Stop the Ivory Ban

Botswana wants to open hunting on elephants. It’s been 5 years . Of course they are catching a lot of flack, but the economy is in trouble, and photo safaris cannot take up the slack. Plus they animals are decimating crops. For the sustenance farmer they are a nightmare.

Five Things to Know About Botswana’s Decision to Lift Ban on Hunting Elephants The move has been criticized by conservationists but lauded by locals who say wild elephants are ruining their livelihoods

Here is a case of the law gone bad. It makes no sense and saves nothing. As a side note, if it were to be sold only in the US this item would have qualified under the exemptions of the ivory ban law. I am assuming that the seller thought (mistakenly) that it would sell to an over seas buyer and so could be exported with faux ivory, which is correct. However , by removing the ivory he negated the worth of the furniture and it didn't sell at all.


A Thomas Chippendale masterpiece was stripped of its ivory and fitted with a plastic substitute before being offered for sale at Christie’s, in a case described by antiques experts as “pure vandalism”.
The 18th century commode became the most expensive piece of English furniture ever sold when it last appeared at auction in 1991, fetching a record £935,000.
But when it was offered at Christie’s in London again last month with an estimate of £3-5 million, the US seller first replaced the inlaid ivory with man-made ‘ivorine’ in order to comply with a US ban on ivory trading, the Antiques Trade Gazette reported. It failed to sell.

Botswana's people are sick of the price they paid for political correctness when they banned elephant hunting, and now they want to bring it back.

Botswana may put elephants in cross-hairs as it moves to lift hunting ban Botswana, home to the world's largest elephant population, may lift a ban on hunting for sport in the face of what the government says is growing conflict between humans and wildlife, a move sure to provoke protest from animal welfare groups. Conservationists estimate the land-locked southern Africa...

Are photographic safaris enough to sustain Africa’s preserves? “Timbavati photographic tourism numbers had peaked, the revenue brought into the reserve by 24,000 photographic tourists was less than one third of the revenue brought in by only 46 hunters for the same year. It’s not hard to imagine that 24,000 tourists have a much larger carbon, and resource use, footprint than 46 hunters, not to mention the amount of activity within the reserve required to support all of those photographic tourists –“. Read more here....

Opinion piece: Timbavati increases conservation levy to fund anti-poaching and other costs - Africa Geographic Could the new Timbavati Conservation Levy model become a benchmark for sustainable funding of private reserves?

Submit a quick message supporting sustainable use to the International Wildlife Conservation Council today by emailing [email protected]. Comments received today will be considered at their first meeting on March 16.

Poaching is a distraction. The challenge for elephant populations is managing land use when human populations are exploding.

Elephant Densities in Africa. By Douglas Wise. Elephant Densities in Africa. By Douglas Wise. Jan 9 Bugs van Heerden If not predated by man, elephant populations can grow at the rate of approximately 5.5%/annum, doubling every 13 years until the approach of maximum carrying capacity forced by food limitation. Man is the keystone predator of elep...