Waubonsee Community College

Ivory, power and poaching in Africa, Keith Somerville

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-371) and index

maps

index present

non fiction

Ivory

bibliography

950450616

Keith Somerville

power and poaching in Africa

"Despite the 1989 global ivory trade ban, poaching and ivory smuggling have not abated. More than half of Tanzania's elephants have been killed for their ivory since 2007. A similarly alarming story can be told of the herds in northern Mozambique and across swathes of central Africa. But why the new upsurge? The popular narrative blames a meeting of two evils -- criminal poaching and terrorism. But the answer is not that simple. Since ancient times, large-scale killing of elephants for their tusks has been driven by demand beyond Africa's range states from the Egyptian pharaohs through the industrialising West to the new wealthy business class of China. Elephant hunting in Africa is also governed by human-elephant conflict, traditional hunting practices and the impact of colonial exploitation and criminalisation. Ivory follows this complex history of the tusk trade in Africa, and explains why it is corruption, crime and politics, rather than insurgency, that we should worry about. In this ground-breaking work, Somerville argues that regulation -- not prohibition -- of the ivory trade is the best way to stop uncontrolled poaching." -- Publisher's description

Introduction -- 1. Africa and ivory : an ancient but bloody and brutal trade -- 2. The nineteenth century : one hundred years of exploitation and extermination -- 3. The ivory trade and criminalisation of African hunters under colonial rule -- 4. Conservation, corruption, crime and conflict in East Africa -- 5. The killing fields of Central and Southern Africa -- 6. The CITES saga -- 7. Resurgent poaching : soaring Chinese demand and developing insurgency discourse -- 8. Conclusion