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Through the use of world-class life sciences tools, capabilities and processes, Kenya will leapfrog older crime fighting techniques to enhance the capabilities to protect our biodiversity.

Using scientific procedures to examine, identify, and compare evidence from crime scenes, and to link the evidence with a suspect and a victim, which is specifically an animal or plant, it’s a sure way to enact progressive and stringent policies that would deter criminals as well as adopt modern technology that would assist the criminal justice system to effectively convict and grant appropriate sentences as prescribed in law to wildlife crime perpetrators.

Poaching is one of the most serious crimes investigated by wildlife forensics. The modern DNA-based molecular methods will aid in the fight against the poaching of endangered and protected species, and in the prevention of cruelty to animals. The laboratory will enable our continent to fight against poaching and offer services for all African countries especially those in the East and Central regions that are battling this new, dangerous and bloody trade.

Let’s all bridge the gap between conservation genetics and law enforcement.

Priority Species Viewer

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Uhuru Kenyatta Sets Fire to 15 Tonnes Of Elephant Ivory

3 MARCH 2015 - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (R) set fire to 15 tons of elephant tusks during World Wildlife Day to discourage poaching. (Photo: CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has set fire to 15 tonnes of elephant ivory as part of the East African nation's efforts to curb poaching.
Kenyatta vowed to destroy the country's entire stockpile of illegal tusks by the year's end. The 15 tons destroyed was worth some $30 million on the black market and represented up to 1,500 slaughtered elephants, making it the largest consignment to be destroyed in Kenya.
Kenyatta said 25 years after the historic banning of the ivory trade, new demand from emerging markets is threatening Africa's elephants and rhinos. Kenyatta said African countries are concerned about the scale and rate of the new threat to endangered wildlife species.
Higher demand for ivory is fueling the elephant killings by poachers across Africa. Save The Elephants said last year that 100,000 elephants were killed in Africa between 2010 and 2012. On Thursday, China imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory threatens the existence of Africa's elephants.
While we await the commissioning of Forensic lab within the next couple of months, we are conducting forensic analysis to aid in crime scene management. The latest forensic approach is considered a weapon that may lead to a significant reduction in elephant poaching, both in Africa and Asia where they are now classified as endangered species.
JULY 1989 - President Daniel Arap Moi sets fire to tusks worth 3 million US dollars confiscated from poachers by Kenyan Game Wardens. Photo by Tom Stoddart- Getty Images




JULY 2011 - President Mwai Kibaki set light to nearly 5 tons of contraband ivory in Tsavo West National Park. Photo by Amboseli Trust for Elephants

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