White Gold: The Dark Side of the Ivory Trade

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Minnie Li

In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITIES) treaty banned the ivory trade. But this didn’t stop poachers organized by warlords and Somali gangs from slaughtering elephants for their tusks; today, fewer than 400,000 African elephants exist. Director Simon Trevor’s film WHITE GOLD, narrated by Hillary Clinton, exposes the horror of these illegal killings and consumer demands for ivory, particularly from China. At the film’s DOC NYC world premiere screening on Monday, producer Arne Glimcher said, “America is the second biggest ivory market in the world. If you have ivory, never wear it again. Give it to the Museum of Natural History. ”

Glimcher said the team had plans to release the film in April 2014 in China, renting theaters to circumvent government censors there. Actor Jackie Chan, one of the many celebrity supporters of the ban on ivory in China, narrates that version of the film. Through their nonprofit organization, African Environmental Film Foundation (AEFF), everyone in China who attends a screening will receive a free copy of the film for distribution.

Trevor has lived in Kenya’s Tsavo East National Park for 50 years now, and often sees elephants drinking from the small water hole near his home. He said one day an elephant separated herself from the group and walked up to his house. “She put her trunk through and between the people and took hold of a woman’s wrist standing at the back. She pulled back and shook her head and went back to other elephants. That woman was wearing a 50-year-old ivory bracelet,” he said.

Among hunters, spears have been replaced with automatic rifles, tanks and helicopters. More than 100 rounds of ammunition, along with a grenade launcher were found near one dead poacher’s body. So far 1,000 park rangers have been killed protecting these creatures. Co-producer Ian Saunders said, “The people in the ground that coexist with elephants are being subjected to the terrorism of the armed gangs, who come in and shoot people, rape people.”

In fact, the film is a “toned down” reality of the situation. Trevor has seen 40,000 elephants die over the years, and said that 900,000 of the animals had been slain since 1979. He remarked, “You can’t show that, can you?”