Kenyan wildlife authorities believe that a CITES decision to allow limited legal ivory trade has sent a signal that all ivory trade has been resumed.
An alarming resurgence in elephant poaching at the same time that a partial ban on ivory trade has been lifted is not a coincidence. Earlier this month, an illegal shipment of $1-million worth of elephant tusks and rhino horn was seized at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport. Blood on the ivory and horns confirmed that the elephants and rhinos had recently been killed. The animal parts were hidden in coffins, and were en route to Laos. Kenya wildlife authorities are confident that the tusks and horn had a final destination of China, where the illegal trade in endangered species parts is well-established.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Head of Species and Conservation Management, Patrick Ormandi, reports that since the partial lifting of ivory trade ban:

Last year we lost 98 elephants to poachers and up to today, this year, we have lost up to 73 elephants. This is a big worry and all this is stimulated because there was an experiment to trade.

From the beginning, KWS has opposed any type of ivory trade with China. A spokesperson for KWS, Ngugi Gichaga, warned that the wrong signal would be sent with the re-opening of a limited legal ivory trade.

As Kenya told them that is not the way to go because that was going to send the wrong signals, because what it was going to signify is that there has been a resumption of trade with ivory.

One of the exceptionally cruel methods poachers use to kill elephants

It is a well-known fact that elephants experience complex emotions, including grief at the death of family members.

And poachers have always exploited the elephants’ emotional family bond by killing a baby elephant, knowing that it will attract grieving adult elephants. As the elephants gather to the baby, they are slaughtered by the poachers.

Law enforcement still not receiving the local support necessary to combat poaching

In addition to the increase in elephant poaching, rhino poaching has skyrocketed (1 subspecies has just 3 - 5 rhinos left), and tiger poaching is likely to render the big cats extinct in the wild.

John Sellar, the chief of CITES’ enforcement unit says that conservation efforts have “failed miserably”, particularly in protecting tiger populations.

Not only are sophisticated criminal networks behind poaching, but diplomatic immunity is being abused to facilitate these wildlife crime networks.

CITES delegates agree that if law enforcement efforts against poaching would receive the support of local governments, “huge inroads” could be made in the poaching crisis.

However, illegal trade in endangered species is “not recognized as a mainstream crime” in the countries where the poaching occurs, and thus law enforcement does not receive local support necessary to bring poachers to justice.

Clearly, new ways to protect endangered species - and eradicate poaching - must be implemented. We must stop looking away from the atrocities being committed against wildlife in the name of “decoration” or “traditional medicine” or “virility” - or we will lose these animals forever.

Source: GO Media - Written by Rhishja Larson - Image source: istock.com