Chinese demand and financial crisis cause surge in Kenya elephant poaching

A combination of the global economic crisis and soaring Chinese demand for ivory has prompted a "dramatic and alarming" surge in elephant poaching in Kenya.
 

telegraph.co.uk
By Mike Pflanz in Amboseli National Park
Last Updated: 12:41AM GMT 26 Feb 2009

Five elephants have already been killed this year in Tsavo National Park, site of some of the worst poaching during the 1970s and 1980s, when hundreds of thousands of the animals died.

At least one more large bull was killed in January and four others injured close to Amboseli National Park, famous for its images of huge herds grazing beneath snow-capped Mt Kilimanjaro.

"This is something we have not seen for a very long time, if at all," said Patrick Omondi, elephant coordinator for the Kenya Wildlife Service.

The fresh demand for raw tusks was being driven by an international agreement last year to allow a "one-off sale" of stockpiled ivory from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to Japan and China, Mr Omondi said.

"We have to say that what we warned would happen is happening, that this legal sale has restarted the demand for ivory, and illegal poachers and smugglers are now happily back in business to fulfil that demand," he said.

The number of elephant carcases found with their ivory removed jumped from 48 in 2007 to 98 in 2008.

Three Chinese construction teams are rebuilding key roads close to both Amboseli and Tsavo, and in neighbouring Tanzania, where much of the ivory is being smuggled.

"Wherever we see the Chinese coming to work in Africa, whether it is here in Kenya, in Zimbabwe, in Congo, we see an increase in poaching," said Mr Omondi.

The global financial crisis threatens to make the situation worse.

The numbers of visitors to Kenya's safari parks is plummeting, robbing many poor Kenyans of a livelihood drawn from selling souvenirs to tourists or working in game lodges.

At the same time, the price for raw ivory has jumped from £15 to £25 per kilo, meaning a poacher can earn up to £1,500 for two tusks from one elephant.

More than half of the dead elephants found in 2008 close to the park had their tusks removed, something which has not happened since the mass slaughter of 30 years ago, according to the Amboseli Trust for Elephants.

"This is the first time ivory has been stolen from carcases in Amboseli for many years," the charity said in a statement on its website.

"What is now occurring is dramatically and alarmingly different."

Local farmers have occasionally killed problem elephants which raided their fields, but in the past have not stolen the ivory. The animals are also now being killed with poisoned arrows which cause a lingering and painful death.

Article at:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/kenya/4807291/Chinese-demand-and-financial-crisis-cause-surge-in-Kenya-elephant-poaching.html