Kenya’s ongoing campaign to end the illegal trade in ivory

The Nairobi National Park has a commemorative plaque of the burning of ivory stockpiles that show Kenya’s efforts to save their elephants in an ongoing campaign to end the illegal trade in ivory.

More than 100 tonnes of ivory was burned in Nairobi National Park in 2016 that represents nearly the entire stock confiscated by Kenya, amounting to the tusks of about 6,700 elephants. The burning aims to end to illegal trade in ivory.  

Experts have warned Africa's elephants could be extinct within decades. But some conservationists have expressed opposition to the ivory burn in Kenya, the biggest in history. Conservationists say destroying so much of a rare commodity could increase its value and encourage more poaching rather than less.

Tackling demand and destroying the market for ivory are ways of eliminating the ivory trade, but there are also other ways of making elephants more valuable alive than dead. Parks and game reserves offer eco-tourism to fund conservation efforts. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) says it suffers from staff and equipment shortages.

Africa is home to between 450,000 and 500,000 elephants but more than 30,000 are killed every year for their tusks.

For example, in Kenya elephant numbers declined from a high of 130,000 in 1973 to only 14,000 in 1989 as elephants were killed by poachers for their ivory. In 1989 the Kenyan Government burned a stockpile of ivory elephant tusks.

The plaque at the Nairobi National Park – in which there are no elephants dur to the small size of the park near the capital – was erected by H.E President Daniel T arap Moi. It reads ‘’Great objectives often require great sacrifices. I now call upon the people of the world to join us in Kenya by eliminating the trade in ivory once and for all.’’

The plaque on the reverse side of the plinth reads ‘’This monument which commemorates the burning of 12 tons of ivory by H.E. President Daniel T arap Moi on July 18^th 1989 was made possible by the generosity of the East African Wildlife Society and the World Wide Fund for Nature.’’

On a second plinth the plaque, erected on 3 March 2015, reads, ‘’This Commemorative Plaque was officially unveiled by His Excellency Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, C.G.H. President and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces of the Republic of Kenya to mark the 2^nd World Wildlife Day. On this occasion fifteen tonnes of ivory was torched to signify renewed resolve of the government and the people of Kenya and a call to the international community to cooperate to fight against wildlife crime.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).