◎蔡子岳
PHOTO: REUTERS |
Eleven giant pyres of tusks were set alight Saturday as Kenya torched its vast ivory stockpile in a grand gesture aimed at shocking the world into stopping the slaughter of elephants.
週六,肯亞堆起11座巨大象牙爐堆,舉火焚之,向全世界表達肯亞阻止獵捕大象的決心。
Huge white clouds of smoke spiralled into the sky as the flames took hold, fuelled by thousands of litres of diesel and kerosene injected through steel pipes.
鋼製油管注入幾千公升煤油、汽油助燃下,火勢一起,巨大白煙捲入天際。
Lighting the fire in Nairobi’s national park, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta demanded a total ban on trade in ivory to end the "murderous" trafficking and prevent the extinction of elephants in the wild.
肯亞總統甘耶達於奈洛比國家公園舉火,要求全面禁止象牙交易,終止「殘忍」販運,保護野生大象免於滅絕。
"The height of the pile of ivory before us marks the strength of our resolve," Kenyatta said, before thrusting a burning torch onto the ivory.
火把點上象牙前,甘耶達表示,「面前象牙堆的高度,表示我們決心堅強。」
The bonfires are the largest-ever torching of ivory, containing 105 tonnes from thousands of dead elephants, seven times bigger than any stockpile burned before.
這些火堆是史上最大規模的象牙焚毀,重達105噸,數以千計的大象因此喪生,是過往紀錄的7倍。