The day was first observed on August 12, 2012 to highlight the need to protect elephants and preserve their population. Organizations and individual people around the world are coming together to spread the word about the terrible state elephants are in, where the elephants are mercilessly killed to remove their tusks, as well as the sad state of the elephants that are used to entertain tourists.
This month marks the fifth time the "International Elephant Day", where we check what is happening in the world of elephants and whether there is a change for the better.
The day was first observed on August 12, 2012 to highlight the need to protect elephants and preserve their population. Organizations and individual people around the world are coming together to spread the word about the terrible state elephants are in, where the elephants are mercilessly killed to remove their tusks, as well as the sad state of the elephants that are used to entertain tourists.
As every year, conservation organizations also report on successes. In the US, the number of countries that prohibit the display and sale of ivory is increasing, - in China there is a ban on the import of tusks and ivory, which inexplicably led to a drop in the price of ivory. - The Hong Kong authorities announced three stages to close the ivory markets until a complete ban in 2021, - France announced a ban on the trade in ivory, Angola announced a ban on the trade in ivory and closed one of the largest markets in southern Africa, (but despite this, only in July 2016 were people murdered in Angola 40 elephants).
This year (2016) a total of 120 tons of tusks were destroyed in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malawi, Malaysia, Italy, Cameroon, and Kenya, a number that represents more than 9,000 elephants that were killed. Tusk destruction activity that began in Kenya in 1989 and since then has occurred in different countries more than thirty times. After all this, the amount of tusks in the warehouses is estimated to be more than Elfton, which repeatedly raises the debate between those who claim that the tusks should be sold, thereby flooding the market and making the killing activity unviable, and those who claim that after the flood the price will increase, which will increase the trade The black and the killing.
There is also a claim that the high cost of storing and maintaining the tusks creates a temptation and that corrupt authorities will find a way to deliver the tusks from the warehouses to the market. Supporters claim that the very act of extermination "stains" the ivory and discredits the tusks and thus the traders and hunters. To strengthen this approach, the New Jersey authorities invited supporters to bring ivory to a display of public extermination in the presence of representatives from Gabon, Kenya and Germany. The opponents of the extermination are mainly the southern African countries that demand to renew the authorized trade and thus provide the countries with financial means to increase the supervision and protection of elephants in particular and nature in general.
Authorities and conservation bodies are also working to restore elephants to the wild. In Thailand there is a movement that started in 2002 that managed to return 110 elephants that lived in captivity to protected forests and to date 13 elephants have been calved (in the wild). "Elephant Day" celebrates a decade in which elephants have not been hunted in the cardamom (cardamom) forest in Cambodia, an area that was known as a "black" hunting ground.
On 24/09, a conference of the International Convention on Trade in Wild Animals and Plants (CITES) will be held in South Africa. As of 1990, African elephants are "listed" in Appendix 1 of the Convention, that is, under the highest protection in accordance with international laws, with the exception of the elephants in the southern African countries. The conservation bodies claim that when all the elephants "enter" section 1, the ivory trade will be minimized and the killing of elephants will almost stop.
Although there are signs that there is a (minor) decrease in the number of black poachers, this is no consolation since the killing of elephants continues at a level that prevents population recovery, therefore one of the priorities of the conference will be to focus on the "National Ivory Action Plans", a process that must lead to activity against the factors The main ones for the black trade: corruption, lack of enforcement, weak laws and growing demand in Asia. The participants of the conference will commit to a schedule according to which the supervision of the ivory markets and the fight against the black trade will be increased.
Additional data published in "Elephant Day" show a commitment to stop the crimes against wild animals and help save the elephants, so it turns out that from the "peak" in 2011 the number of murdered elephants has decreased and the activity to fight the ivory trade is increasing.
These significant activities went through elephant populations in reserves in Africa, for example about 40 years ago they lived in the Selous Reserve in Tanzania
More than a hundred thousand elephants, today it has only about 15 thousand elephants. In Central and West Africa, elephants are becoming more and more rare, is there a chance to restore the past?
We celebrate Elephant Day in the hope that the global momentum will continue and grow to save elephants and stop crimes against wildlife.
