KENYA: East Africa Stepping Up Fight Against Ivory Trade

A new report by CITES, the international organisation tracking endangered species, has both good and bad news.
The bad news is that another 20,000 elephants were poached across Africa in 2013.

“Poaching levels remain alarmingly high and continue to far exceed the natural elephant population growth rates,” a statement said.
The good news is that poaching is going down. There were 25,000 elephants killed in 2011 and 22,000 in 2012. The other good news is that for the first time, more large shipments of ivory were seized on the African continent than in the countries of destination in Asia.

About 80 percent of these seizures were made in just three countries -- Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. These countries happen to figure among the eight nations ordered to create national ivory action plans to tackle the problem. The other five countries were at the receiving end of the ivory trade - China, Malaysia, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The action plans led to better protection of animals, stronger custom controls, better use of modern technologies, stronger laws and more prosecutions, according to the CITES report.

They also led to public awareness campaigns in Asia. Adverts are now seen in the subways in Bejing and Shanghai discouraging people from buying ivory. Many Chinese were unaware that elephants needed to be killed to get their ivory since the Chinese word for ivory means elephant’s teeth. In a 2007 survey, the International Fund for Animal Welfare discovered that east africa stepping up fight against ivory trade

70 percent of Chinese polled did not know that ivory came from dead elephants. Activists are convinced that awareness campaigns work. They point out that Japan was the largest consumer of ivory in the 1980s but thanks to such campaigns and celebrities taking a stance, Japan today accounts for less than 1 percent of the ivory trade. “Due to the collective efforts of so many, we see some encouraging signals,” said John E. Scanlon, secretary general of CITES.

satoa“We are seeing better law enforcement and demand-reduction efforts across multiple countries, as well as greater political and public attention to this unfolding crisis.” Whether the measures will come in time to save Africa’s elephants remains a question. The continent now only has about 500,000 animals left, down from 10 million a century ago. The new measures certainly came too late for Satao, the world’s biggest elephant, who lived in Tsavo East National park in northern Kenya.

The news of his death was confirmed on June 13. The elephant, who had tusks measuring two meters, was shot with a poisoned arrow after which his face was hacked off. His death led to outrage and emotional poems on Twitter and Facebook and is seen as a big blow to tourism in Kenya.

“To lose an animal like Satao is a massive loss to Kenya. He was a major tourist attraction to that part of Tsavo,” said Kenya-based conservationist Paula Kahumbu.