Poaching boom sees thousands of elephants killed in Gabon

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21352722

Poaching boom sees thousands of elephants killed in Gabon

More than 11,000 elephants have been killed by ivory poachers in Gabon since 2004 according to new research.

The country is home to over half of Africa's forest elephants who are highly valued because of the quality of their tusks.

Campaigners say the situation in what was believed to be a safe haven for these elephants is "out of control."

They blame the ongoing high demand for jewellery and other ivory products in Asia.

Gabon holds about 13% of the forests of Central Africa but it is home to around 40,000 forest elephants, a smaller species that are attractive to poachers because their ivory is tinged with pink and is very hard.

The new research has been carried out by the Gabonese national parks agency (ANPN) alongside WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

Dr Fiona Maisels of the WCS explained that they had analysed the population of elephants in the Minkebe national park and compared it with their data gathered in the same area 9 years ago.

"Between 44-77% of the elephants have been killed," she said. "In other words 11,100 elephants have been lost since 2004."

Much of the attention on elephant poaching has been in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo but with demand for ivory growing and prices rocketing in recent years, poachers have sought out the forest elephants in the vast expanses of Minkebe.

And despite the efforts of the Gabonese government to bolster anti-poaching patrols, according to Bas Huijbregts from WWF, the authorities are failing.

"In an area like Minkebe which is about 30,000 sq km, that's about the size of Belgium, without any roads. It is very difficult to track poachers here," he said.

The authorities believe that between 50 and 100 elephants per day were being killed in the park in 2011. Much of the poaching has been carried out by gangs from neighbouring Cameroon, with ivory carried across the northern border by porters.

The high prices being paid for ivory in Asian markets are having a knock-on effect on attempts to control the trade in Gabon says Bas Huijbregts.

"Such a high value commodity, it is corrupting governance on all levels - there are checkpoints all over the place, but no one ever detects that ivory," he said.

"When arrests are made, they are often obstructed by government people who have a stake in the trade as well."

In June last year Gabon's president Ali Bongo Ondimba ordered the burning of the country's stockpile of seized ivory. However the poaching continues and is leading many conservationists to question the long term survival of elephants in Africa.

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[Tyrannical]

Invite the Asian ivory traders to employ hunters to use nonlethal means to remove the tusks.

[cronus]

Invite the Asian ivory traders to employ hunters to use nonlethal means to remove the tusks.

Genetically engineer ivory and undercut the 'natural' then you win both ways?

[Tyrannical]

I think good tusk construction might be a little more complicated than genetic engineering. You might be able to grow something chemically similar, but not the structure to make good ivory.
But then again maybe you could engineer cattle to have horns usable as ivory.

Then there is the rareness is what makes it desirable, just as synthetic gem stones are worth much less than the real thing.

[laklak]

Make "poacher poaching" legal and sell licenses to Great White Hunters. Imagine the thrill of tracking down and killing armed humans, eh? Might even make a reality show out of it.

[Tyrannical]

Make "poacher poaching" legal and sell licenses to Great White Hunters. Imagine the thrill of tracking down and killing armed humans, eh? Might even make a reality show out of it.

We usually just call that offering a bounty.

[cronus]

They'll only exist in zoos within a few years. Hard times might mean they'll all be gone within a couple of decades?