AT least 84 elephants have been killed by ivory poachers in Zimbabwe this year, 31 in the past two weeks, official and conservation sources said on Monday. The death toll is likely to lead to renewed pressure by wildlife activists for the reimposition of an outright ban on ivory dealing after experimental sales by three southern African countries this year, the sources said. Zambezi Society Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia successfully lobbied to have their elephant populations downlisted from Appendix I to Appendix II at the 1997 meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This lifted a 10-year ban on ivory sales, and means that a controlled trade in tusks is allowed.