China’s voracious appetite for ivory sounds death knell for our elephants
What you need to know:
- If the Chinese Government is really serious about saving Africa’s elephants, it should have by now declared all ivory products illegal in China. All persons and outlets selling ivory should be in jail and their illicit products confiscated.
- African countries should also take their share of the blame. It appears that in exchange for nice big loans and infrastructure projects, many African governments are looking the other way as their elephant numbers dwindle to near-extinction levels.
When the Chinese are done with Africa, say in about 50 years, there may not be a single elephant or rhino left on the continent because our precious wildlife may have been decimated by poachers and smugglers who feed China’s voracious appetite for ivory and rhino horn.
One must ask, is there a connection between the advent of Chinese companies in Africa and elephant poaching? The Chinese Government has stated that it is against poaching and is doing all it can to stem the illegal trade in ivory, but it must be doing something wrong because the demand for ivory seems to be escalating and elephants are being killed in ever-increasing numbers.
According to recent research, nearly seven per cent of the total elephant population in Africa was killed between 2010 and 2012. That amounts to an average of 33,630 elephants per year. The illegal ivory trade is currently operating at its highest level since a trade ban was imposed in 1989.
I am appalled because I always believed the Chinese to be very protective of their natural environment. After all, China is the land of Feng Shui, Buddhism, and the “spiritual” martial arts. How can people who consider the natural environment to be sacred feel no qualms about buying an ivory ornament that came from the blood-soaked hands of a poacher?
Do they not see that their insatiable desire for ivory is connected to a brutal and dangerous smuggling ring that has made a business out of butchering elephants, one of nature’s gentlest creatures? But then we must remember that in the name of economic development China also ruined the air quality of its own cities — which are now ranked as the most polluted in the world.
DECALRE IVORY PRODUCTS ILLEGAL
If the Chinese Government is really serious about saving Africa’s elephants, it should have by now declared all ivory products illegal in China. All persons and outlets selling ivory should be in jail and their illicit products confiscated.
African countries should also take their share of the blame. It appears that in exchange for nice big loans and infrastructure projects, many African governments are looking the other way as their elephant numbers dwindle to near-extinction levels.
How else can you explain why the Inspector-General of Police, Mr David Kimaiyo, refused to see Dr Paula Kahumbu, head of the Hands Off Our Elephants campaign last month?
Kahumbu had made an appointment with the chief of police (who kept her waiting for more than eight hours) to see how her organisation could assist in the capture and arrest of a suspected ivory kingpin. She was hoping that Kimaiyo would lead the campaign, but sadly, he seemed uninterested. Why? Kahumbu later wrote about her experience in the magazine National Geographic, but even international exposure did not move the police boss.
WILDLEAKS
Luckily, we live in the digital age and when governments fail, citizens take to the Internet. A new anti-poaching website called WildLeaks (modelled after WikiLeaks) has sprung up. The founders — a group of conservationists — say that it is the first secure, online whistleblowing platform dedicated to wildlife and forest crime. The founder, Andrea Costa, says that WildLeaks has received information that powerful individuals linked to the government in Kenya are behind the rise in elephant poaching.
The port of Mombasa and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport have also been identified as among the largest conduits for illegal ivory.
Let us hope that WildLeaks will shed light on who is behind the slaughter of Kenya’s elephants and why they seem to elude arrest.
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The Kenyan Government’s decision to blow up a ship containing heroin worth Sh1.3 billion leaves several questions unanswered. Firstly, do we know who owned the ship and where it was registered? Was any forensic investigation conducted on it?
Secondly, and most importantly, why did the government ignore a High Court order that forbade the destruction of the ship? If the government can ignore a High Court order, what message is it sending to ordinary citizens? Is this the beginning of anarchy, where the rule of law is undermined by none other than the government?
