Thousands demonstrated across six continents on Saturday demanding action to stop rising elephant and rhino poaching in Africa. The Global March for Elephants and Rhinos took place in 136 cities and towns, from Soweto to Nairobi, Paris to New York, and Tokyo to Toronto.
Organizers said that nearly 50,000 elephants are slaughtered each year for their ivory, mostly to meet rising demand in China, where it is carved into various trinkets and sold as status symbols to increasingly affluent buyers. It is estimated that fewer than 400,000 elephants survive in Africa today.
African rhinos, meanwhile, are being killed at a rate of three a day, according to the organizers, leaving fewer than 25,000 in the wild. South Africa, which has about 80 percent of the world’s rhino population, saw 2,453 rhinos killed by poachers over the past four years alone for their horns, which are illegally exported to Vietnam and China.
“We are protesting against the political leaders of the world, who do not have the guts and political will to make changes in their laws,” said Dex Kotze, an African conservationist and coordinator of the march.
China has become one of the world’s largest consumers of ivory, driving poaching in Africa to new heights and pushing prices of the “white gold” to more than US$2,100 a kilogram. Conservationists warn that the illicit ivory trade could obliterate wild elephant populations in Central Africa over the next few years, and possibly cause their total extinction in the wild within 10 to 15 years.
The Chinese government has taken steps to crack down on the illegal trade, with customs officials destroying tons of confiscated ivory. But many, including the traders themselves, admit that such efforts only raise ivory’s price and desirability, fueling even more aggressive poaching.
Conservationists at the march in Toronto, which drew a crowd of about 500, said that they must to do more to help educate Chinese consumers about the plight of elephants and rhinos, and dispel myths concerning the supposed medicinal benefits of rhino horns.
Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Program and former prime minister of New Zealand, said that “these criminal activities are fuelling corruption and conflict, they are destroying lives, and they are deepening poverty and inequality” in Africa.
“We all have to work together,” Clark added, “to stop this horrific, abhorrent trade by supporting livelihoods in local communities, improving law enforcement, and also by raising awareness of the impact on these iconic species in the countries where the illicit trade and their products thrive.”
Photo Credit: Paul Nash
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Thousands March to Demand an End to Illicit Ivory Trade
October 7, 2014
Thousands demonstrated across six continents on Saturday demanding action to stop rising elephant and rhino poaching in Africa. The Global March for Elephants and Rhinos took place in 136 cities and towns, from Soweto to Nairobi, Paris to New York, and Tokyo to Toronto.
Organizers said that nearly 50,000 elephants are slaughtered each year for their ivory, mostly to meet rising demand in China, where it is carved into various trinkets and sold as status symbols to increasingly affluent buyers. It is estimated that fewer than 400,000 elephants survive in Africa today.
African rhinos, meanwhile, are being killed at a rate of three a day, according to the organizers, leaving fewer than 25,000 in the wild. South Africa, which has about 80 percent of the world’s rhino population, saw 2,453 rhinos killed by poachers over the past four years alone for their horns, which are illegally exported to Vietnam and China.
“We are protesting against the political leaders of the world, who do not have the guts and political will to make changes in their laws,” said Dex Kotze, an African conservationist and coordinator of the march.
China has become one of the world’s largest consumers of ivory, driving poaching in Africa to new heights and pushing prices of the “white gold” to more than US$2,100 a kilogram. Conservationists warn that the illicit ivory trade could obliterate wild elephant populations in Central Africa over the next few years, and possibly cause their total extinction in the wild within 10 to 15 years.
The Chinese government has taken steps to crack down on the illegal trade, with customs officials destroying tons of confiscated ivory. But many, including the traders themselves, admit that such efforts only raise ivory’s price and desirability, fueling even more aggressive poaching.
Conservationists at the march in Toronto, which drew a crowd of about 500, said that they must to do more to help educate Chinese consumers about the plight of elephants and rhinos, and dispel myths concerning the supposed medicinal benefits of rhino horns.
Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Program and former prime minister of New Zealand, said that “these criminal activities are fuelling corruption and conflict, they are destroying lives, and they are deepening poverty and inequality” in Africa.
“We all have to work together,” Clark added, “to stop this horrific, abhorrent trade by supporting livelihoods in local communities, improving law enforcement, and also by raising awareness of the impact on these iconic species in the countries where the illicit trade and their products thrive.”
Photo Credit: Paul Nash
