Today marks the beginning of a new struggle. A large section of South Africans are in grave and mortal danger. Our elephants are staring down thousands of high velocity, semi-automatic barrels. From the north elephants are being decimated by wave upon wave of heavily armed poachers and are now locally extinct in many African countries. Like a cancer, the dark scourge is rapidly creeping south and it will be soon, very soon, when those armed militia will pour across our borders in their insatiable quest for ivory. This may come as a surprise to many given the lack of headline news on the subject but if you think the rhino crisis is severe, the spectre that faces elephants is far worse. The cause is the same though. The slaughter is driven by a voracious Asian demand. Ivory is a much sought after luxury for the Chinese middle class. Thanks to the explosion in demand, it’s not an unreasonable claim that elephants will be extinct in the wild across Africa by the start of the new decade.

Download the full PDF: Cites – Ineptitude In An Ivory Tower