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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| January 25, 2004 |
Mombasa, Kenya – Elephants and Ivory |
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| Orphaned elephants and workers from Kenyan Wildlife Service |
In our everyday lives, many of us possess and use ivory. From small gadgets to piano keys and Japanese signature stamps known as 'hanko', ivory is used to make various kinds of products and is often a symbol of wealth and luxury. However, do we ever stop and think where this ivory comes from? In the case of Japan, the chances are that they were illegally imported from various African countries, including Kenya. Japan has been, and remains to be one of the leading importers of ivory, in spite of an international ban on the ivory trade. Since there is a high demand for ivory in the international market, ivory can be sold at extremely high prices. It is this lucrative market for ivory that has encouraged poachers to kill mercilessly and this has in turn perpetuated the sharp decrease in Africa's elephant population.
As a result of the widespread of poaching in the 1970s and 1980s, the African elephant had the dubious honour of being included at one point on the endangered species list. As animals near the top of the food chain, the drastic decline in elephant population has created a trickle-down effect that has caused repercussions for the entire ecosystems in Kenya. |
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No sooner had the Peace Boat arrived in Mombasa than participants hopped into the vans awaiting us on the dock and started on the trek to Tsavo East National Park to see firsthand the reality of elephant poaching and efforts to stamp out the practice. To track and arrest poachers, rangers from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) currently monitor and protect elephants in the Park. The Kenyan government has also passed a law permitting rangers to open fire at poachers who resist arrest and refuse to cooperate with KWS authorities. With such measures, poachers are largely deterred from their efforts. As a result, the number of poachers has decreased and there has been a resulting increase in the elephant population. |
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