The price of ivory has soared to $ 2000 per ounce and slaughter every year reaches more than 35,000 elephants. Alvaro Ybarra Zavala photojournalist travels to Kenya to capture their survival.
In the early twentieth century, five million elephants lived on the African continent. Today, their population is estimated at less than 470,000 individuals.
As with the market for African commodities, growing demand from China and other Far Eastern countries broke out late last decade greed for ivory African exponential way. The price of this precious material, in fact, has soared since 2004, from 200 to 2000 dollars per ounce. The killing, experts estimate, every year reaches more than 35,000 elephants
In recent years, however, thanks to the policies of awareness of government and organizations like Big Life David Sheldrick Wildlife or the Trust, the trend has changed. The program “David Orphans Sheldrick Wildlife Trust” is one of the projects most ambitious conservation of elephants exist in Kenya. The commitment of these foundations is key in the fight against illegal trafficking of ivory and its policies involving local people in the protection of these extraordinary animals are a success. “Now, in our land we see elephants as fellow travelers of the future of our people -apunta Tim Casaina one of the main commanders of the Foundation rangers Big Life Foundation -. If we protect them know then the Maasai people have a future in this region ”
Rangers Big Life Foundation, founded in 2010 by British photographer Nick Brandt, take half a decade fighting this scourge in the region of Amboseli that until very recently was one of the hottest spots of illegal trade in ivory in Kenya. Amboseli is considered, in fact, as one of the best experiences of wildlife viewing around the globe.
