New Wildlife Policy for Kenya

Dr. Leakey talked about wildlife preservation. He said that prior to his appointment, certain animals, like the African elephant and the white rhinoceros, were being poached almost to the point of extinction. By killing and selling the ivory tusks of just one elephant, a poacher could earn the nation's average annual income. Under his direction, during an eight month period in 1990, 26 elephants were killed, compared to the same period two years earlier when more than 2,000 were killed. He said the country's poverty has much to do with the possible extinction of species within Kenya. Dr. Leakey chose this NPC speech to announce his new proposals for the protection of African elephants in Kenya and the punishment of poachers. He prefaced these plans by saying, "There is no doubt that through the activities of our species, Homo sapiens, countless numbers of living organisms are disappearing from the face of this planet." He said that there is no doubt in his mind that humans cannot stop extinction, and that they want to have supremacy with their interests ultimately put first. But he added, "let us never forget that we are living organisms, we are a living species, and if we deplete this planet of the sustainability of life, we increase the probability that extinction will affect us too." Dr. Leakey is the son of the paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey, who were the first to link man's earliest evolution to Africa.