Mother elephant and calf pictured in Botswana. Photo / Getty
Mother elephant and calf pictured in Botswana. Photo / Getty
Esmond Martin, an American investigator who spent years going undercover to expose the worldwide ivory trade from slaughter to marketplace, was found stabbed to death on Sunday inside his Nairobi home.
Police in Kenya haven't made an arrest or released the name of a suspect, according to the Associated Press. They said it appears Martin, 75, was the victim of a botched robbery, but the investigation into his death continues.
Martin's wife, Chryssee, was worried after Martin didn't respond to phone calls and went to check on him at their home in the Lang'ata suburb southwest of the city's business district. She found him in the afternoon, dead on the bed with a stab wound to the neck, authorities said.
Esmond Martin, an expert on the illegal ivory trade, has been found dead in his home in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo / AP
He had recently returned from a trip to Myanmar, according to the BBC, and was writing up his findings on the ivory trade there.
It was word he'd been doing for decades: putting his life at risk to document the illegal sale of elephant ivory and rhino horn in Vietnam, Laos, China, African nations and the United States. He had been a United Nations special envoy for rhino conservation and had published reports funded by Save the Elephants.
He often posed as a buyer, haggling with vendors to try to ascertain market prices for ivory, rhino horns and the things made from them. He watched as Chinese mine workers in Africa purchased ivory chopsticks and carvers in other countries fashioned ornate sculptures out of tusks, documenting illegal actions involving ivory that had slipped through borders. Martin took detailed photos of ivory shops and illegal carvings, meticulously documenting the trade that has been decimating populations of elephants and rhinos.
According to the AP, syndicates from China, Vietnam, South Korea and Thailand have long been involved in the trafficking.
As news of his death rocketed around the world, condolences poured in from others fighting similar conservation fights. Paula Kahumbu, the chief executive of WildlifeDirect and chair of the National Museums of Kenya, tweeted that Martin was "a global authority" on the illicit trade.
A century ago, there were 5 million elephants roaming the plains and forests of Africa. Now fewer than 400,000 remain, devastated by poaching and the destruction of their natural habitats, the AP reported. Rhinos have had a similar fate. Less than 30,000 remain in the wild.
1/3 It is with deep shock & horror that we learn this morning of the death of long time conservationist, Esmond Bradley Martin, whom police say died in suspicious circumstances st his home in Karen, Nairobi. Esmond led investigations into ivory & rhino horn trafficking
2/3 Esmond was at the forefront of exposing the scale of ivory markets in USA, Congo, Nigeria, Angola, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos and recently Myanmar. He always collaborated with Save the Elephants and worked with many of us generously sharing his findings & views.
3/3 Esmond was a global authority on ivory and rhino horn trafficking. We send our deepest condolences to his wife. RIP Esmond, pachyderms have lost a great champiom
For Martin, it was no secret where all that ivory was going. But he and his collaborators provided something that could motivate governments, policymakers and concerned citizens to act: detailed evidence and a road map of the trade.
He told NPR in 2012 that he found nearly 4000 illegal ivory pieces for sale in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. That's twice as much as he'd found in a similar survey a decade earlier.
A recent report about the ivory trade in Laos gave a glimpse into how meticulous Martin's ivory research was.
We are deeply saddened by the death of wildlife-trade researcher Esmond Bradley Martin who died yesterday in Nairobi. A long term ally for STE, passionate champion of wildlife and meticulous researcher, his loss will be deeply felt by all who knew him. https://t.co/8WUaOpdqmwpic.twitter.com/xBCNNDjUWQ
"We learned about where the ivory was being carved and processed and by whom," he wrote in the report for Save the Elephants co-authored by Lucy Vigne. "We visited towns and casino areas where we suspected there was trade in ivory to survey the retail outlets and ivory items on view for sale . . . We learned about the ivory trade from carvers, middlemen and vendors in shops selling ivory."
Martin had been involved in conservation and research for the last half-century, and had increasingly focused on the supply side of the ivory and rhino horn market, hoping that decreasing demand for the products would ultimately help save animals.
The efforts appeared to be working. Last year, China banned the ivory trade there, something The Washington Post's Simon Denyer said "has thrown a lifeline to African elephants and brought new hope in the battle to end the poaching of tens of thousands of animals every year for their tusks."
The government closed nearly 200 ivory-carving workshops and retail outlets. "With the end of the legal ivory trade in China, the survival chances for elephants have distinctly improved," Esmond told the Star, a Nairobi-based newspaper, last year.
