I'm posting this here as I am fed up of rewriting it on separate posts on conservation and other sites and so I can link back to it with ease where needed as I comment a lot on conservation and marine and cultural conservation issues (except pangolins). I actually suggested the regulated sale of confiscated ivories (to fund ongoing conservation efforts, a DNA database and enhanced security of elephants and rhino and customs etc) before they decided to reprise Leakey's old PR I actually suggested the regulated sale of confiscated ivories before they decided to reprise Leakey's old PR stunt this time. and was very clear about the criteria under which I was making that suggestion. Which would not have personally benefitted me one jot. The ivory burn was based was it not on the report suggesting a causative link between the last (pretty poorly regulated) legal sale of ivory by Kenya and the increase in poaching? But it ignored all other factors during the same time period that might have potentially affected these figures. I.e. Some obvious examples that I observed myself include: The increase in travel and general market penetration of Kenyan and East African markets by the Chinese during the same time period, the ease of transferring money via Mpesa, the increased market penetration of technologies such as smartphones and GPS technology etc. Ergo the data in this report was flawed in my opinion (as someone with an MA in international journalism and who has worked as a Database Manager for The World's Largest IT Publisher and who has been a security guard, and who did an MA thesis on reporting including of statistics in Africa including of the LRA (a group that has also previously been linked in the US press to poaching). I pointed this out years ago and severally since. I do not believe you can base decisions on flawed data or that you should. I also have outlined very thoroughly on Kenyans4Wildlife severally in the past some ideas for security etc. That I believe would help the situation as a starting point. I also outlined the problems with the current strategy in a recent consultation document on the proposed ban on the sale of antique ivory in the UK. There's another link to a post on it here http://www.alexcabrini.com/single-post/2015/10/31/Me-on-the-foolishness-of-burning-stockpile-ivory-and-why-CITIES-data-is-wrong
- Copyright Victoria Alexandra Cabrini Luckie MA