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| Dennis Mashindi ('21) |
African elephants are the largest land animals on the
planet. Distinctively characterized by their long white tusks (ivory), these
animals have become threatened to due poaching. Over the last century,
elephants have been hunted down for their ivory. Elephants aren't the only
species suffering. Due to human greed, the decline of the lion, elephant and
rhino population have been blamed on the poaching industry. According to WWF,
the status of the African Elephants is vulnerable and the status of the Black
Rhino is critically endangered. But the issue goes beyond the poaching
industry. While poaching is often perceived as the main threat to wildlife, the
biggest predicament that many African countries face is the exploitation of
wildlife by underground crime syndicates because of the complicated ivory/horn market
crime syndicates have composed. This issue further plagues many African
economies, communities and wildlife.
When many conjecture that the reason for decline in the
population of African animals is through poaching alone, they are partially
right. But the poaching goes beyond lone men looking for ivory to put on the
market. The trade is embedded in many Asian countries including Malaysia, Thailand, and China. According to
phys.org, many traders hire African locals to kill elephants then proceed to
export their product where it will be shipped to Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The ivory will then make its final voyage to either China or Thailand; Poaching
isn't a one man business. This is a big elaborate business to which many Asian
countries have neglected to stop.
The
ivory and horn trade isn’t an emerging issue. This trade has been around for a
long time. In In Ivory, Horn and Blood:
Behind The Elephant And Rhino Poaching Crisis, Ronald Orenstein says,”
Ancient Egyptian’s demand for ivory may have contributed to the disappearance
of elephants from the eastern Sahara by
about 2750 BCE and from the central Sahara by 2000 BCE.” This problem Ronald
Orenstein goes on to later write that Emperor Gaius, or Caligula, built an
ivory stable for his favorite horse Incitatus (34). The demand for ivory
started out during the Ancient times and grew so much to where the Egyptians
killed the Saharan elephants to extinction. But the demand carried over through
African colonialization. During this time, European countries went to Africa in
order to establish colonies and expand their kingdoms. In the article, White men poaching animals in Zimbabwe?
Yup, that’s been going on for a long, long time, Kim Yi Donne says that
during the colonial time period, white men would regulate when African people
could go hunting. This included accompanied trips to and from the hunting
areas. But why did the white regulate them to hunt. Before the arrival of the
white man and the gun, African had certain religious and traditional ties to
nature. Many of them had totems, or a family animal. Many believed that hunting
was only for survival. So they only use of killing an animal would be to eat.
BY once the white man came up with a way to exploit the wildlife, they started
to limit when and where an African could hunt. These types of regulations led to
a monopoly in the “hunting” industry and opened the doors for people to make
poaching into a global business.
The
ivory trade has been kept alive for many years due to the growing demand for it
in many Asian countries like China. Frank Langfitt, journalist for NPR,
wrote," … scores of shops in China continue to sell illegal ivory...” The
demand for ivory has skyrocketed due to the way ivory can be manipulated for
art purposes. In Ivory, Horn and Blood:
Behind The Elephant And Rhino Poaching Crisis, Ronald Orenstein writes,
" Ivory has become a mass-market item, used everything from delicate
sculptures and fine jewelry to piano keys and billiard balls (45)" Many
people, who have bought ivory illegally, have gotten so used to it that they
won't and haven't stopped buying it. But many of them don't even know how
elephant tusks are harvested. Ronald Orenstein further writes," A survey
by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) found that 70 percent of
Chinese... believe that ivory- xiang ya, "elephant’s teeth" in
Mandarin- come from tusks that simply fall out of an elephant's mouth and then
growth back... "(46) These people have been buying a product to which they
don’t even know how it was harvested. This is one way they underground crime syndicates
have tricked people into buying their product. They have made this product
available in abundance to where many Chinese people believe that ivory is an
ever abundant resource. This is reason one of how crime syndicates are the
prime reason for the declination of elephants, rhinos and other African
species.
Another
way that crime syndicates have been able to fuel the decrease in African
wildlife is through the usage of stories. Joseph Erbentraut, writer for The
Huffington Post, writes,"… rhino horn is sought-after in Vietnam and China
as an ingredient in traditional medicine and can fetch an estimated $65,000 per
kilogram, almost $30,000 a pound, more than gold." Many people throughout
East Asia started to believe that rhino horn was a cure for cancer and a natural
aphrodisiac (natural Viagra). These beliefs led many Asians to turn toward the
black market in order to buy this "medicine". This then led to a very
high demand in rhino horn. Crime syndicates then began so much money to where a
pound of rhino horn was about $60,000 per kilogram. Save The Rhino reported, “At the
beginning of the 20th century there were 500,000 rhinos across Africa and Asia.
This fell to 70,000 by 1970 and further to just 29,000 in the wild today.”
This kind of money is what is funding these underground organizations in order
to further deplete the rhino population.
The
third way that underground crime syndicates have been able to kill many
elephants, rhinos and other African species is through exploiting many
vulnerable African countries in times of economic trouble or political
instability. In 2014, New Scientist
did a special report on how many underground syndicates would help fund
civil/political/ issues in Africa buy buying the ivory offered. "In Sudan, government-allied militias complicit in the Darfur
genocide fund their operations by poaching elephants in Chad, Cameroon, the CAR
and northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. South Sudan, which boasted
130,000 elephants 25 years ago, is down to just 5000 animals today due to
poaching by both sides in the recent conflict." New Scientist goes on to
say that the bush value of an average 3.8 kg tusk is $100. This is then sold in
places like China for $3000 plus. By taking advantage of countries that barely
have any government of economic control, these underground crime organizations
are able to dedicate what happens in the African Savannah. These crime
syndicates then go further by enlisting poor African men to go into the African
bush, kill elephants and rhinos and bring the product back to the gangs for
further transportation. VICE New
Channel did a shot documentary on the lives of African men who have been
enlisted to kill elephants for a profit. One poacher said," If I could say
one thing to everyone who is doing this thing, I would tell them to stop
because it is not right." Due to the economic distress, these men have
been forced to join a network that is only exploiting them in order to advance
themselves financially.
If one is to go to China, he or she would be able to buy a
Buddha statuette. This statuette is more than likely to be an ivory product.
The ivory trade has taken over the East Asian region due to the underground
crime syndicates. On March 4, 2015, BBC news wrote an article on how Prince
William condemns and calls for action against the poaching business. This is
the first step to making sure we won’t have to put an elephant or a rhino down
on the extinct list.
Dennis Mashindi, of Lexington, Ky., is a sophomore McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville, where he studies Biology, Public Health, and Political Science.