Experts have stated that the elephant population in Africa has decreased by 90% over the past 100 years and warned that the species could be extinct within several decades.
Business leaders along with scientists are expected to attend the Giants Club summit.
Kenyan officials and the dignitaries attending the summit will burn 105 tonnes of confiscated ivory which equals the tusks of more than 6,700 elephant. It has been piled into a giant pyre.
Rhinoceros horns, weighing 1.35 tonnes, will also be burned on the occasion.
The street value of the destroyed elephant and rhino ivory is valued at $100 million and $80 million respectively.
“We don’t believe there is any intrinsic value in ivory, and therefore we’re going to burn all our stockpiles and demonstrate to the world that ivory is only valuable on elephants,” Director general of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Kitili Mbathi said.
Estimated 450,000 to 500,000 elephants are in Africa whereas 30,000 of them are killed for ivory every year.
