Kenyan authorities have built towering pyres of more than 100 tons of elephant tusks that will be burned on Saturday, in what wildlife officials believe will be the largest single destruction of ivory in history.
In front of the tusks are illegal ornaments made from ivory, such as a Chinese warrior on horseback with his fist in the air.
Designated Fire Master Robin Hollister visited the site in Nairobi National Park on Friday. He prepared a large pump for using up to 20,000 litres (4399 gallons) of fuel for the fire, as rangers from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) stood guard nearby.
Hollister explained that the burning will not reduce poaching but the point is to make a big statement and make people disgusted with owning or wearing ivory.
Kenya has seen a reduction of incidents of elephant poaching from 196 in 2014 to 96 in 2014 but KWS Deputy Director Patrick Omondi said Friday that poaching is still a problem in the continent, with over 30,000 elephants being killed in a year.
The ivory is now piled into some dozen giant pyres, ready to be lit when the Giants Club wildlife summit being held in Laikipia ends on Saturday.
Dignitaries led by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta - who last year set fire to 15 tons of ivory - are expected to light a fuel gel which will flow into the center of each pyre and ignite pieces of confiscated endangered African sandalwood.
A mixture of diesel and kerosene will be pumped through pipes into each pyre, creating a sufficiently high temperature to incinerate the ivory, a process expected to last many days before everything is reduced to ashes.
The 105 tons of ivory and over 1 ton of rhino horn were transported in shipping containers from across Kenya, representing the vast majority of the country's stockpile.
Conservationists worry that there is a real threat of elephants becoming extinct in the next 50 years because of poaching bankrolled by the illegal trade in ivory, fuelled especially by demand in China.
Click here to subscribe for regular channel updates - [ Ссылка ]
Find out more about AP Archive and how to licence our footage for commercial use: [ Ссылка ]
Story number for this item is: 4033739
