The irony of South Africa's ivory trade - it's like making love to promote virginity...

Today it was announced by South African conservation agencies that they had sold South Africa's ivory stockpile to a number of Chinese businesspersons for a tidy sum of US$6.7... It would seem that the only group that are allowed to break the law were of land were those who are charged with upholding it. No other person or group is allowed to sell ivory, and rightly so, since it helps to curb poaching on our elephant population.

Sadly, today's sale of ivory restarts the economy for ivory trade in the world since it introduces the scarce resource into the market this creating a desire to purchase more ivory, which in turn will lead to an increase in poaching. The conservation authorities were quick to point out that the sale of the confiscated ivory (confiscated from poachers!) would be put (in part) towards fighting poaching in Southern Africa...

I don't know about you, but this logic seems a little flawed to me... It's like going to war for the cause of peace, or making love to promote virginity...

Just a thought....