​The trigger man, or the man who actually shoots the elephant, gets $10 per pound of tusk. If he shoots a typical female with two 25-pound tusks, he makes $500. Since the average annual income in Tanzania is under $2,000, a man makes more by shooting four elephants in a few days than by working all year. Little does the trigger man know -- that same pair of tusks is being cut up, carved into trinkets and sold for $18,000 per pound in China.
     The sad part is that the starving Tanzanian villager needs to make money somehow, for himself, his immediate family, and often his extended family, To him, $500 for an elephant is a lot of money. Although Tanzania has been an independent, peaceful democracy since the 1960's, its people are suffering:

• The minimum wage is $1.38 per hour.
• The minimum wage for people in agricultural services is $138 per month.
• The minimum wage for people in health services is $64 per month.
• 82% of households do not have electricity.
• 29% of families walk more than 1/2 mile to get drinking water.
• Primary school attendance is 77%.
• Secondary school attendance is 29%.
• 5% of the population is HIV positive.
• 8% of the children are orphans.
• 25% of households are led by single women.

     One way to solve poverty in Tanzania is for the government to allow its citizens to actually own the property they live on. Then, the rural villagers can make money by managing photographic and hunting safaris on their land. Instead of poaching elephants for illegal ivory smugglers, the villagers will protect the elephants. They will build campgrounds and roads; bake bread and weave baskets to sell to tourists; learn to market their land and businesses; and ultimately support themselves. 
     Already, the Tanzanian government has created several Wildlife Management Areas in the rural areas around the national parks, and respected non-profit organizations such as the PAMS Foundation are helping the villagers get started. If you would like to help Tanzanian villagers rise out of poverty (and thereby save some elephants) go to the How You Can Help page.

     Nearly all poached elephant tusks are smuggled on ships from Africa to Asian ports, with 70% to 90% going to China. Although recent reports focus on this illegal ivory, many of China’s tusks arrived a few years back as legal stockpiled ivory. “Stockpiled ivory” refers to tusks that game scouts confiscated from poachers or picked up in the bush. In 2004, CITES gave final approval for the sale of 108 tons of stockpiled tusks from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to China. These legal tusks arrived in China around 2010.
     By a weird twist, these tusks ignited the recent elephant poaching crisis. Each time the Chinese government sold a tusk to a dealer, the dealer got a certificate. Because nobody knows by looking at a certificate which tusk goes with it, the dealers started re-using the certificates to justify the sale of poached tusks. These certificates became so valuable that a dealer would pay several hundred thousand dollars for one. In 2013, CITES recognized the problem when it said, “The legality of any particular piece of ivory comes down to paperwork, and weaknesses in the paper trail can allow illicit ivory to be sold as licit.” The result: as long as these certificates are valid, illegal ivory sales in China – and illegal elephant killing in Africa – will continue. The system is now so corrupt that dealers can sell hundreds of ivory pieces with one certificate.
     But no more. In December 2016, the Chinese government announced that it is closing almost all ivory sales. It will no longer sell the stockpiled ivory it owns. Legal ivory owned by dealers, factories, artisans, collectors and investors may not be sold forward. All certificates will be invalid. Thus, buyers and sellers will be forced underground. This is added layer of complexity in making a sale is great news for elephants.
     Although news outlets are calling the new ban a “shutdown,” there are loopholes, and there will be a quasi-legal market. For example, the Chinese government says some “ivory relics” may still be “certified” and sold. The vague wording gives the Chinese government the chance to commission artists to create legal “relics,” which increases the value of government tusks and allows the government a small market. The vagueness could also mean that a newly poached tusk, carved into a national symbol, could be considered a relic and therefore sold, which would encourage people and poachers to continue collecting ivory.
     Another problem is that the Chinese government plans to sell registered relics “under strict monitoring and administrative approval.” Since China has already proven it cannot control a registry, ivory lovers and poachers may see yet another opening.
     The Chinese government has also announced that people may continue to give ivory as gifts. Although this seems harmless to westerners, carved ivory in China is made into intricate artwork with great financial value. Pieces are bought and sold like stocks. By using the term “gift,” people will be able to use ivory as payment and bribes.
     In addition to keeping a small legal market with potential hazards, China will soon be facing a booming underground market. The ivory in the soon-to-be defunct factories and shops will need to be bought and sold somewhere. The hundred or so authorized ivory repair shops (that are not closing because people are still allowed to own ivory) will become fertile grounds for future sales. Secret markets in distant Chinese provinces where the central government has little oversight will grow. The market will increase in Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar, countries with poor policing, and on WeChat and Baidu Post Bar, internet sites with open ivory sales. Significantly, since Hong Kong is still open for ivory sales, Chinese dealers and carvers will still be able to get ivory from and sell ivory inside Hong Kong.
     Most importantly, no country is closed to an ivory market when its government keeps tons of raw tusks sitting in a warehouse with no promise to destroy it. As long as the Chinese government is harboring twenty to forty tons of tusks, they are sending a signal to the Chinese people (and the people killing elephants in Africa) that one day, the Chinese ivory trade may be legal again. This alone will keep the underground market alive and poachers in the bush with their guns.

​     Legal trophy hunters kill less than 1% of the elephants being killed today. Africans whose crops are being trampled and eaten by elephants kill another 5%. Organized ivory poachers kill the other 94%.
     We are talking about 25,000 African savannah elephants per year. That is a lot, considering there are only 350,000 to 400,000 left.
     Tanzania, a democratic country on the east coast of Africa, has the second biggest elephant population, and it has the most trouble keeping them safe. Here are some reasons:

• The elephant areas are huge, remote, and hard to protect. For example, Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve is the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined, with few roads.
• There are not enough game scouts. About 300 game scouts (with about 30 vehicles) police the entire Selous.
• The people who live near the elephant areas are very poor. A villager can make more money shooting four elephants and selling the tusks than he can make working all year.
• Corrupt business people, some from Tanzania and some from other countries, pay for ivory and ship it overseas, often amongst legal exports such as coffee or nuts.
• Almost all ivory goes to China where it is legal to buy and sell ivory. The legal paperwork is routinely used to justify illegal sales.

Efforts to stop elephant poaching in Tanzania include:

• The government is allowing villagers to own land and sell limited hunts on it. This gives the local people a reason to protect animals.
• Individuals and organizations are donating money, vehicles, aircraft, and other equipment to help the game scouts.
• The government is hiring, training and equipping more game scouts.
• Legal hunting companies are sharing the GPS coordinates of the poachers they come across.
• The government is arresting more middle men and smugglers, and judges are giving them heftier sentences.
• The new Tanzanian president is trying to stop corruption and create more jobs.

Here is how you can help stop poaching:

• Donate cash or supplies to a game scout.
• Donate cash or food to a Tanzanian family living near an elephant area.
• Sign petitions.
• Share this blog and www.NoMorePoaching.com with your friends.