Huge ivory seizures sign of squeeze on smuggling
African raids overtaking those in Asia
SEVERAL African countries have made great strides in clamping down on ivory smuggling, with large seizures for the first time exceeding those made in prime destination Asia, UN wildlife regulator Cites said yesterday.
Until recently, seizures of 500kg or more of ivory were rarely if ever made before the illegal, precious material left Africa. That changed just over a year ago, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).
Two-thirds of the 76 such seizures made since 2009 have been in Asia, where demand for tusks for decorative purposes traditional medicines has fuelled a multi-billion-dollar illicit trade.
But since March 2013, for the first time, “more large-scale seizures were made in Africa than in Asia”, Cites said in a report on elephant poaching and the illegal ivory trade.
Of the African seizures, 80% were in three countries – Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – which figure among eight nations ordered by Cites last March to create national ivory action plans to tackle the problem.
The shift is hugely significant, according to Ben Janse van Rensburg, a former South African police officer who heads Cites’ enforcement support unit.
“These large consignments up until now . . . managed to leave the African continent without being detected at all,” he said.
“Now they are being detected, which shows that these countries have started to implement measures to combat this illegal trade.”
But there is still a long way to go. The Cites report found that more than 20 000 elephants were poached across Africa last year alone. While the number is staggering, it signals a levelling off after a decade of skyrocketing poaching.
In 2011, up to 25 000 elephants were killed, and the number was about 22 000 in 2012.
“Due to the collective efforts of so many, we also see some encouraging signals,” Cites chief John Scanlon said. He stressed though that “Africa’s elephants continue to face an immediate threat to their survival”.