Kill the ivory market once and for all’

Part of a 700 kilogramme ivory haul seized by Togolese police in 2013. Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said this will not be the generation of Africans who stood by as elephants are lost. FILE PHOTO | EMILE KOUTON |  AFP

By EUNICE KILONZO

In Summary

• Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta wants ivory made worthless and its trade banned.
• Earlier, chairperson of the Kenya Wildlife Society, Dr Richard Leakey, had suggested end of the ivory trade, terming it the “surest way” to end poaching.
• According to Dr Leakey, making ivory worthless as it was done in 1989 when the price was devalued would also help.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta wants ivory made worthless and its trade banned.

Speaking in Nanyuki, Laikipia County at the inaugural Giants Club Summit that brought together Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Gabon’s Ali Bongo, Kenyatta said Kenya would not relent.

“My government will push for a total ban of ivory during the 17th meeting of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) in Johannesburg, South Africa. We will not sit and wait to be the generation that will see the decline of our wildlife,” he said.

Earlier, chairperson of the Kenya Wildlife Society, Dr Richard Leakey, had suggested end of the ivory trade, terming it the “surest way” to end poaching.

“Kill the ivory market once and for all. Demand and ultimately the market for ivory is spurred on by corruption and porous borders,” he noted.

Worthless ivory

According to Dr Leakey, making ivory worthless as it was done in 1989 when the price was devalued would also help.

“In 1989, ivory was about Ksh30,000 ($300) per kilo, but its now Ksh50,000 ($500). We need to fight the poachers hard, but we must fight the market too,” he said.

About 400,000 elephants remain in Africa but about 20,000 elephants were killed last year.

Kenya, Gabon, Botswana and Uganda together boast an elephant population of about 216,000.

The heads of state at the Giants Club Summit discussed methods used in the fight against poachers, from the frontline, where rangers are out on patrol, to the court room.

According to President Bongo, poaching has “made elephants refugees and this is worsening the human-wildlife conflict.”

President Museveni said it was getting difficult to urge his citizens to co-exist with wildlife and to take care of their environment.

“We are very hard on poachers, we send them to heaven prematurely but the problem is my voters. They invade forests, wetlands, and farm on mountain slopes,” he said.

The summit precedes the historic burning of about 105 tonnes worth of ivory seized from poaching gangs. This will be Kenya’s fourth burn, with previous ones in 2015 (15 tonnes), 2001 (five tonnes) and 1989 (12 tonnes).