Kenya stages biggest ivory burning in history worth 70 million!

[Powerogue]

Doesn't this just keep ivory rare...?

[kail]

Reducing access and decreasing availability cultivates far more demand.

So...we should increase supply? Great idea, lets kill more elephants to save them from poaching!

[Afrospinach]

Not true. Elephants are already evolving to prevent this.

http://goodnature.nathab.com/will-ev...poaching-tool/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/180301.stm

Think they will evolve within a decade? Because at the current rate that is how long they have got.

So...we should increase supply? Great idea, lets kill more elephants to save them from poaching!

Yeah, the fact that this stash would make dent is a fantasy that exists only in some posters heads. Ivory is illegal for a reason, and that reason is not because it was a sustainable market when the taps were on.

[Theodarzna]

It does nothing of the sort. People will still want the tusks, there will always be demand. Removing such large quantities increases said demand.

Its kind of like PETA Throwing paint on people in fur coats, they will just go buy a new fur coat.

[In Ogres We Trust]

I think this is absolutely fantastic since it sends out a very strong and united message that poaching will not be tolerated. Asia benefits the most out of the ivory trade so I loved seeing those seized statues burning. On that note, I think anyone who owns items made out of ivory should give them up to the authorities so they could be sent to the country from which it came so it can be added to the pyre.

A pointless gesture that further impoverishes a backwater nation. At a minimum, they should sell the ivory while regulating the industry and animal populations. However, that would require a massive effort from the international, national, and local communities, and while the international community would be on board with the effort, the national and local communities... well... umm... it's Africa.

[Orange Joe]

Think they will evolve within a decade? Because at the current rate that is how long they have got.

Try reading what I linked. It answers your question.

[In Ogres We Trust]

Your logic is circular and not to mention defeatist. If you're trying to eradicate poaching it very much defeats the purpose to partake in selling it and simply redistribute it to the highest bidder. This sends a very strong message that the authorities in Kenya will not tolerate poaching or selling ivory. Zero tolerance is the best policy.

You can eradicate poaching by legalizing and regulating the industry while maintaining and monitoring the market. Furthermore, to combat poaching, the simple solution is to educate the local populations while executing the poachers.

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While keeping it around just to stay away from a feeling of waste entertains the very idea of that demand being ok to begin with.

If you see every jackass with an ivory statue chances are you'd want one too because if that jackass can get one why couldn't you? This is what they try to get rid of, and I can think of a few other things that deserve this treatment

Why is he a jackass for wanting an ivory statue? The demand will always be there, so we're better off with cultivation, monitoring, and management versus illegality. Honestly, this is the same nonsensical argument that's used with marijuana and other illicit narcotics (not to mention Prohibition Era policies).

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exactly my thoughts, you remove supply, demand increases, gets even more valuable i don't know the value of a tusk but say each is 500$, if you just made them 10 times rarer what stops people thinking oh yeh i'll hunt ivory now its worth 1000$ or 2500$ a tusk.

They had a segment on the radio that listed the conservative value at $350,000,000.

[Orange Joe]

You can eradicate poaching by legalizing and regulating the industry while maintaining and monitoring the market. Furthermore, to combat poaching, the simple solution is to educate the local populations while executing the poachers.

Hunting is legalized and regulated in America. Guess what America still has......

[Nadiru]

I'll be honest, I came into this thread under the notion that the topic title was "Kanye stages biggest ivory burning worth 70 millions!"

[Techno-Druid]

Hunting is legalized and regulated in America. Guess what America still has......

You can't really hunt elephants like you could hunt a deer or bison.

Elephants have a gestation period of two years, then you'll have to wait fifteen more years for an elephant to barely reach maturity.

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A pointless gesture that further impoverishes a backwater nation. At a minimum, they should sell the ivory while regulating the industry and animal populations. However, that would require a massive effort from the international, national, and local communities, and while the international community would be on board with the effort, the national and local communities... well... umm... it's Africa.

We're talking Kenya not Malawi.


If the government sold the ivory then they would create a market for it. You can't build a market off a threatened animal, especially one that takes decades to mature.

[Hooked]

I find this shit useless. Why burn it? The creature already fucking died for it. Put it in a Museum or something, use the funds to pay for conservation.

Burning it just creates more demand for Ivory since you are taking it OUT of circulation, making it rarer and less accessible to the retards that want to use it, meaning they will continue to try and farm it.

goddamn.

That's what I think also, what a waste. Its not like the poachers will stop killing the elephants, so at least preserve what they already died for needlessly.

Heres an idea give poachers the death penalty for illegally killing big game and it will stop overnight.

[Macaquerie]

I could never understand elephant poaching. Elephants are such amazing and majestic creatures, and people are killing them off by the thousands to get their teeth? Ivory has no practical value and it isn't even shiny, it's only appeal is that having to rip it from an elephant carcass makes it seem rare and special in some way. And even if it was a useful material, what do poachers gain from hunting elephants to extinction rather than adopting sustainable practices?

[Demona3]

Not true. Elephants are already evolving to prevent this.

http://goodnature.nathab.com/will-ev...poaching-tool/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/180301.stm

The sad thing is though, the poaching happens faster than what the elephants can reproduce. Elephants have an almost 2 year pregnancy (21-22 months).

This is a really good read on the life cycle of an elephant.
http://www.elephantsforever.co.za/life-cycle.html

They might be ditching the tusks to survive, but overall, they could be almost hunted down to extinction by then. I realize the females (and some males) don't have tusks, but this doesn't run in every family of elephants.

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I could never understand elephant poaching. Elephants are such amazing and majestic creatures, and people are killing them off by the thousands to get their teeth? Ivory has no practical value and it isn't even shiny, it's only appeal is that having to rip it from an elephant carcass makes it seem rare and special in some way. And even if it was a useful material, what do poachers gain from hunting elephants to extinction rather than adopting sustainable practices?

It can be very shiny. In fact, it's often referred to as "white gold".

[Anastacy]

Poor elephants.

[endlesswaltz]

LOL

you just decimated his argument.

i think your argument just got decimated...

[Deleted]

Most of the ivory is bought by China to make dick medicine. The amount of art made of ivory is a lot less compared to the quantities used for mambo-jambo-unga-bunga imaginary medicine.

[The Stormbringer]

Apparently ivory can be artificially grown in a lab just by using a few Dentine cells from elephant bone. Sounds good to me.

[Asotcha]

It can be very shiny. In fact, it's often referred to as "white gold".

I can't decide if I'm more mad that its a beautiful bracelet, or that I Also think its a beautiful bracelet, in spite of how much I love elephants. Don't misunderstand me, I'd never contribute to those horrors, its just that some times like this you can see the slippery slope that leads to awful stuff. One person: 'Oh, if I buy this one thing, it won't make that big a difference, that could have just been some little end-piece they already had sitting around...'

[Mormolyce]

Surely that just increases the price of ivory.

[Asotcha]

Looks like at the end of Legion, after all the Pit Lords got slaughtered and their tusks being piled up.

Now THAT would be one helluva cinematic lol