When officials in Macau searched the luggage of two South Africans in July, they were not expecting to find what they did. The two South Africans were smugglers and this time they got crafty with what they were sneaking out of the country in order to sell on the black market: 583 bars of elephant ivory, covered in chocolate and wrapped in candy bar packages. This time, the officials were lucky to have caught the smugglers before they profited from the ivory. Ivory trade was banned in 1989, but traffickers still cater via black market to the high demand for it, mostly in Asia. Ivory trade was banned because an elephant is usually killed when its ivory is harvested. Despite the ban and based on the amount of ivory that was seized in 2011, it is estimated that around 50,000 African elephants were killed in just that year for their ivory. The problem with this is that sooner or later, certain or all species of elephants may be endangered or extinct. Earlier this year, Kenya planned to raise penalties for poachers, which right now are only a max $450 fine and up to 10 years in jail. The only barrier to this solution is that in some courts, they are limited by the government in their powers to fine/ imprison people convicted of wildlife crimes. I think that smugglers and poachers should be more harshly punished in order to prevent the deaths and profits of the deaths of more elephants.
Main article:
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/sweet-disguise-chocolate-covered-elephant-ivory-seized-macau-6C10909317
Other article with info on Kenyan penalties:
http://www.news.com.au/world-news/africa/kenya-to-toughen-poaching-sentences/story-fnh81gzi-1226614095597
The length that people will go to to break the law is insane. I agree that a harsher punishment needs to be enforced to those who chose to kill these beautiful creatures. $450 and 10 years in jail is not enough to make up for all of the helpless elephants that they kill.
ReplyDeleteIt’s crazy that ivory poaching is still so active in Africa and Asia. When you said that 50,000 elephant were killed in one year, just for their tusks, I was so surprised! To think that laws and anti-poaching regulations still cannot stop this black market dealing just goes to show how much enforcement is lacking in those areas. It is really similar to the drug smuggling that we face here at home between Mexico and the southwestern United States. Sometimes it’s crazy to think of the lengths some people will take to make dirty money, or even how many candy bars they had to go through to disguise the ivory, but what is really disturbing is the effect on the elephant population, when so many are being killed for their tusks. A helpful article that could go along with the consequences you mentioned in your blog Hannah is http://worldwildlife.org/species/african-elephant.
ReplyDeleteInteresting tactic. I agree that the killing of elephants simply for ivory tusks is wrong and dangerous for everybody. Kenya especially should increase the pressure on these smugglers, as they have one of Africa's largest export centers (Nairobi Airport) and a more organized government than their third-world neighbors. However, it is a good sign that these smugglers were caught in the action while taking part in such an easy-to-miss operation. We can therefore be optimistic that the black market ivory trade is on its last legs, although much more solid policy should be implemented such as reviving central African economies in order to prevent future generations from turning to this outrageous act as a means to make money. Buyers in the west are easier to reach and should therefore also be targeted like the suppliers. Western trade centers and smuggling points should be monitoring for smuggling methods like this, and greater rewards should be provided for discovering smuggling attempts.
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