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Elephant hunting, which used to be an accepted activity in Kenya, was banned in 1973, as was the
ivory trade The ivory trade is the commercial, often illegal trade in the ivory tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, black and white rhinos, mammoth, and most commonly, African elephant, African and Asian elephants. Ivory has been traded for hundred ...
. Kenya pioneered the destruction of ivory as a way to combat this
black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...
.


History


Colonial Kenya

During
colonial times The ''Colonial Times'' was a newspaper in what is now the Australian state of Tasmania. It was established as the ''Colonial Times, and Tasmanian Advertiser'' in 1825 in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colon ...
, elephant hunting in Kenya was seen as a sport for noblemen and was exploited by the colonial governors.
British East Africa East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was a British protectorate in the African Great Lakes, occupying roughly the same area as present-day Kenya, from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Cont ...
was not unique in this:
big-game hunting Big-game hunting is the hunting of large game animals for trophies, taxidermy, meat, and commercially valuable animal by-products (such as horns, antlers, tusks, bones, fur, body fat, or special organs). The term is often associated with t ...
was popular in many parts of the Empire. Among the white hunters, the bull elephant was said to be the most exhilarating target. Small-bore
rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...
s appeared to be the preferred option and aiming at the brain instead of the heart was another preference. The motive was not always monetary. However, many hunters were indiscriminate in their choice of elephants to kill – young, old, male or female, it did not matter, as the primary purpose was ivory to sell and elephant meat to feed their hunting party. The East African Professional Hunter's Association was formed to regulate the industry and restrict its excesses. The Association, which came into being at the Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi, stemmed from a desire to regulate hunting in the wake of technological developments like the safari vehicle, which had made accessing remote hunting areas much easier. During its existence it was able to accomplish much to conserve East African wildlife and become perhaps one of the most respected societies in the world of its kind. One of the most prolific of the white hunters was the Scottish adventurer W. D. M. Bell, who is reported to have killed over a thousand elephants, spread across several African countries. See the first of his memoirs, ''The Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter'' (1923), for more information. Some of the madness of the desire to shoot an elephant (albeit not in Kenya) is shown in '' White Hunter Black Heart'', a fictionalised version of what happened during the filming of the Hollywood classic ''
African Queen ''African Queen'' is a studio album by South African singer Makhadzi, released on 3 September 2021 by Open Mic. It features Mkomasan, Prince Benza, Mr Brown, DJ Dance Okashi, Vee Mampeezy, Jon Delinger, Kabza De Small, Lady Du, Cassper Nyovest, M ...
''. In 1963, the first year of independence, the Kenyan government issued 393 permits (
hunting license A hunting license or hunting permit is a regulation, regulatory or law, legal mechanism to control hunting, both commercial and recreational. A license specifically made for game hunting, recreational hunting is sometimes called a game license ...
s) for elephants. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Kenyan poacher received approximately Shs. 3-4/lb ($.79–1.05/kg); by the 1970s, it was Shs. 100/kg ($12.74/kg), increasing the black market value for the primary producer from about one-fifth to one-third of the real value.


The ban, and ivory smuggling

According to the American hunter Craig Boddington, elephant hunting was made illegal in Kenya in 1973 and all animal hunting without a permit in 1977. By the late 1970s, the elephant population was estimated around 275,000, dropping to 20,000 in 1989. Between 1970 and 1977, Kenya lost more than half of its elephants. In the 1970s,
Ngina Kenyatta Ngina Kenyatta (née Muhoho; born 24 June 1933), popularly known as "Mama Ngina", is the former First Lady of Kenya. She is the widow of Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta (~1889–1978), and mother of the fourth president Uhuru Kenyatta who ...
("Mama Ngina"), wife of then-President
Jomo Kenyatta Jomo Kenyatta (22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He played a significant role in the ...
, and other high-level government officials were allegedly involved in an ivory-smuggling ring that transported tusks out of the country in the state private aeroplane. ''New Scientist'' claimed that there was now documentary proof that at least one member of "Kenya's royal family" (the Kenyatta) had shipped over six tons of ivory to China. During the 1970s, 1900 elephants were killed in Kenya for their ivory tusks, increasing to 8300 elephants in the 1980s.


The worldwide ban on ivory trade

In 1989, as a dramatic gesture to persuade the world to halt the ivory trade, President
Daniel arap Moi Daniel Toroitich arap Moi ( ; 2 September 1924 – 4 February 2020) was a Kenyan politician who served as the second president of Kenya from 1978 to 2002. He is the country's longest-serving president to date. Moi previously served as the thi ...
ignited twelve tons of elephant tusks. In the 1990s the widespread ban on commercial ivory trading reduced the industry to a fraction of what it had been and elephant populations have stabilised. But illegal poaching and sale on the black market still poses a serious threat, as does government bribery. The largest poaching incident in Kenya since the ivory trade ban occurred in March 2002, when a family of ten elephants was killed. Illegal elephant deaths decreased between 1990, when the
CITES CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of inte ...
ban was issued, and 1997, when only 34 were illegally killed. Ivory seizures rose dramatically since 2006 with many illegal exports going to Asia. Poaching spiked seven-fold between 2007 and 2010. Large scale tourism promotion picked up in Kenya following the imposed hunting ban in Kenya since 1977. It has been noted that "photographic tourism", or non-consumptive wildlife use, is contributing 12% of Kenya’s GDP. Hence, some groups have recommended that tourism be promoted rather than any kind of hunting or consumptive wildlife use, as it could divert the attention of the government of Kenya from the policy goal of wildlife preservation.


The current situation, including safari tourism

Although elephant hunting has been banned for more than 40 years in Kenya, poaching has not been eradicated completely given the poverty of many Kenyans and the high value of elephant tusks. Tusks traditionally were shipped overseas and sold on the black market. Arrests continue at Nairobi's international airport, where 92 kilos of raw ivory were seized in 2010, and 96 kilos in 2011.


Possible trophy hunting in the future

Trophy hunting Trophy hunting is a form of hunting for field sports, sport in which parts of the hunted wild animals are kept and displayed as trophies. The animal being targeted, known as the "game (hunting), game", is typically a mature male specimen from a p ...
, purely as sport and as a conservation action, is now being considered for adoption in Kenya, as such a programme appears to have yielded positive results in Namibia and South Africa under a programme titled "Community-Based Natural Resource Management" (CBNRM). Under this programme, while cash was offered as an incentive for sport hunting, the basic aim was wildlife control on the communal land, providing benefits to the community as a whole. It is believed that trophy hunting might attract elephant poachers into moving into legal hunting and leaving elephant trading. The
Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates ...
's (FAO) report states: "Trophy hunting is generally self-regulating because low off-take is required to ensure high trophy quality and marketability in future seasons. Trophy hunting creates crucial financial incentives for the development and/or retention of wildlife as a land use over large areas in Africa, including in areas where ecotourism is not viable. Hunting plays an important role in the rehabilitation of degraded wildlife areas by enabling the income generation from wildlife without affecting population growth of trophy species." The policy of trophy hunting has been adopted in 23 sub-Saharan African countries. The income generated in total in Africa is quoted to be USD 201 million/year, derived from about 18,500 international hunting clients covering an area of 1.4 million km². Since there is a lack of consensus among the clients about the efficacy of this method of biodiversity conservation in Africa, a study carried out by the Africa Wildlife Conservation Fund indicates that if Kenya makes trophy hunting legal again, nearly 90% of the clients would be interested in pursuing this activity in that country. In this context, the importance of effective regulation of hunting operators and clients has also been highlighted.


See also

* Elephant hunting in Chad * Environmental issues in Kenya


References

{{Hunting topics Environmental issues in Kenya Economy of Kenya Elephant hunting Environmental conservation Hunting by country Ivory