As you may have heard, the United States Fish and Wildlife Agency and counterparts elsewhere, including in China and France, have been crushing tons of confiscated elephant ivory in the fight against elephant poaching.
There are debates about whether such efforts are effective. Scarcity can drive the price for illegal ivory higher, while the publicity might discourage consumers from buying ivory products. But the crushing has the support of many environmental groups, including the Wildlife Conservation Society.
So what happens to the rubbly remains?
The Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking your help in putting the resulting material to educational use. From today through Oct. 15, the agency, through an "Ivory Challenge," is accepting proposals for a "compelling, thought provoking, informative and impactful display to increase awareness about our fight against illegal wildlife trade."
I know at least one artist, Asher Jay,* who'll almost assuredly come up with an idea. [Boy, was I wrong! See the postscript below.]
Here's an explanatory video, followed by more on the contest:
Here's more from the agency:
The outcome of this project will be the creation of an educational tool that will raise awareness of the plight of African elephants and other species threatened by poaching and illegal trade and help motivate people to take action to help save endangered wildlife around the world. Given the scope and gravity of this project, there are certain logistical and tactical guidelines that must be followed:
1) As you develop your ideas, please keep in mind that we want this project to create awareness of the issue and incite change. In other words, the idea should incorporate a kiosk, signage, or some other means to provide information about the initiative and the need to stop illegal wildlife trade.
2) Design submissions should reflect the overall intent of the U.S. Ivory Crush – to render the ivory useless – so the ideal design will not glorify or add value to the crushed ivory. For example, creating beautiful, ornate sculptures of elephants from the crushed ivory is contrary to the objective of this design challenge.
3) Given the black market value of ivory, the ideal design will take into account potential security/theft risks. For example, embedding the ivory in a structure where pieces can be easily chipped out and stolen is problematic unless it is encased in a polymer or otherwise shielded.
4) Designs should be in good taste and suitable for display in areas of broad audience (e.g., museums, zoos, schools, etc.).
Download the Entry Form
Postscript, 10:52 p.m. | Actually, I got in touch with Asher Jay tonight and it turns out she's campaigned against the Fish and Wildlife Service's approach. Here's an excerpt from a petition she's posted at Avaaz.org:
Let us band together and lend a voice to the voiceless, and truly ensure elephants a wild future that is not constantly threatened by the blood ivory trade. Ask yourself this: would you be comfortable with orbiting a design challenge around the remains of human victims from any mass murder or act of genocide? This is simply hypocritical, unethical and a completely counterproductive measure to every effort taken thus far to end the trade in Ivory. Say no to the design challenge, help ensure their future.
Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service crushed six tons of seized elephant ivory. Now they are asking you to design a way to display the crushed ivory so that it raises awareness of the illegal wildlife trade and reduces demand for illegal ivory. #IvoryCrush. I know the U.S. Fisheries and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has been deliberating this for sometime now, and I simply don't think the Design Challenge idea is a good step forward for FWS, the moratorium, the crush or the trade. It does not sit well with what we are trying to accomplish as a collective, which is to end the slaughter of elephants for their tusks.
If USFWS wants to make a statement that is creative yet not counter productive, then they should not allow for the crush material to take any visual form. Even when mixed into a substrate, the crushed pieces are still large enough to be visible to the naked eye, which will make anything created out of it — no matter how seemingly "educational" or "repellent" or "tragic" — beautiful.
Suggestion: The best artistic proposition I have for this is to take it to Burning Man, and burn the remains at Burning Man 201, on a funerary pyre. Not as a spectacle but as a moment of mourning….
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