If you thought the killing of elephants to feed international ivory markets was old story, you were wrong. In fact, it’s the contrary and the worldwide ban on the ivory trade doesn’t stop the killings as the illegal trade in ivory grows.
James Gorman wrote in an article published on The New York Times: ‘Sixty percent of the forest elephants in Africa were killed from 2002 to 2011, scientists reported on Monday, putting a number to the rampant slaughter of both forest and savannah elephants for their ivory.’
‘The increase in killing of elephants in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo to feed a voracious international ivory market is well known, said Fiona Maisels, of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Stirling, in Scotland, one of two primary authors of the paper published in PLoS One. But, she said, international action requires hard data. “So we just provided it.”
Gorman adds: ‘Most of the forest elephants live in central and western Africa and Dr. Maisels estimated there are about 80,000 left. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimated the total number of elephants in Africa as probably around 500,000, perhaps higher.’
The last sentence of the article sum it up: In the 1930s and 1940s, there were three to five million elephants, according to estimates by the World Wildlife Fund. Poachers are wiping out tens of thousands of elephants a year, not to mention the trading of rhino horns…
