900 words research essay

On a yearly basis, billions of dollars are made from the illegal killing of elephants, the gathering of their ivory tusks, and the trafficking of the ivory on the black markets throughout the global community for monetary gain and to support wars and acts of terrorism. According to an articles written in National Geographic magazine in September 2015, “. . . 30,000 African elephants are slaughtered every year—more than 100,000 between 2009 and 2012—and the pace of killing [these creatures] is not slowing [down]. Most of this illegal ivory goes to China where a pair of ivory chopsticks can bring more than a thousand dollars and carved tusks sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars” (Christy 37). Recently, investigators have been able to gather undisputable evidence that the illegally gotten ivory’s finances are being used to fund terrorism and the war efforts of the Ugandan rebel Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army, (LRA). Kony’s poachers not only sell the tusks for monetary gain but also trade the tusks to the armed forces of other poorer, unorganized, struggling military units in other third world countries. They have formed an ivory-terrorism connection—not only with countries like China but also with governments throughout Africa and the global community—and traded the illegal ivory “. . . with counties like the Sudanese military for salt, sugar and arms (47). Moreover, Kony is not the only terrorist who uses monies procured from the sale of illegal ivory on the global black markets. According to Tristan McConnell, many believe “. . . Al Qaeda’s East African branch, the Shabab, uses ivory sales to fund deadly attacks like the one on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall in 2013 and that Boka Haram, Islamic State’s West African affiliate, is partly underwritten with [blood] ivory. According to another source in the California based non-profit Elephant Action League, it has been estimated the Shabab gets approximately “. . . 40% or its [monies] from blood ivory . . . which is equivalent to a monthly income between $200,000 and $600,000 (qtd. in McConnell). This constant flow of funds from the sale of illegal ivory makes it look as if there are no international monitoring devices in place to control the poaching and selling of this ill-gotten ivory. This ivory, according to Bryan Christy, “.

. .is [also] one of the means being used to forge links between the LRA, Al Shabab, ISIS, Sudan’s murderous Janjaweed and other terrorist groups (qtd. in Kahumbu and Halliday).Moreover, the sale of this blood ivory is not only about its illegal sale, terrorism, or wars ranging throughout the world, but it is also about the elephant. According to Carl Safina, “Africa has lost 90% of its elephants in the last half century: Sierra Leone [has witnessed] its final elephants being killed in 2009; Senegal [has] less than a dozen elephants left; Gabon has seen 80% [11,000] elephants killed in the last decade; the Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen 90% of its elephants killed. None of these animals have been saved and very little of the illegal ivory has been confiscated. Many people have become outraged that no other alternative exists for dealing with these poachers and war mongers who are killing the elephants at such an alarming rate. According to Carl Safina’s article entitled “Blood Ivory,” the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which regulates ivory trading, has had a system in place since 1975, but that system has become ineffective since it has no restraining effect and facilitates easy laundering of the stolen tusks. According to CITES’s website, to become more effective at regulating the big business of wildlife crime, CITE has formed two new tools to help with the monitoring—Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) and Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS)—but with these checks and balances, poachers are still getting onto the ranges and killing the elephants for their tusks. One can only wonder if CITE, MIKE, and ETIS, the agencies that are responsible for combating these terrorists, are qualified to combat these crimes, but CITES has at least tried according to its recorded minutes at its meeting in 2012; however, Mary Rice states that CITES is now advocating “. . . a legal trade in ivory as a way to protect elephants in the wild.” While this suggestion may look great on paper, dealing with corrupt leaders and the greed that are now part of the terror-ivory trade can be dangerous and take time that the elephants do not have; therefore, new alternatives must be advanced if the poaching of the elephants, the human degradation and murder, and the illegal buying and selling of these tusks are to be properly dealt with in the local community since trying to regulate the market has not worked. Therefore, CITES and all