IFAW: Largest ivory crush ever in Kenya sends message to poachers

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IFAW: Largest ivory crush ever in Kenya sends mes­sage to poach­ers (PRNewsFoto/International Fund for Ani­mal W)

NAIROBI, Kenya, April 30, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Plumes of smoke drift­ed over Nairo­bi Nation­al Park today as Kenyan author­i­ties torched 105 tonnes of ivory and 1.35 tonnes of rhi­no horn – the largest sin­gle quan­ti­ty of ivory to be destroyed any­where in the world.

“It is a mas­sive quan­ti­ty of ivory, rep­re­sent­ing all of Kenya’s ivory stock­piles, apart from those retained as crim­i­nal exhibits, for pos­ter­i­ty, edu­ca­tion and sci­en­tif­ic research,” said James Isiche, Region­al Direc­tor Inter­na­tion­al Fund for Ani­mal Wel­fare (IFAW) East Africa.

“By burn­ing this ivory and rhi­no horn and putting it beyond use Kenya has sent a very pow­er­ful mes­sage to crim­i­nals that they are absolute­ly seri­ous about crack­ing down on trade in ille­gal ivory and rhi­no horn trade which, in turn, fuels the poach­ing that is dec­i­mat­ing ele­phants and rhi­no pop­u­la­tions.”

Since 1989, Kenya has destroyed over 30 tonnes of ivory. In March 2015, His Excel­len­cy Pres­i­dent Uhu­ru Keny­at­ta set ablaze 15 tonnes. His two pre­de­ces­sors, Pres­i­dents Mwai Kiba­ki and Daniel Moi destroyed five tonnes in 2011 and 12 tonnes in 1989 respec­tive­ly. The burn­ing of the 12 tonnes in 1989 cap­tured media atten­tion and helped lead to the inter­na­tion­al ivory trade ban in 1990.

Today’s his­toric occa­sion was wit­nessed by three sit­ting Pres­i­dents, their Excel­len­cies Ian Khama of Botswana, Ali Bon­go Ondim­ba of Gabon and Yow­eri Musev­eni of Ugan­da who togeth­er with their host His Excel­len­cy Pres­i­dent Uhu­ru Keny­at­ta of Kenya set alight four of the 10 ivory pyres.

The pres­i­dents had ear­li­er in the day con­clud­ed a two-day inau­gur­al sum­mit as mem­bers of the Giants Club. The Giants Club is an exclu­sive forum that brings togeth­er African Heads of State, glob­al busi­ness lead­ers and ele­phant pro­tec­tion experts to secure Africa’s remain­ing ele­phant pop­u­la­tions and the land­scapes they depend on.

Azze­dine Downes Pres­i­dent and CEO IFAW who attend­ed the Giants Club Sum­mit as a leader in ele­phant con­ser­va­tion, also wit­nessed the his­toric ivory dis­pos­al.

“The ivory and rhi­no horn dis­pos­al we have wit­nessed today is tru­ly a remark­able event in the con­tin­ued fight against ivory and rhi­no horn traf­fick­ing. By destroy­ing the largest ivory stock­pile, Kenya has again demon­strat­ed that the only valu­able ivory and rhi­no horn is on a live ani­mal,” he stat­ed.

Since 2011 more than 100 tonnes of ivory have been destroyed by 18 coun­tries: Bel­gium, Cameroon, Chad, Chi­na (includ­ing Hong Kong), The Repub­lic of Con­go, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Italy, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Mozam­bique, Philip­pines, Sri Lan­ka, Thai­land, UAE and the U.S.A.

Despite these vic­to­ries, ivory trade is push­ing endan­gered ele­phants towards extinc­tion. Every year, 25,000–30,000 African Ele­phants are poached to sup­ply the ivory trade. Ivory seizures con­tin­ue to increase with 24.3 tonnes in 2011, 30 tonnes in 2012, 41.5 tonnes in 2013, 17. 8 tonnes seized between Jan­u­ary and August 2014 and 32 tonnes in 2015.

Most ille­gal ivory is des­tined for Asia, in par­tic­u­lar Chi­na, where it has soared in val­ue as an invest­ment vehi­cle and is cov­et­ed as “white gold.”

The 2013 IFAW report, Crim­i­nal Nature: The Glob­al Secu­ri­ty Impli­ca­tions of the Ille­gal Wildlife Trade,doc­u­ments the threat the ille­gal wildlife trade pos­es to ele­phants, rhi­nos and peo­ple.

About IFAW (The Inter­na­tion­al Fund for Ani­mal Wel­fare)
Found­ed in 1969, IFAW res­cues and pro­tects ani­mals around the world. With projects in more than 40 coun­tries, IFAW res­cues indi­vid­ual ani­mals, works to pre­vent cru­el­ty to ani­mals, and advo­cates for the pro­tec­tion of wildlife and habi­tats. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.ifaw.org. Fol­low us on Facebook/IFAW and Twit­ter @action4ifaw

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