keny burns elephant lovry

Elephant hunting and elephant poaching and exploitation of the ivory trade are illegal in Kenya and pose a major threat to elephant populations. In the 1970s, 1900 elephants were killed in Kenya for their ivory tusks, increasing to 8300 elephants in the 1980s. In 1989, as a dramatic gesture to persuade the world to halt the ivory trade, Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi ignited twelve tons of elephant tusks.

Illegal elephant deaths decreased between 1990, when the 1990 CITES ban was issued, and 1997, when only 34 were illegally killed. Ivory seizures rose dramatically since 2006 with many illegal exports going to Asia.Poaching spiked seven-fold between 2007 and 2010. Arrests continue at Nairobi's international airport, where 92 kilos[clarification needed] of raw ivory were seized in 2010, and 96 kilos During colonial times, elephant hunting in Kenya was seen as a sport for noblemen and was exploited by the colonial governors. Among the game hunters, the bull elephant was said to be the most exhilarating form of elephant hunting. Small-bore rifles appeared to be the preferred option and aiming at the brain instead of the heart was another preference, though the motive was not always monetary for many of the hunters. However, many hunters were indiscriminate in their choice of elephants to kill – young, old, male or female, it did not matter, as the primary purpose was ivory to sell and meat to meet the food needs of their hunting party.In the 1950s and 1960s, the Kenyan poacher received approximately Shs. 3-4/lb ($.79–1.05/kg); by the 1970s, it was Shs. 100/kg ($12.74/kg), increasing the black market value for the primary producer from about one fifth to one third of the real value. In 1963, when elephant hunting was still legal, the Kenyan government issued 393 formal legal permits to hunters to hunt elephants. Elephant hunting was made illegal in Kenya in 1973 and all animal hunting without a permit in 1977.In the 1970s, Ngina Kenyatta (Mama Ngina), wife of then-President Jomo Kenyatta, and other high-level government officials were allegedly involved in an ivory-smuggling ring that transported tusks out of the country in the state private aeroplane. New Scientist claimed that there was now documentary proof that at least one member of "Kenya's royal family" (the Kenyatta) had shipped over six tons of ivory to China. By the late 1970s, the elephant population was estimated around 275,000, dropping to 20,000 in 1989.In the 1990s the widespread ban on commercial ivory trading reduced the industry to a fraction of what it had been and elephant populations have stabilised. But illegal poaching and sale on the black market still poses a serious threat, as does government bribery. The largest poaching incident in Kenya since the ivory trade ban occurred in March 2002, when a family of ten elephants was killed

keny burns elephant lovry