Page 4 - EIA Report on Tanzanian African Ivory Smuggling 2014 report
P. 4
AFRICA’S ELEPHANT POACHING CRISIS
ABOVE: The survival of African elephants hangs Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe were
Poached elephant, Ruaha in the balance as a surge in poaching downlisted to CITES Appendix II and an
National Park, Tanzania, convulses the continent. Both sub-species “experimental” sale of nearly 50 tonnes
September 2014. of African elephants, the forest elephant of ivory from these African countries to
(L. a. cyclotis) and the savanna elephant Japan occurred in April 1999. This was
3 (L. a. Africana), are facing precipitous followed by a further “one-off” sale of
population declines and a real threat 102 tonnes of ivory from Botswana,
of extermination.1 While more than Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to
1.3 million elephants roamed Africa in China and Japan in late 2008. Further,
1979, today the population is estimated CITES Parties are currently discussing a
to be as low as 419,000.2 “decision-making mechanism for future
trade in ivory” that could potentially
In 2011 alone, 25,000 African elephants enable regular trade in ivory. This is
were reportedly killed, with 22,000 recorded taking place despite an ongoing elephant
in 2012.3 Such figures are estimates and poaching crisis in Africa.
the true scale of the carnage is likely to be
worse.4 For example, other estimates put Currently, two CITES-mandated systems
the number of elephants killed in 2011 at exist to monitor levels of poaching and
40,000.5 Escalating poaching now poses a illicit trade in ivory – the Monitoring the
direct threat to the survival of elephant Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE)
populations as killing rates exceed birth system and the Elephant Trade
rates, raising fears of virtual extinction in Information System (ETIS). Both
the next decade.6 document alarming increases, especially
since 2006 and with a major surge
This level of killing has not been seen from 2011.
since the 1980s, when a wave of elephant
poaching spread across Africa prompting In 2011, the MIKE system recorded the
the adoption of a ban on international highest poaching level since systematic
commercial trade in ivory in 1989 under monitoring began a decade earlier. Figures
the UN Convention on International Trade showed 7.4 per cent of elephant populations
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and at the monitoring sites killed illegally, a
Flora (CITES) by listing African elephants total of 17,000 elephants compared with
on CITES Appendix I. 11,500 in 2010.7 A scientific study
published in August 2014 analysed data
Although the ban relieved the pressure collected by MIKE and found that during
and key elephant populations began the past decade, the proportion of
recovering, it was soon undermined. illegally killed elephants has climbed from
In 1997, the elephant populations of 25 per cent to between 60-70 per cent.8
