Vast piles of elephant tusks burnt in Kenya

  • 01/05/2016
Fire burns part of an estimated 105 tonnes of ivory and a tonne of rhino horn confiscated from smugglers and poachers at the Nairobi National Park  (Reuters)
Fire burns part of an estimated 105 tonnes of ivory and a tonne of rhino horn confiscated from smugglers and poachers at the Nairobi National Park (Reuters)

By Ben Makori

Kenya's president has set fire to thousands of elephant tusks and rhino horns, destroying a stockpile that would have been worth a fortune to smugglers and sending a message that trade in the animal parts must be stopped.

Plumes of smoke rose on Saturday as the flames took hold of tusks piled up in a game reserve on the edge of the capital Nairobi, destroying 105 tonnes of ivory from about 8000 animals, the biggest ever incineration of its kind.

Vast piles of elephant tusks burnt in Kenya

President Uhuru Kenyatta dismissed those who argued Kenya, which staged its first such burning in 1989, should instead have sold the ivory and the tonne of rhino horn, which by some estimates would have an illegal market value of US$150 million (NZ$214 million).

"Kenya is making a statement that for us ivory is worthless unless it is on our elephants," he told dignitaries before setting light to the first of almost a dozen pyres.

Kenya is seeking a total world ban on ivory sales when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meets in South Africa later this year as poaching poses an increasing risk to the species.

CITES banned commercial trade in African elephant ivory in 1989, but since then has permitted one-off sales.

Kenyatta's call for an ivory trade ban was backed by Ali Bongo, president of Gabon, home to the forest elephant.

"To all the poachers, to all the buyers, to all the traders, your days are numbered," Bongo said at the ceremony.

French Environment Minister Segolene Royal announced in Nairobi she was would introduce "a ban on any kind of ivory trade in France" after banning export certificates for ivory last year.

She said she would encourage other European states to follow.

"We need to kill the trade," she said.

Reuters