Tomorrow's destruction of nearly $200 million worth of elephant tusk ivory and rhino horns will mark the closing of the Giants Club Summit meeting in Kenya.
Political, business and environmental leaders convened today in Kenya to discuss both tactics and strategies to end the illegal trade in ivory that has the potential to drive the estimated 500,000 wild elephants in Africa to extinction by 2025. At the end of the summit, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, will set fire to 100 tons of ivory - estimated to be 5% of the global stockpile of the material. You can watch that event live here.
On Saturday, April 30, Kenya Wildlife Service will host the largest ivory burn in history — a bold statement against elephant poaching, and one we hope will mark the beginning of the end for the global ivory trade, which kills an estimated 33,000 elephants every year.
African and global conservation leaders are working to impact global perceptions of the illegal ivory trade. On a governmental basis substantial progress has been made to marginalize the ivory trade, but the trade continues. The trade still flourishes in Asia with Hong Kong as one of its commercial centers.
Hong Kong's traders are only required to register their ivory holdings annually by weight; the government does not provided licenses by piece.
In the undercover video, one trader explains just how easy it is to exploit this system. When he sells one item, he claims he only needs to substitute a new one made from illegal material.
"The government has no idea how to regulate this," he says, though he insists all his stock is legal.
Hopefully, Saturday's fire will light the way to meaningful global action to abolish the ivory trade.
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