page_title: Destruction of ivory
section_title: Burning
hierarchical_section_title: Destruction of ivory / Techniques / Burning
caption_attribution_description: Nairobi National Park, Ivory burning site
context_page_description: The destruction of ivory is a technique used by governments and conservation groups to deter the poaching of elephants for their tusks and to suppress the illegal ivory trade. As of 2016, more than 263 tonnes of ivory has been destroyed, typically by burning or crushing, in these high-profile events in 21 countries around the world. Kenya held the first event in 1989, as well as the largest event in 2016, when a total of 105 tonnes of ivory were incinerated.
  The conservationists, governments, and non-governmental organizations that endorse the strategy argue that it fosters public support for the protection of elephants and that it sends a message to poachers their work is futile. Critics contend that the technique may increase poaching by creating a perception of scarcity that increases ivory's value on the black market, and that evidence for the technique's effectiveness is insufficient to justify the opportunity cost for countries struggling with poverty.
context_section_description: When Kenyan officials decided to destroy their stockpile in 1989, they had to find a way to do so that would create powerful images. Leakey turned to fellow conservationist Kuki Gallmann, who described their discussions and experiments in her memoir I Dreamed of Africa. She asked Hollywood special effects professional Robin Hollister what he would recommend, and introduced him to Leakey. Hollister understood Leakey's intention to create a spectacle, and the importance of producing an immediate dramatic flare-up. He suggested a combination of flammable glue to coat the tusks, and a hidden system of pipes to spray them with fuel. His plans were adopted, and when the Kenyan President held a torch to the waiting pile, "Flames flared up in a scalding blaze. […] The ivory blackened and started burning, crackling. Deafening applause burst out from the crowd, while television crews from all over the world showed to every corner of the Earth this new sacrifice of Africa."
  Research performed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in 2008, found burning to be an inefficient and highly challenging way to destroy ivory when compared to crushing. Like human teeth, elephant tusks are resistant to burning. Simple burning typically just chars the outside; it requires extreme conditions over a long period of time to destroy ivory effectively. Using specialized equipment to burn a tusk at 1,800 °F (1,000 °C), its weight decreases by only 0.25 ounces (7 g) each minute (an average African elephant tusk is about 50 lb (23 kg) and can weigh as much as 130 lb (59 kg). For each of Kenya's burns, organizers used jet oil to increase the temperature and it still persists for about a week.
  When only the outside is affected, the inner ivory is still commercially viable. As there are not yet verified techniques for identifying ivory that was previously burned, some have expressed concerns regarding the possible use of some of the burned stockpiles.
  Hollister, the original "burn architect" who invented the technique in 1989, was asked to lead the 2016 burn, which was many times bigger than the first. He acknowledged that ivory doesn't really burn: "we have to raise the temperature in the fires to such a degree that it actually disintegrates. We're going to create [that] by combining kerosene and diesel and compressed air, pushing it at very high pressure, about 16 bar, down a pipe." The question of the effectiveness of the destruction – even the possibility that some of the partially combusted ivory may find its way back to the black market – is a touchy subject. "It's heresy to consider any other form of destruction, leave alone finding any other way to use the ivory or utilise wildlife resources."
caption: Ivory burning site in Kenya's Nairobi National Park
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