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Last Saturday the Kenyan government burned 105 tons of elephant ivory and 1.35 tons of rhino horn. The ivory was worth an estimated $105 million, making it the biggest ivory burn of all time. The burn was carried out at Nairobi National Park and was used as a platform for the government to address Africa’s ongoing problems with poaching.

“For us, ivory is worthless unless it is on our elephants,” said Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta. Some people argue that this will send a strong message to poachers. However, others believe that the money from the confiscated ivory could have been used to fund the protection of wildlife, and there are also concerns that the burn will actually encourage poaching by increasing the demand for ivory.

The stockpile of tusks and horns came from about 6,500 elephants and 450 rhinos killed by poachers. There are currently 400,00 elephants in Africa but with 30,000 hunted down each year, they may face extinction in a couple of decades.

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    Last Saturday the Kenyan government burned 105 tons of elephant ivory and 1.35 tons of rhino horn

    kenya-burns-ivory-elephant-rhino-poaching-a14

    Image credits: Charlie Hamilton James

    The ivory was worth an estimated $105 million, making it the biggest ivory burn of all time

    kenya-burns-ivory-elephant-rhino-poaching-a9

    Image credits: Carl De Souza

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    The stockpile of tusks and horns came from about 6,500 elephants and 450 rhinos killed by poachers

    kenya-burns-ivory-elephant-rhino-poaching-a17

    Image credits: Ben Curtis

    The burn was used as a platform for the government to address Africa’s ongoing problems with poaching

    kenya-burns-ivory-elephant-rhino-poaching-a8

    Image credits: Charlie Hamilton James

    “For us, ivory is worthless unless it is on our elephants,” said Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta

    kenya-burns-ivory-elephant-rhino-poaching-a1

    Image credits: Charlie Hamilton James

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    Some people argue that this will send a strong message to poachers

    kenya-burns-ivory-elephant-rhino-poaching-a16

    Image credits: Charlie Hamilton James

    But there are also concerns that the burn will actually encourage poaching by increasing the demand for ivory

    kenya-burns-ivory-elephant-rhino-poaching-a18

    Image credits: Dai Kurokawa

    There are currently 400,00 elephants in Africa but with 30,000 hunted down each year, they may face extinction in a couple of decades

    kenya-burns-ivory-elephant-rhino-poaching-a10

    Image credits: Beverly Joubert

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