Allowing ivory export will legalize poaching

African nations, in an attempt to rejuvenate dwindling economies, have gained the support of the United Nations in order to begin exporting ivory.

This move would effectively legalize poaching in these areas.

While it is true that many areas in Africa have more elephants than the land can sustain, the legalization of poaching is an ecologically insensitive idea. The elephants would be killed primarily for the value of their tusks.

The exportation of ivory could quickly lead to dwindled populations of elephants, the same situation that led to a ban on poaching nine years ago.

The integrity of our ecological measures are at risk. If we allow ourselves to go back on our own policies of environmental protection, we could end up undermining the value nd support of these policies an others.

The United Nations should look first to the relocation of elephants and other economic options before resorting to such measures as lifting the ban on the "harvesting," or wholesale slaughter, of elephants.