Kenya is about to burn 105 tonnes of ivory tusks

Kenya wants a ban on all sales of elephant ivory, its president told other African leaders and conservationists at talks on how to save the continent's embattled elephant and rhino populations. From 1.2 million in the 1970s, the number of elephants roaming Africa has plunged to around 400,000. Poaching for ivory killed 30,000 a year from 2010 to 2012. The future for rhinos, now numbering less than 30,000, is even bleaker unless poaching is checked. "The future of the African elephant and rhino is far from secure so long as demand for their products continues to exist," said President Uhuru Kenyatta, adding any sale, even in legal domestic markets, increased risks to the animals. Kenya would seek a "total ban on the trade in elephant ivory" at a meeting on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in South Africa later this year, the president told the "Giants Club" summit. Signalling its commitment, Kenya will burn 105 tonnes of seized ivory on Saturday. CITES approved a ban on commercial trade in African elephant ivory in 1989, but since then has permitted one-off sales. Conservationists want more prosecutions of poachers, the...