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A recent survey of savanna elephant populations estimated that poachers killed 30,000 animals annually between 2007 and 2014, reducing the population to fewer than 400,000. Overall, researchers estimate that African elephant numbers have plummeted more than 95% over the past century.
[...] Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa—are expected to offer proposals for restarting a legal ivory trade. All argue that some elephant populations are healthy enough to be managed for ivory production. The proposals envision taking tusks from both animals that are intentionally killed—sometimes because they become nuisances, trampling crops and threatening people—and those that die naturally.
A study in Current Biology concludes that the demand for ivory far exceeds any sustainable harvest model and that there is a high risk that lifting the ivory ban will make things worse. The authors note that attempts must be made to reduce the demand for ivory:
At the same time, we cannot brush aside the fact that poaching has reached industrial scale fuelled by an increase in consumer demand driven by the rise of the middle class in countries like China. We must urgently work on finding ways to change consumer behavior as the only avenue by which we can resolve the ivory trade tragedy.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/legalizing-ivory-trade-wont-save-elephants-study-concludes
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)31005-3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_ivory
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday October 24 2016, @04:09PM
If that's true, then the government should run a corporate contract to harvest tusks for a small percentage of the profit under supervision. The surviving elephants won't be at risk and the harvesters will be able to operate in the open with a respectable "we save elephants from poachers while making loads of money off idiots with erectile dysfunction" job description.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Monday October 24 2016, @08:01PM
You are thinking of rhino horn, which is completely different from elephant ivory. I am not aware of any medical remedies using ivory at least, ivory's main use is decorative, from my understanding.
But that is another thing that could be farmed without killing the animal, and indeed would be by far the most profitable method to do if the harvesters were not criminals on the run from poacher-killers.
(Score: 2) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Tuesday October 25 2016, @01:37PM
But that is another thing that could be farmed without killing the animal, and indeed would be by far the most profitable method to do if the harvesters were not criminals on the run from poacher-killers.
Rhino is often "poached" by the owners themselves. It is illegal for a private rhino owner to sell his product, the horn, on the open market even though they can easily and sustainably be farmed for that purpose without harming the animals. A game farmer who wants to get into rhino farming is best off breeding rhino and having his own guys "poach" it while he turns a blind eye and takes a cut.
That is precisely what happens. As an example, take a poaching ring which were arrested and locked away with great fanfare in South Africa a year or two ago. They hired Thai prostitutes to go hunting in private South African game reserves. The hooker shoots a rhino, which is paid for, and gets a trophy to hang on her wall. Completely legal and sustainable hunting. She hands the trophy to her benefactors, who sell the horn on the black market. All of a sudden they're poachers.