JFW review of Ivory: Power and Poaching in Africa
My review of Keith Somerville’s important new book Ivory appears in the current issue of Pachyderm. Somerville, a veteran of numerous assignments in Africa during his career with the BBC, brings his journalistic skills to this grim, detailed chronicle of the exploitation of elephants and disempowered Africans. Click here for the complete review.
JFW interviewed on CGTNAmerica
“CGTN’s Rachelle Akuffo spoke to John Frederick Walker about the state of elephant populations and conservation measures. Walker is the author of “Ivory’s Ghosts: The White Gold of History and the Fate of Elephants.””
The Dark Side of Ivory Prohibition: Will it help elephants or just vandalize culture?
With 25,000 African elephants being slain every year for their tusks, maybe it was inevitable that elephant advocates would grow impatient with critically important but slow-paced efforts to help rural communities co-exist with Africa’s herds, root out endemic corruption in range states, and expose international wildlife trafficking rings.
Now, nearly three decades after the ban, with no end to elephant poaching in sight, their attitudes have gone strident, spiraling into emotion-driven campaigns and unhinged extremism that threatens to turn the war on poaching into an incoherent war on ivory….
Read the entire article at https://thesmartset.com/ivory-prohibition/
Sudan: “The Most Eligible Bachelor in the World”
I took this photo of Sudan, the last remaining male northern white rhino in existence, several years ago at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia, Kenya. He’s under 24/7 armed guard to protect him from poachers, and his horns have been shortened as an added precaution. Sudan is getting on in years—he’s 43—and alas, shows little interest in the remaining pair of female northern white rhinos that share his corner of the wildlife sanctuary.
To keep this remarkable subspecies from going extinct, Ol Pejeta is raising funds to aid the development of in vitro fertilization technology that might work with females from the more numerous southern white rhino population.
It’s a race against time, and Tinder, the popular social app for meeting new people, has partnered with Ol Pejeta to introduce Sudan and the plight of the northern white rhino.
Sudan has quite a profile: “I’m one of a kind….6ft tall and 5,000 lbs, if it matters.” Swipe right, and Tinder users in 140 countries will be directed to a page from which they can donate. Sounds like a great match.
JFW on mammoth ivory
In a fascinating BBC News piece on How an obscure seed is helping to save the elephant, business reporter Kait Bolongaro explains how tagua seed from ivory-nut palms (known as “vegetable ivory”) and tusks from long-extinct mammoths are finding ready markets as substitutes for elephant ivory. I’m quoted on ethically-sourced mammoth ivory from the Siberian tundra, which varies from hard, almost petrified examples, to remarkably well-preserved tusks.
“John Frederick Walker, an expert on ivory, says: ‘Master carvers tend to prefer elephant ivory because fresh elephant ivory is easier to carve. But in fact, you can make wonderful things from mammoth ivory.’ ”
Both tagua and mammoth ivory are examples of natural, organic materials that share much of the tactile attraction of elephant ivory, but unlike tusks from poached elephants, can be sourced guilt-free: the first is a palm-tree seed, the second from a long-expired ancestor of today’s elephant.
JFW on Ivory Trade
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I was recently interviewed on Radio Luxembourg by Mohamed Hamdi for an episode centered on the ivory trade. The entire program is here, presented in Luxembourgish. My responses included the following:
“I’m basically against the trade of animal products from threatened and endangered species, but with some exceptions. It’s important to distinguish between wildlife products that require the death of the animal and those that don’t. And you don’t have to kill elephants to get their tusks. Eventually, like all creatures, they die and leave behind their tusks. Something like 15 to 20 tons a year of this natural mortality ivory is recovered in the bush and warehoused in African national park systems. As long as there are these animals, there’s going to be ivory. The argument for allowing a highly regulated and transparent trade in legal ivory is that it creates a socially acceptable outlet for legitimate interest and no-harm-to-elephants ivory. All other ivory commerce by contrast would be unacceptable, illicit, criminal, rightly condemned on the grounds that it threatens elephants. I think that the very existence of historic carvings and legal ivory of this nature means that a complete prohibition of ivory commerce is never going to be universally accepted. Total prohibition is just going to drive demand under ground where it can only be supplied by organized crime….”
Giant Sable Shepherd given prestigious Tusk Ranger Award
Last week, Pedro Vaz Pinto, the Angolan biologist behind giant sable conservation in Angola, brought Manuel Sacaia to London to receive the Tusk Ranger Award at an event presided over by the Duke of Cambridge and David Attenborough. Sacaia, the elder member of a team of “sable shepherds” who now guard the country’s endangered antelope, has been shot at by poachers and had his leg caught in a mantrap, but continues his work undeterred. He was born on the border of the Luando Reserve, the historic habitat of the animal, and has spent decades looking after the palanca negra gigante. This short YouTube video captures his modesty and his passion for conservation.
JFW on Rhino Poaching and the Rhino Horn Trade Ban
In late August and early September I traveled to South Africa and Swaziland to look at what’s being done to combat the rhino poaching crisis. My analysis is now online at National Geographic News.
John Frederick Walker 
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