Save The Elephants: Gabon President Ignites Huge Bonfire Of Illicit Ivory

LE MONDE (France), NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

GABON - Authorities in Gabon burned more than 4.5 tons of illegal ivory this week after the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species released a report showing that elephant poaching has reached a record high in the past few years.

The year 2011 saw the highest recorded levels of elephant killings since the ivory trade was banned in 1989, according to National Geographic. Some 24.3 tons of ivory were intercepted last year, with most of it destined for China and Thailand, where demand and prices are rising.

Le Monde reports that more than 1,200 raw pieces and 17,000 sculpted pieces of ivory were burned in the bonfire personally lit by Gabonese president Ali Bongo Ondimba on Wednesday, as a gesture to show support for protecting elephants.

The total value of the burned ivory topped 7.6 million euros, and the World Wildlife Fund, which was present at the event, estimated that this represented almost 850 elephants killed.

Gabon is home to approximately 50,000 of the remaining 472,000 to 690,000 African elephants that still live on the continent. Watch the WWF video below of the Gabonese President at the ivory burning explaining his country's position on elephant poaching:

WORLDCRUNCH

Premium stories from Worldcrunch's own network of multi-lingual journalists in over 30 countries.

WORLDCRUNCH

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Migrant Lives

Migration

What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S.

With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life..

Photo of a family of Migrants from Venezuela crossing the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum

Migrants from Venezuela crossed the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum.

David Peinado via Zuma Press

Julio Borges

-Analysis-

Migration has too many elements to count. Beyond the matter of leaving your homeland, the process creates a gaping emptiness inside the migrant — and outside, in their lives. If forced upon someone, it can cause psychological and anthropological harm, as it involves the destruction of roots. That's in fact the case of millions of Venezuelans who have left their country without plans for the future or pleasurable intentions.

Their experience is comparable to paddling desperately in shark-infested waters. As many Mexicans will concur, it is one thing to take a plane, and another to pay a coyote to smuggle you to some place 'safe.'

Venezuela's mass emigration of recent years has evolved in time. Initially, it was the middle and upper classes and especially their youth, migrating to escape the socialist regime's socio-political and economic policies. Evidently, they sought countries with better work, study and business opportunities like the United States, Panama or Spain. The process intensified after 2017 when the regime's erosion of democratic structures and unrelenting economic vandalism were harming all Venezuelans.