Endangering Species

"The surge in the killing of elephants in Africa and the illegal taking of other listed species globally threatens not only wildlife populations but the livelihoods of millions who depend on tourism for a living and the lives of those wardens and wildlife staff who are attempting to stem the illegal tide."
Achim Steiner, UN under secretary-general and UNEP executive-director.

( Rungroj Yongrit / European Pressphoto Agency / March 6, 2013 )

Polished elephant tusks are on display at a Bangkok antiques shop as the Thai capital hosts a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Thailand's legal domestic ivory industry has come under fire as a gateway for tusks from elephants slaughtered illegally in Africa by crime syndicates.

Whether for pharmaceuticals or for decorative display, the ivory of elephant tusks is highly prized in Asia. Despite a ban on ivory trade recognized throughout the world, the illegal trade in the ivory market has skyrocketed, fed largely by China and other Asian countries.  The hunger to acquire objects carved of ivory is rampant, to feed a culture's status symbol for the affluent. Ivory brings over $1,000 per kilogram in Beijing.

And then there's the black market in rhino horn in Asia. Where, in Vietnam, powdered rhino horn is valued at up to $70,000 per kilogram. More costly by weight than gold or cocaine. Rhino horn trading has been banned since 1977, but that ban hasn't protected the African rhino where 26,000 remain. South Africa is home to 21,000 white rhino while the critically endangered eastern black rhinos are in Kenya. A record 668 rhinos were slaughtered in South Africa in 2012.

Poaching is a valued trade to the world's most feared terrorists. Somalia's al-Shabaab, Sudan's Janajweed and central Africa's Lord's Resistance Army are funded through the avails of poaching. These deadly militia groups harvest Elephants and Rhinos to feed their fanatical Islamist and ersatz-Christian world views of achieving political, regional and social ascendancy.  They pride themselves on their religious fervour, but their outlook is strictly brutal and brutally criminal.

Foreign poachers armed with commando weapons including RPGs killed over 600 elephants in Bouba N'Djida National Park, Cameroon. This was the work of the Janjaweed, the same vicious Islamist militias that worked enthusiastically along with the Sudanese military to hunt down, rape and murder black Darfurians -- and continue to this day to rapaciously oppress the black population of Sudan.

"In China, the world's main consumer market, we're trying to change people's attitudes to show them that an elephant in the wild is far more valuable than an ivory carving on a shelf", explains Jason Bell, director of IFAW's elephant program. South Africa's immense Kruger National Park is where gangs with assault rifles and night-vision goggles enter through Mozambique to slaughter rhinos.

"There is no one activity or action that will bring the ivory trade to a halt overnight. That said, it is clear that reducing the voracious demand from China and other Asian countries is key. There simply aren't enough elephants to satisfy the ivory demands of those countries", explains Jason Bell of IFAW.

From Africa to Canada. A Cameroonian living in Montreal was sentenced to five years in a U.S. federal prison, fined $100,000 for taking part in an international ivory smuggling operation conducting business through the Internet, in 2008. Environment Canada works with Interpol and a few African countries to curtail trafficking in wildlife, through enforcement officers from Environment Canada leading training sessions in Botswana.

The training, attended by representatives from ten countries in Africa as well as Interpol wildlife control experts, has helped to "build a network of contacts" among enforcement officers from African countries. "They know they're not alone", says Richard Labossiere, manager of operations for Environment Canada's prairie and northern region.

Ten percent of Africa's elephant population is slaughtered annually to feed the black market.  The International Fund for Animal Welfare believes that between 25,000 and 50,000 were killed so people who value their ivory could be assured of the trinkets they adore.