The Ivory trade in Africa
The Ivory trade in Africa has become a major problem, and has lead to major conflicts. The Ivory trade has become especially popular in Africa, due to the large number of African elephants. Tens of thousands of elephants in Africa are killed every year fore their tusks. These Tusks are bought and sold illegally around the world(BBC). May people believe that this has largely lead to the declining number of elephants. In the peak of the ivory trade pre-20th century during the cononisation of Africa, around 800 to 1,000 tons of ivory was sent to Europe by itself. In 1979 there was estimated to be around 1.3 million elephants in 37 range states in Africa, but by 1989 only 600,000 remained. Throughout this decade around 75,000 elephants are killed annually for the Ivory trade(wikipedia). This amount of demand has lead to conflicts and wars to brake out. Ivory has been sought after and looted from places. Like in A Long Way Gone Ivory was one of the most valuable things that you could find in villages, along with diamonds and other precious jewels.
Ivory has been used for many things but some of the most popular are, Piano keys, necklaces, gun grips, rings, and chess pieces. People like the strength and the beautiful white color that ivory gives. Ivory has also been known to not wear easily, which makes it great for things such as piano keys that will get a lot of use.
It makes you wonder and kind of sad to think about the animals that they are using for monetary gain.
ReplyDelete