Magazine report accuses Chinese government of cornering ivory market, thus fueling elephant slaughter
There’s been a lot of hard-edged coverage of the bloody burst of African elephanticide of late, including the new series coming from Jeffrey Gettleman of The Times and “Agony and Ivory,” Alex Shoumatoff’s devastating Vanity Fair portrait of the ivory flow from Africa to Asia.
But “Blood Ivory,” in the October edition of National Geographic, provides two fresh and vitally important angles on this unfolding carnage. Investigative reporter Bryan Christy and photographer Brent Stirton provide an intimate portrait of the booming trade in Buddhist and Catholic icons and other religious objects carved out of ivory.