THE WAR ON ELEPHANT POACHING
Ivory means death — for our elephants, our heritage, our tourism.
With that dramatic declaration Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta began burning 16,000 tusks from thousands of dead elephants. It was the biggest ivory burn in history: 105 tons of ivory and 1.35 tons of rhino horn, all turned into dust to stop poaching and the billion dollar illegal trade decimating Africa’s most spectacular wildlife.
Kenya’ tough anti-poaching laws are a model for all Africa, reducing poaching by 80 percent over the last three years.
Conservationists say too many rhino and elephants are still being killed. President Kenyatta calls it “catastrophic,” and that “there are half as many elephants in Africa today as a decade ago.”
Kenya burned 105 tons of ivory to try and save its elephants.
Watch Anne Mawathe’s report for Citizen TV on the strength of one remarkable woman. When President Kenyatta set ablaze 105 tons of ivory, he didn’t know he was fulfilling the dream of 73 year old Kuki Gallmann. She has dedicated her life to preserving one wild corner of Kenya and especially its elephants.
For Kuki Gallmann the elephant slaughter is personal. She runs Kenya’s largest private reserve, The Laikipia Nature Conservancy. In the last decade, hundreds of elephants have been killed here. The ivory and illicit sandalwood she and her rangers have seized, helped fuel the symbolic funeral pyres of Africa’s threatened wildlife. Gallman paid an enormous personal price for her commitment, but like a growing number of Kenyan citizens, she vows to never give up.
Website by Appropriate. Photos by Georgina Goodwin and Andrew Tkach.
