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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| April 29-30, 2004 |
Photo Tour - Elephants and Ivory, Tsavo National Park, Kenya |
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A young resident of Tsavo National Park, Kenya. After decades of population decline due to ivory poaching, a difficult relationship with neighboring communities of humans, and environmental factors, elephants are slowly making a comeback. |
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With hundreds of recovered elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo skulls as a backdrop, Mr. Jackson of the Tsavo National Park Research Center explains to a group of Peace Boat participants the impact of the illegal ivory trade on animal stocks in Kenya's national parks. Stricter techniques to enforce anti-poaching laws, increased international awareness about the illegal ivory trade, and local communities recognizing that protecting their natural resources is beneficial to their livelihoods are main factors in efforts to turn the situation around. |
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At the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, one of the main projects is an elephant orphanage. Here, young elephants who've lost parents to poaching or other causes, and would likely not survive on their own in the wild, are taught the important 'family values' of living in a community of elephants and surviving in the wild. Occasionally a 'graduate' elephant will return to the orphanage to share their knowledge and experience with the young students. In a small storage room participants saw first hand the wire snares and poison arrows which are used to kill elephants for their tusks. Here, participants get an up-close look at a young elephant's budding tusks. |
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After an early morning game drive, Mr. Jackson returned to the lodge to facilitate a discussion with participants about how poaching and the illegal ivory trade can be stopped, and elephants and other animals better protected. That Japan is a major market for ivory was not lost on participants. Deeply moved by the experience, the discussion focused on how to make people back home realize that ivory is a shameful and not desirable product. |
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Each tusk, fetching about US$ 20 on the black market, represents a dead elephant. After some on-the-spot negotiation, the tour group was able to visit a usually off-limits research and storage center for confiscated tusks, snake skin and other poached animal remains. Participants would later remark on this experience as one of the most moving and disturbing of the voyage. |
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A member of a traditional dance troop energizes participants into moving like they'd never moved before. Peter Orwa, onboard from Singapore to Kenya as musician and educator, explained that in recent years, this sort of performing art once shunned by young people in Kenya in favor of western styles, is experiencing a great revival in popularity. Much of the increase is due to the fact that African arts, dance and music have become popular internationally, inspiring young Kenyans to rediscover the wealth of their own culture and tradition. This particular troop competes and performs in Kenya regularly against other similar groups.
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Sunrise during the early morning game drive, greeting sleepy-eyed participants. |
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One of the hundreds of gazelles seen during two days in Tsavo National Park. |
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Before departing for Jordan, participants sit on the dock next to the TSS THE TOPAZ / Peace Boat, reflecting on a rich two day experience in Kenya. |
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