Thousands of Elephants are dying each year so their tusks can be carved into religious objects and ornaments. Can the slaughter be stopped before it is to late?
In January 2012, a Hundred raiders on horseback out charged out of Chad, Central Africa, into Cameroon's Bouda Ndjidah National Park, slaughtering hundred of elephants-entire families. It was one of the worst concentrated killings of elephants seen since the adoption of the global ivory ban in 1989. Armed with AK47's and Rocket Propelled Grenades, the raiders tore down groups of elephants with military precision. Mother elephants clung to their young to save them, but terrified herds of up to 50 went down together.
The end scenes looked something like this;
You might ask why is this happening?
Elephant poaching levels are currently at their worst in a decade and the number of killings have dramatically increased in the last few years. It was reported by the WWF that over 32,000 elephants were indiscriminately killed last year. With populations of wild elephants (African and Asian) at an all time low, (down from 3-4 million in the late 1950's to around 400,000 now) there is a real danger that unless drastic action is taken, the elephant will be extinct by as early as 2050.
Whilst the scene for poaching is in Africa, the destination for the resulting illegal ivory is almost always Asia, with China and Thailand considered the worst offenders in recent years.
China is considered the key to defeating poachers says conversation groups, "as the final destination of the vast majority of the world's illegal ivory, China has seen a demand explode in recent years as the country's rich residents have grown ever fonder of trinkets and carvings made from illegal ivory".
Just last January two tonnes of ivory almost £800,000 worth was destined for Asia was seized in Kenya.
Furthermore, in the last six months alone more than six tonnes of elephant ivory worth close to $6.5 million was confiscated in one shipment alone in Hong Kong. With a black market price of $3000 per tonne of ivory, the trade in illegal ivory has now doubled since 2007.
Corruption is also rife in the ivory crisis. According to the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) a large amount of ivory stockpiles goes missing each year. A CITES report "Elephants in the Dust, The African Elephant Crisis" states that;
"The size of ivory stockpiles in many countries in and outside Africa, and their possible contribution to the illegal ivory supply chain, remains another important gap in the current understanding of the dynamics of the illegal ivory trade,"
At a recent 178 nation summit of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species a gang of "eight nations" were branded key players in the ivory crisis, including Kenya, Thailand, Uganda, Tanzania, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and China. At its final decision, the CITES delegates approved a action plan for these countries to reduce their ivory trade or face international sanctions, barring their own wildlife and plant trades.
However, many have argued that this is not enough to stop the continued and expansive rise in the luxurious illegal ivory trade. Just last week 26 weeks elephants were killed at a World Heritage Site in Central Africa,
Overall, the evidence in front of us is undeniable, and we must decide as a global community which path we will take. The elephant can still be saved but the challenges are large and layered and the future of the species now depends on what happens next.
Author: Harry Wright
Sources:
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/13/chaos-and-confusion-following-elephant-poaching-in-a-central-african-world-heritage-site/
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/15/world/asia/hong-kong-ivory
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/06/ivory-poaching-sanctions-cites
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