Richard Leakey

Category: Elephants, ivory, trade | Date: Jul 24 2009 | By: richardleakey

Lately, elephant poaching in Africa has been increasing at an alarming rate. Kenya, whose elephant population has - according to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) - increased from 16,000 elephants before the 1989 CITES ban on ivory trade to the current 32,000 - has seen its fair share of this poaching. It is now becoming a big problem and we are likely to see a sharp decline in the population of the African elephant if poaching remains unchecked. But how did this sudden increase occur and how can we solve it?

First, this problem is not a problem of Kenya alone. It is happening all over Africa. Whereas the KWS blames the CITES-sanctioned one-off auction of ivory from southern African states to China and Japan for the sudden upsurge of poaching, there are indeed other factors that come into play. The upsurge in poaching is not a direct consequence of the auction although it did trigger the growth in demand.

What happened is that the auction made legal ivory available in the market and that was the danger. The sudden availability of a significant amount of ivory revitalized a market that had disappeared. Now, there is no way that legal ivory could satisfy demand in this enlarged market. Illegal ivory, consequently, found a new outlet and soon started fetching better prices at the source.

Although the influx on Chinese workers in Africa is also blamed for rising poaching, this is unlikely to be contributing significantly to the problem. The Chinese workers are lowly paid and thus they don’t have the large amounts of money required to buy ivory from poachers.

Far more important, there is quite a busy ivory market in China triggered by the one-off auction of Ivory last year. Twenty years ago ivory was not very affordable in China. Only a few rich people could buy. Today, China’s per capita income has been growing by about 8% per year. There are now tens of millions of Chinese people who can buy ivory. This is where the problem is.

In 1980s majority of these new buyers were young and did not know about the ivory crisis. The one-off sale however alerted this new market to the availability of ivory.

Poverty has also increased in Africa as the population grows faster than the economy. People are increasingly becoming desperate and are therefore getting more involved in poaching to put food on the table. The current drought in Kenya has made the situation even worse.

We also know that majority of African elephant range states have no effective policing mechanisms to contain this problem. in Kenya, the KWS has no money to fund any effective law enforcement that is required to contain poaching and the illegal ivory trade.

A solution needs to be found and the way forward is to try and get the total ban on ivory trade reinstated. Once the ban is reinstated, ivory disappears from the market. Possession of ivory becomes a crime. Policing thus gains some effectiveness. Furthermore, lack of a market will drive the price of raw ivory in Africa down.

People have asked me if KWS should repeat the public burning of ivory to make a statement, especially now that it is the 20-year anniversary of this event. I say it depends on how this is handled. Of course, we did raise some money back then, but the idea was new then. It is now an old idea and old ideas have to be handled carefully. It would however be a PR disaster for the KWS to sell the ivory to a third party.

In the old days, we created a fine force that was able to bring down the level of poaching until Kenya’s elephant population started increasing.  The situation is different today. Twenty years ago, elephant poaching was done by Somalis who were not very well equipped. Today, the poachers are mostly local people especially in the north of the country.

In the north, there are very many guns used primarily in cattle rustling - by both the rustlers and those protecting their cattle. These guns are now being used in poaching. This is worsened by KWS allowing the nomadic pastoralists into wildlife reserves especially during this drought. This is a big mistake. KWS should clear the reserves in order to get these guns away from elephants.

Until something is done, poaching will continue to escalate. The time to act is now.

I personally thank all those who read the WildlifeDirect blogs and particularly those who leave comments, and make donations. Your comments encourage our bloggers and your donations help us support more than 100 projects. I urge you to continue giving and help us save the wildlife you very much love.

Tags: Africa, Asia, burning ivory, China, CITES, elephant, ivory, KWS, poaching, richard leakey, wildlife trade

6 responses so far

Category: Elephants, ivory, trade | Date: Nov 05 2008 | By: richardleakey

I am deeply concerned about the ongoing one-off ivory auction that started on 28 October in Namibia and ends on Wednesday, 6 November 2008 in South Africa.

I have spent many years looking at issues of elephant conservation and ivory trade and played a major role in successfully eliminating the massive ivory poaching that characterized what is considered the darkest period for African elephants in Kenya in the late 1980s, I believe that auctioning the ivory stockpiles would cause poaching to increase particularly in the central, eastern and western African elephant range states where poaching is not yet properly controlled.

Namibia auctioned its 9 tons of ivory on Tuesday, 28 October raising $1.2-million. Zimbabwe and Botswana have also auctioned their ivory to the exclusive Chinese and Japanese buyers making $480,000 and $1.1-million respectively. On 6 November, South Africa will auction the largest cache of ivory – 51 tons – to conclude this controversial sale. According to the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the parties to the auction, the funds generated from this sale will be channeled directly into conservation. I am skeptical and wonder if there is a way of knowing whether these funds will actually help conservation.

The entry of China into the legal trade is also a cause of concern for me. It is hard to believe that a country which in 2002 scored only 5.6 out of 100 points in the CITES Elephant Trade Information Systems (ETIS) ranking – which ranks countries on how effectively they tackle illegal ivory – could have scored 63 points this year. China has admitted loosing track of 120 tons of ivory from the government’s official stockpiles in the past 12 years.

Recently, Kenya saw the successful conviction of Chinese nationals accused of smuggling ivory that appears to have originated from 22 out of the 37 African elephant range states. The entry of China – the destination for most of the illegal ivory – is an ill advised move that will only serve to open up the illegal ivory markets.

Reports already indicate that poaching is increasing in most parts of Africa. The Kenya Wildlife Service – Kenya’s official wildlife authority – has reported that poaching is increasing in key elephant zones. Central and west Africa have also witnessed escalating poaching in recent times. The Democratic Republic of Congo, caught up in a complex civil strife, has become a haven for poachers.

Although CITES secretary-general Willem Wijnstekers says that southern African states have everything under control, it cannot be true for Zimbabwe. Reports by bloggers at WildlifeDirect.org and on independent media show that Zimbabwe is experiencing an unprecedented decimation of wildlife. Reports indicate that Zimbabwe may have lost up to 80% of its wildlife. There is reason to believe that a large percentage of this wildlife consists of elephants.

As the hammer falls for the last time in South Africa on Thursday, we cannot in any way say that this is a victory for conservation. It is indeed a great disservice to conservation.

I categorically denounce this auction and call on CITES to rethink how they run endangered species affairs. It should not be lost to CITES that they exist to protect the endangered species against trade malpractices, not to serve partisan interests that work against the species.

Tags: China, CITES, ivory, ivory stockpiles, Japan, Namibia, poaching, South Africa, southern Africa, wildlife trade, Zimbabwe

11 responses so far

Category: Elephants | Date: Mar 17 2008 | By: admin

Dear Friends,

This blog post is written by my good friend, Cynthia Moss, a scientist and Time Hero of the Planet who may be the worlds authority on African elephants, having spent over 40 years studying the elephant population in the Amboseli National Park. I requested Cynthia to post on my blog as a guest after I heard that at least 14 elephants and there lions had been speared during the last few weeks in the Amboseli Ecosytem.

Fourteen elephants who regularly use Amboseli National Park as the core of their range were speared in January and February. This picture of Odile though taken 2 years ago represents what has happened to the 14 other elephants in recent weeks, of which four have died.

Soila Sayialel, the Project Manager of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project (AERP), said in a recent email to colleagues,

“Need your help, we cannot stand all this: it pains, it hurts, it is sad and hard to understand what is the future of Amboseli elephants.”

What indeed? Usually, the goodwill engendered amongst the Maasai community by Soila and her colleagues serves as a steadfast if tenuous barrier between the elephants and the relatively few pastoralists or newly-arrived agriculturalists who might do them harm. The range of causes of elephant spearing are complex enough — revenge, political protest, self- or crop-protection, delinquency, and, to a lesser extent in Amboseli at least, ivory poaching. But add to those the current atmosphere of uncertainty and unrest in the country, and the mix becomes volatile, the risk to elephants high.

Three elephant experts working with the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in the field during a rescue operation - from left to right: Norah, Katitu and Soila

Soila went on to comment on the specifics of the recent spearings in and around the 2,000-hectare (5,000-acre) Satao Elerai community conservation area some 20 km (12 mi) southeast of the Park: “There were several issues that I believe escalated spearing of elephants. The people who migrated from the north to the south and from other areas due to the heavy January rains were denied grazing access in the conservation area.

“The community also claimed that the management of Satao Elerai camp had created water points in the conservation area which have become a resting ground for elephants during daytime from which they go crop raiding at night. Also there was the case of a lady killed by an elephant in May 2007 for which KWS has not compensated up to now. What I believe is the community wanted some attention from KWS. Also the issue of [private] land ownership takes time for the Maasai to adopt… I did not think that crop raiding was an issue [this time] after visiting the farms.”

Elephant darting is handled by the Kenya Wildlife Service, but Siola and the team assist and help to keep the elephant cool during the treatment.

She added that in the bigger picture local politics and the desperate need for job creation for Maasai warriors are critical underlying issues.

Soila sent this grim list with her email:

1. Tulip, adult female from TA family, dead.
2. Tecla’s ‘07 calf, dead.
3. Calf 4-month-old, dead with 14 spear wounds.
4. Isabella (?), 18-year-old female, dead.
5. Tulip’s ‘06 calf with head injury
6. Twoo, 7-year-old female with body wound.
7. Isis, matriarch of IB family with trunk wound.
8. Trevor, 9-year-old bull with body wound.
9. Calvin, young bull with body wound.
10. Eldoret, young bull with leg wound.
11. Unknown male class 1B (15-19 yrs) with spear in head.
12. Ganesh, 45-year-old bull with elbow wound.
13. M262, 40-year-old bull with front right wrist wound,
14. Unknown adult bull at Kimana with front leg wound.

Not counting five independent breeding bulls (Ira, Scoop-Ear, Isaiah and Lumpy Tusk and one unknown) who were also speared or shot between May and December 2007.

These elephants are or were all known individuals who have been studied and followed since birth as part of the programme of research on the longest-studied population of elephants in the world.

Despite her injuries, Tulip survived an went on to have a calf!

Soila and the other directors of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE), notably Cynthia Moss, are working with the Kenya Wildlife Service, local government authorities, and other NGOs to address the complex social and economic issues that inevitably arise when people and wildlife compete for land. Co-existance is possible, and ATE experience has shown that a mutually beneficial accord can be negotiated between the wildlife and the surrounding community. But accords are always at risk from the greed or recalcitrance of a few individuals.

ATE urgently needs support funds to keep the field presence of Soila and her teammate sisters, Norah and Katito, strong, mobile and responsive. Running costs for 4×4 vehicles ($1,500 per month), mobile telephone communication ($500 p.m.), VHF radios (new $1,200 base station and antenna needed)are all critical, and our donor-driven budget is always stretched to the limit. It is necessary need to keep the 13 Maasai Elephant Scouts operational with mobile telephone air time ($100 per head per month). Without these links, ATE’s effectiveness in reaching out to the Maasai community would dwindle.

Soila ended her email saying, “Today we drove like crazy searching for the male with a spear in the forehead.  We couldn’t raise KWS on the radio and the scout must have run out of credit on his mobile.  Very frustrating.  Maybe we can find him tomorrow.”
One fire put out, but there are many more to prevent.

Cynthia Moss and the AA family in Amboseli

Please help us to support Cythia and her team of experts on the ground. All donations made on this blog post will be dedicated entirely to the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. Thank you for your concern. Richard Leakey

Tags: 299, 451, 452, 453, 6, 82

28 responses so far