting next month among nations that are party to a treaty on the trade in wildlife.
Just days after Rock Center aired Harry Smith's report, "The Last Stand," on the growing epidemic of illegal rhino poaching in South Africa, three of the rhinos featured were attacked by poachers. Rock Center's Harry Smith reports.
The head of the treaty committee testified before a U.S. Senate committee last month, urging the U.S. and other nations to crack down.
A report coming out shortly will reveal that "the levels of illegal killing exceed what can be sustained in all four African sub-regions in 2011, with elephant populations now in net decline," John Scanlon, secretary-general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, told the Senate Foreign Relations committee.
Rhinos have also been slaughtered by smugglers after their horns, which are ground up to be used as a purported medicinal powder. The price for rhino horn has made it more valuable than gold.
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Leave a Comment:
Just watch, some idiot in Asia will now find a market for "Ivory Ash".
And YES this is wrong.
Although the Ivory was illegally harvested it could legally be sold to fund the nations affected.
And, burning it will make demand go up.
Thanks a lot for making sure those elephants all died in vain. The ivory could have been sold and the money sent to charity. Seriously boneheaded move.
Are you kidding? Wow. Stupid
Not sure what charity would want poached ivory money, but you're right in that it's a complete waste. I can appreciate putting principle before pragmatism in some cases, but they're not doing anybody any good here.
Exactly. It's like burning money!
They should of sold it and hired more rangers to help stop poachers.
Wait a minute. The WWF keeps telling us that burning things is dooming the Earth and all life on it but they are okay with this burning?
Uh, not burning "things". Burning thousands of tons of fossil fuels, specifically. Burning a few tons of ivory is negligible.
major problem = 'legal ivory' sold in Chinese stores = front for criminals
there should be no international classification of legal ivory
Why don't we just legalize it, and pretend it isn't a really problem...? *sarcasm*
It isn't a matter of "just" legalizing it. When a government tries an approach to a problem, and it fails, then a new approach should be tried. This doesn't often happen. Blanket bans on certain markets (drugs, animal parts, sex) almost never work, yet we insist on having them anyway because so long as it's against the law, we can satisfy our moral outrage and pretend the problem is solved, even though it obviously isn't. Is that better than pretending there isn't a problem? I don't see how.
When will we see that the poachers have been caught, convicted and their teeth sold on the ivory market to pay court costs?
well burning it was not a wise idea. just drives up demand and price.wich drives demand even farther. what this story does not tell is the REAL reason elephant numbers are going down....when you make it elegal to sell the ivory or the meat, people stop poaching. (or do they?) what happens is people move on to farming and other forms of income. the elephants become pests for farmers as they can really wreck crops and fences. so the farmers go and shoot the elephants to protect there farms. (dont believe me? look it up) this artical wants you to think the poaching is done for the tusks. (its not) its done to get rid of the pesky Elephant that "now" has no value to them. ( a resource such as elephants has value when people can make money from them, much like farmed salmon. are they poaching them into extinction? no. why? they have value) and now...you have the "rest of the story".
While I'm sure there's some truth to that, people don't just make up this stuff about the Chinese market for ivory or the numbers associated with it. It's pretty certain that there's some hefty demand for ivory, and that it's more than worth the risk for criminals to hunt it and smuggle it to market. Though it wouldn't surprise me that there's more than one cause. Very rarely does a government ban ever solve a problem.
The DEA incinerate captured cocaine and weed hauls. Once this stuff is torched you dispense with the problem of corrupt officials accidentally opeing up the warehouse for their business associates.
most of the poaching is being done by farmers.
More bull@!$%# from the corrupt.
The less of a product, the more it's wort
Figure it out - I guess government in gabon is in the ivory and tusk business.
LMAO
burning the tusks?. they must be on the poachers side.
there are two sides: the elephants and the humans.
They should have poisoned the tusks and let them go through the usual export channels.
"Like illegal drugs, seized ivory has no legitimate monetary value."
And like illegal drugs, taking as much as possible out of circulation and destroying them just makes the price go up. The higher the price, the more poachers will be willing to risk and invest in poaching. This isn't a solution.
Instead of continuing this futile effort to prosecute poor folks who are killing elephants in a desperate attempt to earn a living in a 3rd World continent, why not have elephant farms instead. If the poor people of Africa were allowed to raise elephants in the same way that they can raise chickens and cows, they could get the elephants to breed cubs and then slaughter the older elephants to harvest their tusks. That would be a more win win situation for both the poor folks and the conservationists.
Sad that people are still buying this stuf. None of them give a dam about the animals. Hell their animals themselves that need to be castorated when caught. Agh! then we can sell the droppings from the cut in the far east as an aphrodisiac, take the profits from that to hire more Rangers
What an insane thing to do. There is a market for ivory - in this case, it was already (illegally) harvested and the damage done. The better thing to do would have been to sell it and use the proceeds to pay for beefing up anti-poaching patrols and enforcement.
Such a waste.
You people bashing the Chinese are hypocrites! Americans eat poached eggs all the time yet no one is coming down on us!
Swan37: You idiot. Eggs are farmed for sustainability. Elephants aren't. I don't eat meat regardless, but your statement is ridiculous. These are two completely separate issues. I know it is difficult for you, but try to stay on topic.
LOL! I new someone would respond like this!
That would be, "you knew someone would respond like this."
Carrieberry
You are the idiot!!! Can't you see the joke? I have news for you, eggs are not meat.
Well, aren't you just the spelling Nazi. In any case I may make the occasional typo but at least I can recognize the obvious bad pun when I see it.
JohnnyOnTheSpot-3794903: I know eggs aren't meat, but they come from animals. You DO know that, right? The only reason I mentioned eggs was due to the silly comparison of egg farming to elephant poaching.
OMG, She still doesn't get it.
I think there needs to be a shoot on site policy when it comes to these poachers. Some countries in Africa used to use that policy and it was fairly successful.
What an incredibly dumb thing to do. All that wonderful ivory gone to waste and now those 850 elephants DID die for nothing!
I don't think the elephants give a @!$%#.
Greedy people love rarity. It's just going to make things worse for those beautiful creatures. As for finger pointing at other countries, what a f'ing joke!!! Americans are doing the most unforgivable acts of violence and murder against all sorts of animals. I'm vey well informed on the matter and if I started giving examples, I would never be able to stop because there a too many. I will say however, that 2 years ago I attended Crossroads of West Gun Show in Del Mar and was shocked to see an ivory vendor there. Not a thing was done about it. No one cared. Not the host, the vendors, the patrons, law enforcement doing security....I sent a few emails to the host politely reminding them of the fact that it was illegal and inhumane. I received no response . My second email was to inform them that if they continued to allow ivory vendors and their shows that I would boycott them completely. No response. What I should have done was contact the Game and Wildlife officers I had too much faith that fellow Americans would do the right thing. I have been proved wrong time and time again. Animals have it all over people, I will never hope for the best when it comes to animal welfare again. People are basically selfish, self serving and @!$%#ty and the U.S. is no better than any other country when it comes to decency and respect for life that is not their own.
Civilized man perpetuates the damage.
Why not regularly trim tusks & Rhino horns, under controlled environments, with skilled people, then sell the products?
Better to trim the nails & encourage tourism to make money.
Maybe the poachers could be enlisted to handle the safe procedures.
They could make a living for their families & the animals will live.
The horns & tusks regenerate.
That is incorrect. Tusks and horns will NOT grow back if broken off.
Then raise them like livestock and sell the meat. I mean, is it different than a chicken?
The problem with selling this ivory is it gives people who want ivory a cover story. They can always say "hey this was confiscated ivory, I'm not encouraging elephant poaching". Now every piece of ivory you see becomes questionable. Better to just burn it all. Then you know whatever is being sold is illegal. I think they made the right choice.
Sad to be a human sometimes.
Has to be a government program, almost too stupid to be real. Lets burn all the ivory we can get and drive the price super high to discourage trafficking in it.
Better to sell it at a penny a pound and take all future profit out of the game. This would also put all buyers on the radar so you could watch their dealings.
The human population of Gabon has tripled in the last 40 years. The ivory should have been sold and the money used to both protect the remaining elephants and to fund family planning and birth control. Good luck with the birth control as most of the population is Catholic. The elephants are doomed.
american farmers need to get in on this action. Lots of coin for stupid trinkets.
Only a government could make such a totally insane decision.