World At A Glance - Poachers Kill 11,000 Elephants In Under A Decade

[HuffingtonPost]

By Jean Rovys Dabany                

LIBREVILLE, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Poachers have killed more than  11,000 elephants in Gabon's Minkebe National Park rainforest  since 2004, Gabon's government said on Wednesday, with the  massacre fuelled by increasing demand for ivory in Asia.                

The densely-forested central African country is home to  about half the world's roughly 100,000 remaining forest  elephants, the smallest species of elephant and coveted by ivory  dealers for their harder and straighter tusks.                

A study conducted by Gabon's government along with advocacy  groups World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society  found two-thirds of the forest elephants in Minkebe park had  been killed off since 2004, or about 11,100.                

"If we don't reverse this situation rapidly, the future of  elephants in Africa will be compromised," Lee White, executive  secretary of Gabon's national parks agency, said in a statement  issued by Gabon's presidency.                

Demand for ivory for use in jewellery and ornamental items  is rising fast in Asia. Conservationists say growing Chinese  influence and investment in Africa has opened the door wider for  the illicit trade in elephant tusks.                

Poachers are often armed with large-calibre rifles and  chainsaws to remove tusks, the statement issued by the  presidency said. They have secret camps in the rainforest,  evading small deployments of park guards and leaving rotting  elephant carcasses in their wake.                

A park official said most of the poachers were believed to  be from neighbouring Cameroon, where the government has deployed  army helicopters and hundreds of troops to protect its own  dwindling elephant population.                                

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For a graphic on rhino poaching                

http://link.reuters.com/cac84t                

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CORRUPTION RISK                

Gabon security forces last week arrested at least one  gendarme who was transporting tusks in a government vehicle,  according to the statement, underlining the risk of corruption  in an increasingly lucrative black market trade.                

"If we do not want to lose the last elephants in central  Africa, the illicit ivory trade needs to be treated as a grave  crime that corrupts governments and seriously undermines  economic development and security," said Bas Huijbregts, head of  WWF's anti-poaching campaign in the region.                

Cameroon deployed about 600 troops to its Bouba Ndjida  National Park, a former safari tourism destination, late last  year to combat horse-mounted Sudanese poachers who killed up to  450 elephants in 2011 and 2012.                

In 2011, an estimated 40 tonnes of illegal ivory was seized  worldwide, representing thousands of dead elephants. Figures for  2012 are expected to be similar, according to conservation group  TRAFFIC.                

Ivory smuggling has also been linked to conflict. Last year  the U.N. Security Council called for an investigation into the  alleged involvement in the trade of the Lord's Resistance Army  (LRA) in Uganda.                

Led by warlord Joseph Kony, who is being hunted by an African  Union and U.S.-backed military force, the LRA is accused of  terrorising the country's north for more than 20 years through  the abduction of children to use as fighters and intercourse slaves.       (Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Pravin Char)

Via: HuffingtonPost