Ivory Trade In Africa

Imagine yourself walking through the African grasslands. Feel the tall grass graze the tops of your fingers. Look at the wildlife that surrounds you: lions on the prowl, giraffes eating from tree tops, gazelles and zebras grazing in the grassland. Then suddenly the elegant elephant herd emerges. However, they suddenly start to disappear, one by one, as poachers take their life for the ivory in their tusks. Just as quickly as the elephants disappear, everything in the African grassland starts to disappear. The illegal ivory trade in China has a major impact on the rapid decline of the African elephant population. If poaching elephants continues, the environment in the African grasslands will suffer tremendously by losing its keystone species.

Ivory is a label of class within China, meaning that people who have items carved out of ivory are seen as to have more money. Luckily, the ivory trade is already illegal in China, however, this does not stop the trade. The legal market can only rely on the small amount of ivory that the Chinese government distributes every year. Ivory is traded on the black market, only increasing its value. Criminal networks smuggle the raw ivory into China. There is it carved into luxurious items, further fueling a multi billion dollar trade (The Ivory Game). The less elephants their are, the higher the value of ivory. Essentially, traders of ivory want extinction due to the increased value of ivory that would come with it. Business owners in China request permits from the government in order to sell ivory. These businesses are then allotted a certain amount of ivory that they can have. However, businesses can easily avoid the limit by not documenting how much ivory they are actually in possession of. The ivory dealers in China work with the poachers in Africa to obtain the

In The Ivory Game, one of the narrators, Craig Millar: head of security at Big Life Foundation: Kenya, mentions the emotional capacity that elephants have. For example, elephants video in the documentary are shown hiding their tusks being trees when humans are watching them. The elephants are aware of the value of and the desire for their tucks. Also, elephants tend to revisit scenes of where other elephants have died. If an elephant finds lost tusks, they will collect them and return them to the carcass that they belong