Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Ivory Poachers are Winning

The news for elephants and rhinos is catastrophic.  Gabon in central Africa reported this month that poachers have killed 11,000 elephants since 2004. The National Parks Agency said organized, heavily armed bandits are making the Congo Basin a prime target for poaching activities. They are supplying the ivory to lucrative black markets in Asia. In one park alone, Minkébé, poachers have killed off 77% of the forest elephant population. Gabon is believed to contain the world's largest forest elephant population. The Democratic Republic of Congo has less than 10% of its population of twenty years ago when it elephant population was estimated at 80,000. In the Central African Republic, poachers are headed to the Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas, the last elephant stronghold there. Villagers are reporting elephant slaughter throughout the country. This month poachers killed 17 elephants around the Ngotto forest. Cameroon, Chad and Gabon are recruiting more rangers and using their armies to fight poachers, but their efforts are not enough. WWF says the situation is out of control as the world witnesses the systematic slaughter of the world's largest land mammal. Stopping the slaughter will require direct international intervention. If no such emergency action is taken the wild elephant in central Africa will be extirpated in our lifetime. Massive amounts of elephant ivory are being laundered through Thailand, a Buddhist nation that reveres the elephant. You can help by signing WWF's petition addressed to Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to ban all ivory trade in Thailand.

Central African governments are often viewed as weak and corrupted but even in countries with better protection of their natural heritage, ivory poaching is reaching alarming levels.  In South Africa, 668 rhinos were slaughtered in 2012, a 50% increase in since 2007. The demand for rhino horn is driven by its alleged medicinal properties. Rhino horn is made of the same substance as human fingernails, so rhino horn containing any cancer curing or other healing properties is complete superstition. But its superstition for which rich Asians are willing to pay big money. In December Vietnam and South Africa signed an agreement aimed at fighting the booming illegal trade in wildlife. Hopefully the agreement will allow the two governments to suppress the international syndicates behind the smugglers.