The Botswana government recently reintroduced trophy hunting after a five-year moratorium. It did so on the pretext that Botswana has “too many elephants”....
Botswana has an elephant poaching problem, not an overpopulation problem
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elephant poaching
Sam Wasser pours his intense passion for protecting wildlife into research and catching poachers
The carcass of a poisoned elephant decomposes in the Masai Mara. The National Academy of Sciences published a report in August 2014 citing that 100,000 elephants had been...
New report highlights continued threat to African elephants from poaching
PRESS RELEASEGeneva, 10 May 2019 – An updated assessment by the CITES programme Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) has confirmed that poaching continues to...
Japan’s new rules for curbing ivory trade won’t work, many experts say
Starting July 1, anyone in Japan who wishes to register and sell a whole elephant tusk must first prove its age through carbon dating. According to Ministry of the...
The massacre of nature’s ‘architects’
This encyclopaedic book sends out a powerful message to give elephants the highest protection status, writes Elise Tempelhoff. The LAST ELEPHANTS Compiled by Don Pinnock &...
Young elephant shot 13 times: Tourists watched in horror
Balule Associated Nature Reserve has justified the killing of a young elephant bull in front of tourists as an ‘act of self-defense’, backtracking on an original announcement...
The Last Elephants – Book review
Did you know that in Africa there is one elephant for every 20 000 people; fewer than 450 000 according to the (most recent) Great Elephant Census of 2016, down from the 3 to 5...
US poll says ‘No’ to Botswana plans to hunt and cull elephants
As tourism is a mainstay of Botswana’s economy, lifting the hunting ban could, the poll suggests, have severe economic consequences and damage Botswana’s international...
Japan to tighten controls on ivory market amid international criticism
"By shutting down the movement of ivory of unknown origin, the domestic market is moving closer to an effective closure," Environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada said at a press...
Clearing up misconceptions about elephant poaching in Botswana
A Response to: Kathleen Alexander - Virginia Tech University John (Tico) McNutt - Botswana Predator Conservation Trust Mark Vandewalle - CARACAL In a September 2018 article in...
New survey raises concerns about elephant poaching in Botswana
Botswana has about 122,000 elephants left. Mike Dexter/Shutterstock Ross Harvey, South African Institute of International Affairs Botswana has an elephant poaching problem. The...
Botswana elephant poaching ‘no hoax’
Elephants Without Borders, who conducted an aerial research survey in Botswana, has had their wildlife research licence suspended by the Botswana government. See original...
Botswana proposes hunting and trade as elephant population declines
The results of the recent and most extensive elephant population survey of Botswana estimates the country’s population at 126,000 elephants, a further decline from 131,600...
Global wildlife regulator to consider relaxing ivory trade bans, prompting fears of huge rise in elephant poaching
The international body responsible for protecting endangered animals is to consider relaxing restrictions on the ivory trade, prompting fears such a move could trigger a huge...
CITES lets world’s worst elephant poaching countries off the hook
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, China, Thailand and the Philippines, some of the world's worst countries for poaching and illegal trade in ivory have been allowed to exit a key...
Taking Stock: An assessment of progress under the National Ivory Action Plan process
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The National Ivory Action Plan (NIAP) process is an important framework. It was developed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered...
Botswana’s elephant poaching crisis under scrutiny
Reports of elephant poaching in Botswana are under the spotlight with various claims in national and international media that the current adverse situation is driven by...
Elephant poaching on the increase in Botswana
Last week, the carcass of a 40-year old elephant bull was found in Ngamiland, northern Botswana, partly covered with still green Mopane bushes and half of its skull hacked away...
DA calls for urgent action in rhino poaching crisis
DA MP Ross Purdon tabled a parliamentary motion this week calling on government departments to revisit this national rhino poaching crisis with the urgency it deserves....
Australians crush ivory possessions to protest slaughter of elephants
"The only value ivory has is on a living elephant," said Karen Pomeranz as she handed in six 20-year-old napkin rings to be crushed. "I was never comfortable owning ivory items....
Rhino Poaching Stats: Slight Decrease But still Far Too High
The small decrease in overall poaching in 2017 has been overshadowed by a growing concern for the increase and broadening of poaching elsewhere in South Africa as only 1 in 10...
IVORY TOWERS An Assessment of Japan’s Ivory Trade and Domestic Market
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP17) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) held in September...
African Elephant Coalition renews call for global ivory trade ban
European and American conservation leaders today called on governments worldwide to support requests from African nations to end all trade in elephant ivory to safeguard the...
Trump halts lifting of import ban on elephant trophies following global outcry
US President Donald Trump and his Department of Interior Affairs Secretary, Ryan Zinke, have halted the reversal of a ban on importation of elephant hunt trophies...
Too soon to celebrate: Elephant poaching declining, but populations in Africa still plummeting
A report from the Convention in the Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) shows that in 2016, the overall trend of elephant poaching in Africa has declined. However,...
More elephants poisoned in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park
More than 14 elephants, including a mother and her young calf, have been poisoned in and around Zimbabwe’s premier game reserve, Hwange National Park. Most of the poisoned...
Speculating a Fire Sale: Options for Chinese Authorities in Implementing a Domestic Ivory Trade Ban
Highlights • If ivory speculators in China believe that the domestic ivory trade ban will be finite, they will continue to hoard ivory. • Under a finite ban, speculator...
Alarm over ‘new gag’ on elephant poaching stats
First there was a clampdown on rhino poaching statistics. Now the same is happening with information on elephant ivory poaching. SA National Parks has refused to provide...
Savanna elephant numbers are only a quarter of their expected values
RESEARCH ARTICLE Savanna elephant numbers are only a quarter of their expected values Read original report: Robson et al 2017 Savanna elephant numbers are only a quarter of their...
Beyond the China ivory ban
The recent announcement by the central government of China to ban all domestic ivory trade and processing by the end of 2017 offers a glimmer of real optimism in the fight...
Poaching behind worst African elephant losses in 25 years – IUCN report
Africa’s overall elephant population has seen the worst declines in 25 years, mainly due to poaching over the past ten years – according to IUCN’s African Elephant Status Report...
A Ban on Commercial Ivory Trade in China: A Feasibility Study Briefing
WWf and trAffic believe that an ivory trade ban in china is feasible and could be effective in contributing to a reduction in current threats to African elephants. Such an...
Poachers kill 26 elephants in Chobe National Park
At least 26 elephants, their faces hacked off and their tusks removed, lay in congealing blood on Botswana’s Chobe National Park floodplain. Poachers had killed them within sight...
Trade rings death knell for Africa’s elephant
A paper published last week by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the U.S.A. holds unequivocally that permitting a legal trade in some wildlife species will be those...
Does Legalization Reduce Black Market Activity? Evidence from a Global Ivory Experiment and Elephant Poaching Data
Black markets are estimated to represent a fifth of global economic activity, but their response to policy is poorly understood because participants systematically hide their...
How intelligent law enforcement in Tanzania is saving elephants
The scale of the elephant poaching problem is immense. The global crisis is now well documented, with an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 African elephants being illegally killed...
New president takes tough action on corruption – is this the turning point for Tanzania’s remaining elephants?
Tanzania's new president, John Magufuli, won the presidential election on the ticket he would take tough action on corruption. A month after taking office it seems he been making...
Carnage! The Business of Killing Elephants
In a powerful and poignant edition of HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel called Blood Ivory to be aired on Tuesday November 24th, has correspondent David Scott not only...
UN Meeting on Poaching in Africa: The Impact of Weapons Trafficking
Khristopher Carlson, senior researcher at the Small Arms Survey, presented today on the impact of the illicit transfer of small arms and light weapons on poaching in Africa at an...
How to Save Elephants: Obliterate Ivory Stockpiles Simultaneously
To save African elephants from extinction, “range states should put their ivory stockpiles beyond commercial use immediately and simultaneously,” says South African economist...
World Elephant Day: Study calls for domestic trade bans and projects to cut demand for ivory
If you want to save elephants, don’t legalise the international trade in ivory. That’s the message of a major research paper published to coincide with World Elephant Day on...
Emergency declared as elephant poached
Johannesburg - An emergency was declared as the first elephant was poached on the western border of Kruger National Park. Each day in Africa around 100 elephants die at the hands...
Congolese ivory kingpin wriggles out of yet another arrest
The video is shaky having been secretly captured. But the image of the table full of polished ivory artifacts and the merchant sitting behind them is clear. “How much?” asks the...
60% Collapse of Tanzanias Elephants Justifies US Ban on Trophy Imports
The recent announcement that Tanzania had lost 60% of its elephants in just five years as well as Zimbabwe’s continued disregard of international opinion on the capture and...
CRISIS MANAGEMENT: WORLD EXPERTS GATHER IN CAPE TOWN TO FIND SOLUTIONS TO RHINO POACHING
Cape Town – At a conference here at the end of May, experts from around the world gathered to discuss responses and solutions to the poaching crisis facing South Africa’s...
Wildlife crime should be treated like drug trafficking
“Please, let’s stop talking about illegal trade in wildlife. It’s not illegal trade – it’s crime,” says John Sellar, an independent anti-smuggling, fraud and organised crime...
US Law: The Pelly Amendment
The Pelly Amendment authorises the President to limit the importation of any products from a country of which the nationals thereof are engaging in trade or taking that...
CITES National Ivory Action Plans
An analysis of ivory seizure data held in the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) prepared for the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (Bangkok, 2013)...
Home-grown corruption is killing Africa’s rhinos and elephants
While the crisis is complex, with root causes in chronic poverty, the absence of sustainable economic alternatives and a burgeoning demand for wildlife products like ivory and...
Put squeeze on Mozambique to stop slaughter of elephants
In the dead of night a group of men hack the meat from a corpse using rusted machetes and pocket knives. Together they’re like a machine systematically tearing flesh from bone,...
Ivory Demand in China: Wildaid interview of 961 Chinese residents
There is much focus by conservationists and institutions on what is happening on the ground in Africa when it comes to elephant poaching however very little attention is being...
China and Tanzania’s Elephant Holocaust
A report released this month by The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) called Vanishing Points – Criminality, Corruption and the Devastation of Tanzania’s Elephants has...
Nefarious partnership decimating Tanzania’s elephants
A report released this month by The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) called Vanishing Points – Criminality, Corruption and the Devastation of Tanzania’s Elephants has...
Elephant poaching in Niassa Reserve, Mozambique: population impact revealed by combined survey trends for live elephants and carcasses
Trends in the populations of large herbivores in Niassa Reserve, Mozambique, have been monitored through biennial aerial surveys since 1998. The elephant Loxodonta africana...
Elephants under siege – Zimbabwe pushes for US ban on hunting to be lifted
Conservationists are concerned at reports in Zimbabwe’s media that the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe (SOAZ), whose membership comprises almost exclusively of hunting...
Elephant ivory trade in China: Trends and drivers
Poaching of African elephants is threatening the species viability. International non-governmental organizations and media often attribute the basic problem to China’s domestic...
Elephant conservation: The need for political will
The greatest threat to the safety of Africa’s elephants is not the poachers who prey on them for their tusks; rather it’s the governments of many of their homelands who lack the...
SA conservationists welcome stricter sentencing of wildlife criminals
Conservationists across South Africa have commended the severe penalty meted out in Cape Town last week to Cheng Jie Liang, a Chinese national for the illegal possession of one...
Banning the sale of ivory in the USA: A Moral Dilemma
A moral dilemma has emerged following an online debate to an article in Forbes Magazine discussing the US ban on all trade in ivory. The main article by Doug Bandow is palpably...