KENYA: PRESIDENT MOI BURNS THREE MILLION DOLLARS' WORTH OF IVORY TUSKS IN CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE ELEPHANT

Record ID: 183330

  • Title: KENYA: PRESIDENT MOI BURNS THREE MILLION DOLLARS' WORTH OF IVORY TUSKS IN CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE ELEPHANT
  • Date: 18th July 1989
  • Summary: NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK, KENYA (JULY 18, 1989) 1. SV KENYAN PRESIDENT MOI STANDING IN FRONT OF LARGE PILE OF IVORY TUSKS 0.07 2. CU MOI SPEAKS AT MICROPHONE (ENGLISH SOT) 0.27 3. SVS AND CU MOI SETS FIRE TO PILE OF IVORY TUSKS (3 SHOTS) 0.44 4. SVS AND GVS PILE OF IVORY BURNING (3 SHOTS) 1.10 TRANSCRIPT SEQUENCE 2: MOI: LET ME REMIND EVERYONE THAT GREAT OBJECTIVES OFTEN REQUIRE GREAT SACRIFICES. I NOW CALL UPON THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD TO JOIN US IN KENYA BY ELIMINATING THE TRADE IN ELEPHANT IVORY ONCE AND FOR ALL. Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 1989 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TUSK BURNING NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK, KENYA
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACGBWMEEYG8IOOTIROWGT305WD
  • Story Text: TUSK BURNING NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK, KENYA

    Twelve tonnes of ivory worth more than three million United States (US) dollars were burned in Nairobi's National Park on Tuesday in a gesture symbolising Kenya's commitment to protecting the African elephant.

    Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, who presided at the bonfire, explained that poaching, trading and buying must be stopped in order to save the elephant from extinction. He then called upon the "people of the world" to stop buying ivory and join Kenya in its campaign to eliminate the ivory trade "once and for all." People who buy ivory, he said, supported the needless and illegal killing of the elephants.

    Most of the ivory burnt had been captured or impounded from poachers in the past five years.

    Moi also announced that Kenya would soon be destroying 270 horns of the rare rhinoceros, which is also threatened with extinction by the poachers who sell its horns for medicinal uses, mainly in Asia.

    In the past 10 years, Kenya's elephant population has fallen from 65,000 to about 15,000. In the same period, the number of elephants on the continent has dropped to 750,000 and is now decreasing by 70,000 a year.

    Ivory prices have trebled to about 200 US dollars per kilogramme over the past 20 years. Gangs of poachers armed with automatic rifles and chain saws are the first stage in the multi-million-dollar international business.

    Kenya, backed by neighbouring Tanzania, has urged the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species to outlaw ivory trading at the organisation's meeting in Switzerland in October.

    The European Community and the United States also support the move, but it is opposed by southern African states who say they have been able to control poaching and need the income from legal ivory trading.

    <strong>Source: REUTERS - MOHAMMED AMIN</strong>
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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