Will destroying ivory really save elephants?

[Still Waters]

Three princes, four presidents, various foreign affairs ministers, wildlife experts and a clutch of wildlife charities gathered in London earlier this month to shine a spotlight on the illegal trade in wildlife.

The numbers of murdered elephants are growing every day and of course there is a link to their gruesome deaths and the increasing demand for their ivory in markets as far afield as China and Vietnam.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...africa-26330575

[White Crane Feather]

Morons. Do they know nothing of economics. Decreasing the supply only drives the price up, and makes more of an incentive for poachers. If they want to save the elephants from poachers, there has to be a organized effort on several fronts. 1) wild life conservancy must sell permits to harvest an animals ivory without harming the animal. The money goes to prevent poaching and to local people. Then

I know I don't like it either, but managing the ivory trade is much better than letting it succumb to a black market. Once all the ivory is pretty much gone, less people will try to kill elephants. An individual elephant with ivory, can be sold ( ivory only ) to the highest bidder and when the elephant is old enough it's ivory is taken by professionals. Biologists can inceminate females artificially and increase populations.

If you protect the animal with economic critical thinking rather than emotional you can do a better job to satisfy your emotion for it.

Edited March 2, 2014 by White Crane Feather

[scorpiosonic]

I agree for the most part, WCF...unfortunately there's alot of corruption among those who are supposed to be enforcing anti-poaching laws, etc.

It's a shame humans can't manage elephant populations (and many other animals) better than we are....I doubt it will stop until there are none left.

It's a good thing there are tuskless elephants.

[Ashotep]

The only way destroying ivory is going to help the elephants is if they remove the ivory from the elephant so they don't have any to steal.

The only way this is going to be stopped is if Asian countries like China crack down on it. As long as people in these countries think its going to perform some miracle for them its going to be a problem.

[freetoroam]

Will destroying ivory really save the elephants? Doubt it, but destroying the poachers and buyers of the ivory will.

[DecoNoir]

Now the psychopath in me says we train people to hunt poachers, and grind their bones up to sell as "ivory". The people using it are so ass-backwards they probably couldn't tell the difference anyway.

Again, tongue-in-cheek psychopath here.

[White Crane Feather]

Genetically engeneer elephants with fast regenerating tusks? If we can make the animal more valuable alive than dead, we can save them. As long as it is more valuable dead than alive there is no hope.

Like some of you have suggested, increasing the opportunity cost severely would do the trick, but you would have to engage in severe even horrific measures.

Now corruption can be worked with because... It well is corrupt. Its a kesson from the CIA. If powerful people are given the permits and profits from well managed herds, then they will do the protection for us. No one is going to poach from an African drug lord or corrupt powerful official. If the right people have rights to harvest and manage efficiently, they will see to it that poaching stops.

Again. Not that I like this scenario either, but if nothing else is going to work and it probably won't, I'd rather this than extinction. Now I'm sure it's already been done, but we can save the DNA of these animals so that at a latter date if humanity gets its act together ( I know a big if) we can clone these animals using other elephants and bring them back.

I have faith that herds can be saved. The tule elk was saved from only 27 animals ( by a hunting organization by the way) to herds of thousands. permits for its hunting are highly prized, and land owners that will protect the animsl are given limited permits that they can sell to rich hunters. A tule elk tag from a land owner will push well over $30,000.

This is an example of how successful Managment and properly thought out sustainable economics can accomplish real conservation. These same principles should be applied to other animals. Hooping and hollering, tiring yourself to trees and the rest of that junk does nothing to actually help the animal . If we put our brains and our money to where our heart is we can accomplish real good.

Edited March 3, 2014 by White Crane Feather

[White Crane Feather]

The only way destroying ivory is going to help the elephants is if they remove the ivory from the elephant so they don't have any to steal.

The only way this is going to be stopped is if Asian countries like China crack down on it. As long as people in these countries think its going to perform some miracle for them its going to be a problem.

Yes and no. We should be able to manipulate the circumstances so that the demand for ivory actually helps the animal. See my example above with the Tule elk.

Edited March 3, 2014 by White Crane Feather