The true price of elephant poaching

In the words of Jeffrey Gettleman, “Africa is in the midst of an epic elephant slaughter.” In a report released last week, Invisible Children and our partners at The Enough Project and The Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative offered a similar sentiment. The report, entitled “Kony’s Ivory: How Elephant Poaching in Congo Helps Support the Lord’s Resistance Army“, focuses solely on the LRA, which has been poaching elephants in the Garamba National Forest of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since as far back as 2010. In addition to Kony’s group, Gettleman’s reporting makes strong claims towards several other rebel armies and military institutions. In an ongoing series for the New York Times, Gettleman, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in April 2012, has compared the magnitude of the ivory trade to that of Sierra Leone’s blood diamond crisis and the ongoing mineral war in eastern DRC. Of course, those not familiar with elephant poaching may take one look at this crisis and refute that claim, considering the perceived imbalance of human suffering involved. However, as with any highly sought after good, ivory comes at a price. Since December 2009, the LRA have displaced more than 440,000 people and killed at least 1,260 more. It can be stipulated that much of the LRA’s ability to continue these attacks comes from the profit derived through elephant poaching and the subsequent support that it’s receiving from Sudan. Gettleman also makes several strong claims putting other armed groups, including the Shabab and Darfur’s Janjaweed, at the center of the trade with the LRA. Additionally, there are claims that the Ugandan military, the Congolese Army, and South Sudan’s military are cashing in on the elephant poaching as well. While the trade spans countries, ethnicities, and cultures, the violence and death (both human and pachyderm) does as well. Several instances have been reported of park rangers coming into contact with poachers and being killed on the spot. For poachers, ivory is a way of life, and they won’t let anything get in the way of it. Last summer for example, poachers marched into Okapi Conservation Project in DRC and brutally murdered five people and 14 Okapi. According to the report, raw ivory is said to fetch a price of more than $1,300 per pound due to a sharp rise in demand from Asia, particularly among consumers in China and Thailand. And with the demand continuing to rise, the population of elephants continuing to dwindle, and mass atrocities continuing to be funded, it’s imperative that the ivory trade come to a halt as soon as possible. The ivory trade crisis has international humanitarian and ecological implications and Invisible Children is among several organizations working in regions affected by elephant poaching. While many of these organizations focus their attention on protecting the elephants themselves, Invisible Children remains committed to its goal of bringing a permanent end to LRA violence through the use of defection fliers which are dropped over areas believed to be inhabited by LRA members to encourage them to lay down their weapons and come home. Once the Lord’s Resistance Army is dismantled, local communities will have the opportunity to thrive and enjoy a sustainable future. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vf9yiDWXaiU (Photo credits: NY Times, Enough Project)