Guerrilla organisations throughout Africa are funding their activities through the sale of systematically poached ivory from elephants
Leonardo Di Caprio has added his Oscar-winning voice to a host of other celebrities who have vowed to #jointheherd in a bid to put an end to the illicit ivory trade. A trade that is ensuring over 33,000 African elephants are brutally slaughtered each year as demand for decadent and ‘medically-enhancing’ ivory spirals out of control in East Asia.
Although the recent upsurge in focus and weight of support behind the cause of the African elephant is incredibly refreshing, it seems that for many, elephants are just too far away and too far down the list of world-problems-to-be-immediately-addressed for people to care about. People find baby elephants cute, their mourning of their dead is intriguing, and they provide the best example of a successful matriarchal society in the animal kingdom. But it seems that many don’t actually believe, care or feel that they have any capacity to do anything about their impending extinction.
In a world where the news agenda is peppered with stories of mass beheadings and systematic child abuse conducted by brutal terror organisations – as well as merciless attacks like those conducted in Brussels just today – it is understandable that people’s concerns lie outside of what is widely considered to be a ‘conservation’ issue. But ironically, it is the activities of these terror organisations that provide the most compelling reason to shine a spotlight on the plight of the African elephant. While excessive demand in East Asia has been widely publicised, the beginning of the supply chain has remained relatively neglected. This is the part where militant terrorist organisations throughout Africa are funding their activities through the sale of systematically poached ivory, or the ‘White Gold of Jihad’.
It has long been supposed that the illegal ivory trade is funding terrorism in Africa. The recent surge in activity of religious extremist groups arising in opposition to the actions of government-backed armies in Somalia, Nigeria and Uganda has been prolific. The basis of this assumption becomes clear where ivory is worth more than gold, corruption is rife, and fighters have been shown to earn more working for Islamist groups such as Al-Shabab than as soldiers in the Somalian army. Armed groups such as Boko Haram, Al-Shabab and Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) had to be getting their money from somewhere. Ivory-clad elephants seemed like an obvious solution, especially in the years before their protection became so necessary and, in parts of Africa, so successful.
Bryan Christy’s recent master class in investigative journalism for National Geographic finally proved these assumptions to be true. By planting infallibly fake elephant tusks containing minute GPS trackers into the supply chain between Garamba and Sudan, Christy was able to track the tusks as they made their way to Kafia Kingi, widely recognised to be the safe haven hideout of Kony and the LRA. Accounts from LRA ‘defectors’ substantiate the claim that this evidence presents; elephants were being slaughtered for their ivory by LRA soldiers and subsequently traded for the food and weapons that keep them afloat. In the words of Kony himself, “it’s only the ivory that will make the LRA strong”.
It is not just the Christian fundamentalist LRA that is using ivory as currency to fund their campaign of extremist brutality. Boko Haram and the Janjaweed militia have also been implicated, and it has been calculated that approximately 40 per cent of Al-Shabab’s funding comes from proceeds made from the illegal ivory trade. The trade becomes alarmingly relevant when the Islamist group responsible for the 2013 Westgate Mall bombings and similar attacks on perceived ‘western’ targets are being funded through the brutal mass-murder of elephants and their protectors. The ivory trade is not just fuelling the demise of the African elephant, but also contributing to the murder of thousands of innocent people.
While terrorism in Africa may still seem far away for many, Boko Haram’s recent rebrand that has given the so-called ‘Islamic State’ a foothold in Africa shatters this illusion. It is hard to ignore the threat that Daesh poses in the west, though many have managed to ignore the destruction they employ elsewhere. The recent Paris attacks were incredibly shocking both in volume and in proximity to British soil. Car bomb attacks in Ankara are becoming frequent and devastating in their impact. Brussels spent Christmas in lock-down. Beachgoers on ‘western’ resorts on the coast of Africa are being increasingly targeted. London has just raised its terror alert to ‘high’ following a direct threat from Daesh of a ‘Doomsday-style’ attack so terrible that it will ‘turn children’s hair white’. Suddenly terrorism does not seem so far away, but, unfortunately, a solution to its aggressive proliferation does.
The good news for elephants and those who care about them is that ivory-funded terrorism is a form of terrorism we actually can do something about. There are many reasons to be optimistic about our ability to successfully put an end to the illegal ivory trade in Africa.
Replenishing (or at least stabilising) elephant populations in Kenya in conjunction with flourishing protection and rehabilitation projects give great cause for such optimism. So, too, do Air Shepherd’s advances in drone technology that enable them to detect and deter poachers in South Africa before they kill with phenomenal levels of success. But it is the dogmatic application of park rangers to their cause that instils the most confidence; rangers throughout the continent consider themselves to be at war with the poachers. This is especially true of the rangers Bryan Christy encountered during his investigation. They are protecting the elephants to protect Garamba National Park because they know that ‘Garamba’s heart’ gives people something to live for in a region that Christy asserts has ‘almost forgotten peace’.
High-profile commitments from Hong Kong and New York to put an end to the illegal ivory trade, along with the symbolic burning of ‘blood ivory’ stockpiles throughout Africa give further cause for optimism. But tackling demand in East Asia will require mass education and the ending of centuries-old traditions and beliefs, which clearly cannot happen overnight. Tackling the trade at the source through supporting local-level projects is a more immediate solution that can, and is, having substantial results. Unfortunately, it will only continue to do so if on-going funds and support are provided.
We need to expose and tackle the beginning of the supply chain by treating the imminent extinction of the African elephant as an issue of terror, rather than one of conservation – as a global issue, rather than one for Africa to deal with alone. It is through tackling the trade at its source – by financing local rangers, charities and rehabilitation projects – that we can ensure that African elephants remain in the wild. Elephants should not be cash-flow opportunities in a chain of corruption and destruction that culminates in the murder of innocent people. As it stands, they will be extinct within ten years, their presence confined not to the wild, but to the pages of storybooks.
Photo Credits: Hannah Dillon