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The stupidest thing about ivory seizures is that they destroy the ivory (sometimes millions of dollars in a blaze), creating market scarcity and fuelling furthe
by chrodobert 9y ago
The stupidest thing about ivory seizures is that they destroy the ivory (sometimes millions of dollars in a blaze), creating market scarcity and fuelling further poaching by thus subsidizing prices. Elephants should be farmed and their Ivory should be harvested periodically. Obviously prohibition has not and will not work.
- DrScump 9y ago"Farmed"? No. But attacking the supply side has only made the remaining poaching more profitable. A better approach would be a certification program for ivory collected from elephants experiencing death by natural causes, including posting of DNA markers so that any given piece of ivory would be DNA-checked against the roster of legally-harvested "donors". Other ivory sales should be discouraged like with conflict diamonds. The proceeds of the legal trade could be used for habitat and protection of wild elephants and for rescue/rehabilitation of orphaned elephants.
- chrodobert 9y agoI am not sure if at this time the (south) East Asian buyers of ivory care about its provenance (i.e. if it is morally sourced). Do tusks have DNA anyway? Maybe in the future they will (care about sustainable sourcing). Why not farm elephants? People have farmed Rhinos and stockpiled the horns but cannot legally sell them due to prohibition. So wild Rhinos are still poached. Correction I guess it is now legal to sell farmed Rhino horns in SA. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/wildlife-watch-rhino-horn-south-africa-auction/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/wildlife-watch-r...