As countries row over ivory, elephant population declines
Poachers have killed 111,000 in a decade, document says
The number of African elephants has dropped by around 111,000 in the past decade, a new report released on Sunday at the Johannesburg conference on the wildlife trade said, blaming the plummeting figures on poaching.
The revelation, the worst drop in 25 years, came amid disagreement on the second day of the global meet over the best way to improve the plight of Africa’s elephants, targeted for their tusks.
With Namibia and Zimbabwe, wanting to be allowed to sell ivory stockpiles accrued from natural deaths to fund community elephant conservation initiatives, Zimbabwe’s Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri rejected the “imperialistic Some call it “ivory on wings,” part of the bill of a critically endangered bird in Southeast Asia that is sought by poachers and carved into ornaments, mainly for sale in China.
The mass killing of elephants for their tusks is intertwined with the surge in the slaughter of the helmeted hornbill with a beak part that is a coveted substitute for ivory. Poaching of the helmeted hornbill has soared since around 2010, particularly in Indonesia. policies” of opposing countries, branding them a “clear infringement on the sovereign rights of nations”.
Both Namibia and Zimbabwe boast healthy elephant populations and their desire to sell the stockpiles is supported by South Africa. “We need to be considerate as we make these decisions,” Muchinguri told a news conference.
“Cites should be there to facilitate us to succeed in our conservation programmes rather than these imperialistic policies,” she added, saying she was speaking on behalf of the southern African region that is home to threequarters of the savannah jumbo population.
A booming illegal wildlife trade has put huge pressure on an existing treaty signed by more than 180 countries — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
Based on 275 estimates from across the continent, the report released on Sunday by the IUCN conservation group put Africa’s total elephant population at around 415,000, a decline of around 111,000 over the past decade.