elephants

Kenya Burns £20 million of Ivory

Martin:

Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta has set fire to £20 million worth of elephant ivory in an effort to put an end to poaching in the country. The ivory pile, weighing 15 tonnes was set alight on Tuesday 4th March to commemorate World Wildlife Day. Kenya hopes that by demonstrating that it is willing to put confiscated ivory beyond economic use that it can influence the end-user nations of ivory, especially China, whose hunger fuels the slaughter of elephants and rhinos in Africa. Responding to increasing criticism China, last week, imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports despite its citizens' huge appetite for ivory.

But twenty-five years since the ivory trade was banned African nations remain concerned about the rising demand for ivory from the emerging nations. The charity Save the Elephants estimates that 100,000 elephants were killed between 2010 and 2012.

The burning has made headlines around the world but it seems most journalists were only tipped off about the event the night before. So I'm hugely indebted to my friend Debbie Kirby who heard about it early on Tuesday morning and put me in contact with the Kenya Wildlife Service. A mad dash across Nairobi got me to the park just in time to be accredited for the ceremony. The sight of what amounts to a funeral pyre for hundreds of needlessly slaughtered elephants is one that will live with me for some time.

Here's a quick edit of the footage:

Kenya has promised to destroy the remainder of it's ivory stockpile, an estimated 115 tonnes, by the end of the year.

"We want future generations of Kenyans, Africans and indeed the entire world to experience the majesty and beauty of these magnificent animals." President Kenyatta said. "Poachers and their enablers will not have the last word in Kenya."

Meanwhile, on the final day of his tour of China, Prince William has condemned illegal wildlife trading while visiting an elephant sanctuary in the province of Yunnan.

Prince William called it a "vicious form of criminality" that "erodes the rule of law, fuels conflict and may even fund terrorism".

He went on to say: "The greatest threat to elephants worldwide today is not local farmers protecting their livelihoods, it is ruthless and organised poaching and trafficking."

Home to Kenya

Annemarie:

Yes, we did reach the highest point in Ethiopia but it was a bit of a low point on our journey. I was sick and we were both a bit weary so we headed for Kenya and the very kind offer of a bed for a night or so with Deborah Kirby, sister of a my good friend Lindsay. She lives in Limuru, just north of Nairobi and as we hurtled south, being in Kenya again felt a bit like coming home as we retraced some of our steps. I had wanted to take pictures as we travelled, the people of the Samburu with their wonderful beaded neckwear, the stark rocky landscapes of northern Kenya softening into rich farmland with the backdrop of Mount Kenya. Most of it passed me by, I still felt too sick after my Moyale supper mistake to focus on anything let alone use my ‘camera fishing’ technique so my pics are pretty bad.

Everything changed once we got to Limuru though. Deborah and her gorgeous daughter Raquel and wonderful mum, Anne were brilliant at putting us back together again. We ate well, washed everything we owned, gave Hector a health check in a Nairobi garage and I even had a couple of glorious swims in local pools. Martin was tipped off about the ivory burning ceremony so managed a good journalistic day out and I met up with Maggie, an inspiring young woman who has set up AM Café in Nairobi (see my baking blogs for details).

In the end we stayed a week and the ‘grand finale’ was visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust centre for orphaned elephants. The young elephants arrive from all over Kenya and have various reasons for being orphaned, sometimes as simple as getting trapped in a well and separated from their mother, but tragically also through the adult elephants being killed by poachers. Poaching is still a problem despite the risk of heavy fines and the public condemnation by the Kenyan president himself.  The shocking statistic quoted on the Sheldrick’s website  states that:

“…at the current rate elephant poaching, with an estimated one elephant killed every 15 minutes for its ivory, a lack of action could see the loss of wild elephants in Africa by 2025.” I

It’s a wider issue I know, with some herds in Africa becoming so huge that culling is seen as a legitimate control mechanism but in other areas these incredible creatures are endangered. I’m not soppy about animals but when you realise it takes two years for a young elephant to even get its full set of teeth and that they don’t mature until around the age of 20 you can see they don’t have much chance to survive on their own. The Sheldrick Trust seems to do a great job, assigning an individual keeper to each orphan, letting them roam in the daytime in the bush, coming home each evening to sleep in the safety of a stable block. The youngest need food every three hours and after their day out, literally run in to get their evening milk, after which, within half an hour they fall asleep. Eventually they will be rehabilitated into the wild but this takes a number of years and in the meantime many people sponsor the orphans to provide their upkeep costs. We went home with three – yes I know the joke, two in the back and one on the roof!