
Ivory seizures hit record levels last year, report says - adamnemecek
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-41727132
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chrodobert
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.

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DrScump
"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
I 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-r...](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/wildlife-watch-rhino-
horn-south-africa-auction/)

