Laos A Thriving Market For Kenyan Trophies

[NamStay]

The appetite for Kenyan wildlife trophies is exposing the animals to more threats as South East Asian country Laos is the fastest growing ivory market in the world.

According to a new report released yesterday by a local NGO Save the Elephants, at Sarova Panafric Hotel, Chinese are now buying over 80 percent of ivory in Laos. The retail prices are lower than in China.

The report, ‘The ivory trade of Laos: Now the fastest growing in the world”, says that most of the raw ivory comes from Africa by ship in containers destined for Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

“Until recently, 90 percent of large consignment would be moved directly to China, but nowdays much of the ivory is being diverted to Vientiane,” the 88-page report says.

Researchers Lucy Vigne and Esmond Martin did a survey in mid November to December 2016. They collected data on the origin of ivory and trade routes into Laos.

According to the researchers, the average wholesale price of raw ivory in Laos in 2013 had peaked to about $2,000 per kilogramme (Sh206,680 ). But by late 2016,the average price had declined to $714 (Sh73,784.76 ) per kilogramme.

The authors found 81 retail outlets with ivory on sale, 40 of which were in the capital Vientiane.

The least expensive item was $ 3 (Sh310 ) and the most expensive was a pair of polished tusks for $ 25,000(Sh2,583,500 ).

In Vientiane and LuangPrabang Chinese – owned shops had increased from three in 2013 to 35 in 2016.

Save the Elephants founder Iain Douglas Hamilton described the report as alarming.


Source: https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/09/30/laos-a-thriving-market-for-kenyan-trophies_c1643705

 

[Philip Glass]

If Kenya and others would quit burning ivory and sell it those prices would plummet. Supply and demand. Liberals do not understand economics to the detriment of us all!

 

[flat8]

Everybody knows that if we banned European and American hunting in Africa, poaching would end and Chinese demand would dry up.

 

[TXhunter65]

 

[Pheroze]

If Kenya and others would quit burning ivory and sell it those prices would plummet. Supply and demand. Liberals do not understand economics to the detriment of us all!

Unless someone on power there knows exactly how to keep prices up to the advantage of a few...

 

[CAustin]

If Kenya and others would quit burning ivory and sell it those prices would plummet. Supply and demand. Liberals do not understand economics to the detriment of us all!

Greens didn’t go to business school.

 

[Tom Hawk]

Only problem.Poachers could launder ivory through the legal market. CITES and Asian countries and Kenya could use tags. Kenya has light poaching punishments. Switzerland’s banks uses the 3 key system (3 parts together make the key for the safety deposit box. Thank Einstein for it). So the 3 tags, maybe 4 if you make it stockpile and normal importation permits 5 for Kenya stockpile and export. Also, ivory has to be sold through CITES

 

[Tom Hawk]

Unless someone on power there knows exactly how to keep prices up to the advantage of a few...

Pheroze, Kenya top officials have been accused of poaching. The charges never stick. Wonder why?

 

[Rick Cox]

Everybody knows that if we banned European and American hunting in Africa, poaching would end and Chinese demand would dry up.

What a comedian!

 

[Rick Cox]

Greens didn’t go to business school.

In Canada they have to be graduates of Drama school.

 

[Dragan N.]

Greens didn’t go to business school.

Ehh its not that simple. If you look at the Green Party in Canada for instance they have supported the legalization of weed for decades now. Their argument was that people smoke it anyway so you might as well legalize it in order for the price to come down, get tax revenue, regulate quality etc... and greatly reduce the black market. Applying this business perspective to the drug trade does kind of make sense, since the "war on drugs" has largely been a failure.

However, for them the trade in animal parts be it rhino horn, elephant tusks or grizzly bear hides is akin to trafficking in human organs. Its something that in their twisted logic is a complete taboo. A good deal of their members and supporters are vegans who refer to animal husbandry (i.e. the meat and dairy industries) as a "holocaust". These peoples points of view are so far left field that any kind of dialogue is impossible.

 

[CAustin]

Ehh its not that simple. If you look at the Green Party in Canada for instance they have supported the legalization of weed for decades now. Their argument was that people smoke it anyway so you might as well legalize it in order for the price to come down, get tax revenue, regulate quality etc... and greatly reduce the black market. Applying this business perspective to the drug trade does kind of make sense, since the "war on drugs" has largely been a failure.

However, for them the trade in animal parts be it rhino horn, elephant tusks or grizzly bear hides is akin to trafficking in human organs. Its something that in their twisted logic is a complete taboo. A good deal of their members and supporters are vegans who refer to animal husbandry (i.e. the meat and dairy industries) as a "holocaust". These peoples points of view are so far left field that any kind of dialogue is impossible.

It is that simple to me and I Did go to business school. The point made by @Philip Glass is a basic principle of economics. Supply goes way up prices fall. (Why do oil producing nations control supply? To keep prices high) If the prices fall the profit in poaching goes way down. There becomes a point where nothing is gained by the illegal sources of the animal products. If we were to apply the short sighted thinking of the”Green Party “ you mention then we would say well people are going to poach anyway so we should just let everybody shoot any beast they want and we will just tax it. Not sure anyone could support that thinking in the real world. But then greens do not live in a real world. As you state very well they live in a place of “twisted logic” and they don’t get much of anything. Thus I stand by my original thought....they didn’t go to business school !

 

[Tom Hawk]

http://www.poachingfacts.com/faces-of-the-poachers/military-corrupt-officials/
In July of 1963 Jomo Kenyatta became the first Prime Minister of an independent Kenya, then served as president from 1964-1978. His party, Kenya African National Union (KANU), would become the dominant political force in the country for forty years. But almost immediately corruption took root and political gifts were dispensed.

In the mid 1960s Kenyatta personally gave permission for a former general of the Mau Mau Uprising, an insurgency that lasted from 1952 to 1960, to sell wildlife parts that had been gained during the “freedom fight.” Presidential orders allowed him to sell £75,000 worth of ivory without oversight from the Game Department. The general would claim in 1973 that President Kenyatta was intending to or had already given ivory to former insurgents as a form of reward.

In 1972 President Kenyatta’s family became openly involved in the ivory trade. The United Africa Corporation, which his daughter Margaret was a major shareholder of, would export more than 50,000 kilograms of ivory to Peking, China (today Beijing), a third of Kenya’s total export for that year. In 1973 and 1974, in spite of a national ban, the company continued to sell ivory overseas that allegedly came directly from government-held stockpiles.

During this period Kenya’s President and his wife Ngina Kenyatta amassed extraordinary personal assets including as much as 2,000,000 acres of land, financing, and money directly from the United Africa Corporation. $600,000 was spent on 21 houses in London in 1973/1974, purchased in cash by Ngina Kenyatta.

Corruption would continued to plague Kenya’s wildlife conservation efforts and by the end of 1979 there were 47 high-ranking members of Kenya’s Wildlife Conservation and Management Department under investigation out of a total of 77 wardens.

 

[Philip Glass]

It doesn’t matter where the ivory comes from the elephant is dead. If it’s confiscated and then sold by the government it will still bring down demand. Bloody ivory, yes but it doesn’t change the economics. Sad situation for sure but burning ivory is not the answer. We can all agree on that I think.
Philip

 

[Tom Hawk]

Kenyan politician love money. People want what they can’t have. The market should also be steady, as now legal, more people will want it as wont available for some time, like guns during Obama’s time