A Tragedy: Elephant Ivory Poaching

Yesterday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a meeting on Elephany ivory poaching in Africa. I am currently watching this hearing, and the statistics I am hearing are tragic.

In addition, I am currently researching ivory poaching, and here are some startling facts:

*From 1979 to 1989, Africa's Elephant population declined from 1.3 million to 609,000.

*As of 2008 studies, the death rate of African Elephants due to ivory poaching was around 8 percent.

*When the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was enacted, an average of 70,000 Elephants a year were being killed by poachers.

In my opinion, something has to be done about this rapid decline in the Elephant population. My belief is true progress will not come from governments. More often than not, governments encourage poaching rather than deter it. Instead, individuals should work with NGO's and other organizations to end this travesty once and for all.

 

I agree with everything you say, but the only answer is to find a way to eliminate the market. There will always be greedy rich bastards who want the remains of endangered animals in their homes....

Perhaps if a synthetic ivory were produced and the "market" flooded...????

 

Elephants require a huge amount of habitat. One must consider the human population encroaching upon elephant habitat as a parallel issue. As with Gorillas, the big cats, other major fauna, the increase in human populations have a correlation to diminished populations of wildlife. If the ivory poachers do not get the elephants, humans converting wooded lands (major food source), to crop lands will.

 

Another problem is the fact that Africa is not a part of the United States.
About the only thing we could do is ban ivory sales (already done I think) and give aid to African nations to help them fight the problem.

Or we could lease jungle land and police it ourselves. Of course we would have to throw the locals off their land.

 

strange as this suggestion may seem, are there areas in the USA where elephants. lions and the like could survive and breed???

 

I wonder if elephants eat Kudzu?

 

Like the goats and sheep in Chastain Park?

 

LOL they are way to smart for that.....

 

The problem with elephants are the size.

Could you imagine on tramping through your garden?

Or the feed bill.

 

Ex U.S. professor gets half million dollar fine for smuggling ivory...

Ex-professor fined US$500,000 in US for smuggling ivory
Wed, May 11, 2016 - A former philosophy professor in Minnesota on Monday was fined US$500,000 for smuggling elephant ivory and illegally exporting rhinoceros horns from the US to China, prosecutors said.

 

We already kill wolves because there is no room for them and bison are out of room too

 

Wildlife trafficking funds terrorist organizations in addition to killing endangered species. He should get more than a fine, he should also do some time in jail. I wonder how his philosophy looks when it comes to cutting the face off a beautiful rhino while it's alive for money.


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sawyer wrote: strange as this suggestion may seem, are there areas in the USA where elephants. lions and the like could survive and breed???

There is a large game preserve in SE Ohio.

 

Just allow raising of exotic animals for harvesting of body parts and ivory, if licensed properly, this would reduce the need for poaching.

 

Doesn't it sound insane to raise endangered species for parts? If we're raising them at all it should be to release and rebuild their species. They're endangered. Not to mention it wouldn't treat the issue. If elephants were plentiful poachers would move on to something else rare. Instead I think we should save our finger nail clippings for a year and flood the black market with bogus product. Who would pay $35,000 a pound if there was a chance it was worthless human fingernails... Made of the same stuff?

 

I think a solution to the Ivory problem would be to give the governments a legal monopoly on the harvesting of Ivory. It could be harvested from elephants who died of old age, or harvested from living elephants without killing them. Then this ivory could be sold on the market to help fulfill some of the demand, to help drive the price down. It would only be legal to sell this ivory if the seller had a certificate proving that the ivory originated from legal sources. If a tusk got cut up and carved into something else, the artisan or factory would have to get approval from a government office and have the ivory registered a second time before it could be sold again.

A poacher trying to sell a piece of illegally obtained ivory into the legal market would have a real problem because he would not have a certificate to go with the ivory. These certificates would have a number that could be verified in a database and would include the name of the seller and buyer any time a transaction took place.

 

The only solution to the problem would be to return all the corrupt nations in Africa that allow poaching of ivory to Western colonial control. It is obvious, that the morally debased people cannot care for themselves very well, and they certainly can't care for the wildlife on their own without massive help from Westerners.

Another great idea would be a trade embargo with China, Vietnam and every other Asiatic country that uses exotic animal parts for their primitive beliefs and practices.

 

East Asians at the heart of ivory smuggling...

East Asian networks 'smuggle ivory across Africa'
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 - East Asian criminal networks in Africa have become the biggest challenge in the fight against the illegal trade in elephant tusks, a new report finds.

 

They've been doing that with a lot of other African animals people hunt. Maybe it isn't viable with elephants? The gestate for a very long time and live a very long time. Maybe it takes decades for the tusks to grow?

I don't know very much about elephants.

 

I loved where your thougts were going, but I just googled it and trade in ivory is banned internationally - none of it is legal. Are you thinking a small legal trade might make it less profitable for the poachers?

 

I'm saying that putting some legal ivory into the market—even if that ivory is high in price—might help satiate some of the high demand in the market. If the richest consumers can obtain their ivory through legal means, that is going to push the black market price of ivory way down. We are just going to have to accept that there is a demand for ivory that isn't going to go away. Supply ivory to the ones who really want it and are willing to pay the highest prices, and that is going to drive away most of the black market trade.

It would be like a pressure release valve.

 

One of the biggest slaughters in recent years...

Scores of Dead Elephants Found in Botswana ‘Poaching Frenzy’
Sept. 4, 2018 — Some of the elephant corpses had begun to decay, their skins dried stiff over bony carcasses. Others appeared to have been freshly killed, partly covered by bushes in an attempt to hide them from view.

 

Banned ??

 

If you have something worth stealing, someone on this Earth is going to steal it, even if they have to kill you for it.

Poor elephants.

Poor rhino's too.