Political Rivalries
The production of ivory continues to cause many political disputes, especially between those who wanted to halt the poaching and those who wanted it to continue.
Accoarding to wikipedia, the poaching of elephants in 1989 created a huge decrease of elephants in Africa. In 1979, the estimated animal population was estimated to be about 1.3 million, though 10 years later, the population was only about 600,000. Those who were poaching and trading the ivory claimed the huge elephant fall to be habitat loss, but after research, it was clear ivory trade was the source of the elephant population down fall.
To fix this problem, CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), made the poaching of elephant tusks illegal. CITES parties led by people in Zimbabwe reasoned that ivory should not be legal if the amount of elephants killed can not be controlled. CITES also teamed up with other conservation movements represented by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). These organizations had many meetings to ban ivory and got the word out, inforcing that elephants could not be killed. The ivory ban seemed successful, and no one could do anything about the laws. The number of African elephants began to rise and ivory prices sky- rocketed, as well as ivory markers around the word being closed.
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However, a group of Southern African countries apposed the ban, as well as Hong Kong and Japanesse ivory traders, to continue ivory trade. South Africa's claim was that elephants were not dying in vast amounts, and that even if they were, it wasn't because of ivory. However, according to Wikipedia, 95% of the dead elephants were found in Kruger National Park, a park partly run by South African Defence force.
South African warlords did not want to stop the trading of ivory for their own personal wealth. Though he died in 1909 before the ban of ivory, King Leopold II bennifited immensly from ivory poaching and trade and gained a huge amount of personal wealth. Others thought they would be able to gain money from ivory trade as King Leopold did, so they did not want to stop ivory poaching.
South African warlords did not want to stop the trading of ivory for their own personal wealth. Though he died in 1909 before the ban of ivory, King Leopold II bennifited immensly from ivory poaching and trade and gained a huge amount of personal wealth. Others thought they would be able to gain money from ivory trade as King Leopold did, so they did not want to stop ivory poaching.
Today, ministers from different countries are still trying to deal with the illegal poaching in Africa. Wilderness rangers are collecting ivory tusks, but burning them in rebellion, as an attempt to stop ivory poaching. The video below explains the ivory bans today as well as the CITES in 1989 during the massive attempt to ban ivory.
Video can be stopped around 2:00.