In a slightly different vein, is burning ivory, of which several countries have stockpiles in the TONS...Kenya having over 100 left after having already burned some, a good idea, or is it, effectively, grandstanding in the face of the facts that selling it could both aid the conservation effort and perhaps even put a dent in the flow of money to terrorist poachers?
I have to disagree with selling stockpiles and very much favor burning, even though it looks wasteful. The reason is that in order to stop wholesale poaching for ivory, the market needs to be destroyed. Most of the ivory market is in China, and it is making moves to ban the trade and increase education to reduce demand. But as long as sizable lots of ivory hit the market, you only perpetuate demand by catering to it, and
that goes hand in hand with poaching. That’s why seized ivory needs to be taken off the market entirely, and if destruction is the only way to ensure that, that’s the way to go.
For some additional background, listen to yesterday’s
Fresh Air show on NPR (
GPS Trackers In Fake Elephant Tusks Reveal Ivory Smuggling Route).
