Pact totally banning ivory trade welcome

NAIROBI: One of the good things to come out of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, USA, is the agreement between the United States and China to impose a total ban on the importation and export of ivory.

Elephant and rhino populations in Kenya, and indeed the entire East African region have drastically gone down as a result of increased demand for ivory in China. This has in turn led to rising incidence of poaching in our national parks. A report by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has indicated that East Africa accounts for more than 80 per cent of ivory seizures. The report further says 35,000 elephants are killed in East Africa yearly to satisfy demand for ivory especially in Asia. By 1989, more than 160,000 elephants had been killed in Kenya, leaving only about 7000.