Poachers decimate Tanzania’s elephant herds. In 2009-2011 the country was the leading exporter of illegal ivory in the world. Yet Tanzania just requested to sell its ivory stock. The slaughter of elephants and the seizure of illegal ivory have soared to their highest levels in decades. A voracious market in Asia and chaotic wildlife protection […]
October 21st, 2012 – Hong Kong Customs announced Saturday that it had found 1,209 elephant tusks smuggled in two shipping containers from Kenya and Tanzania. Seven people were arrested in what customs said was the biggest such bust in Hong Kong history. The tusks, valued at $3.4 million, are used for making ivory ornaments. A […]
Despite a 1990 global treaty illegalizing the sale of elephant tusks, religious faiths across Asia value ivory and are willing to pay for it. National Geographic’s two-year investigation revealed that governments are often complicit in the purchasing and processing of ivory. The magazine also found that ivory traffickers are operating with impunity, thwarting poorly written international […]
LAGA, the first law enforcement NGO in Africa, reported that a long time ivory dealer (in the picture) was arrested with 35 kg of ivory in the Briqueterie neighborhood in Yaounde (Cameroon), an area very difficult to penetrate because of violence and noted for harboring major ivory dealers. The dealer attempted to bribe the arresting […]
At Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, wildlife rangers are equipped with rocket launchers, assault rifles, machine guns which they’ll need, as The New York Times reports today, because elephant poaching have become the latest conflict resource in Africa and the target of African armies. The Times‘s Jeffrey Gettleman has your morning read (if you’re looking for […]
Thousands of elephants die each year so that their tusks can be carved into religious objects. Can the slaughter be stopped? Although the world has found substitutes for every one of ivory’s practical uses—billiard balls, piano keys, brush handles—its religious use is frozen in amber, and its role as a political symbol persists. Last year […]
WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–September 10 – Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) wrote to the Ambassador of the Republic of Uganda requesting cooperation with an investigation into the slaughter of twenty-two elephants in the Garamba National Park. It is unclear who committed the slaughter, which occurred in order to poach the elephants’ ivory tusks, but local park officials believe that […]
September 2012 Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy as Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits …….Africa is in the midst of an epic elephant slaughter. Conservation groups say poachers are wiping out tens of thousands of elephants a year, more than at any time in the previous two decades, with the underground ivory trade becoming increasingly militarized. […]
Next March, assuming everything goes smoothly, Thailand will host a major meeting of delegates from the 175 nations that are members of CITES, to talk about ivory. CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, charged with helping the world take common-sense measures to protect wildlife. In the past […]
January 1, 2012 The 13 largest hauls of ivory intercepted by customs officials around the world in 2011 weighed in at a combined 23 tons, probably taken from more than 2,500 slain elephants, according to Traffic, an international organization that monitors wildlife trade. Despite efforts by enforcement agencies and campaigners, overall demand shows no sign of […]
