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Mail & Guardian
elephant poachinglatest news & developments
Balance: Elephants are found in 37 African countries, including Kenya. But the herds and their habitats are threatened and people remain divided over how to protect them. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Elephants in the room

Science should lead the way in society’s efforts to protect habitats, wildlife and people’s livelihoods

Mark Shuttleworth.

China’s ban on domestic ivory sales comes into force

One of the world’s biggest markets for African ivory, China announced that it would outlaw all domestic trade and processing by 2017

South Africa is grappling with an escalating crisis, the overpopulation of elephants in public and private game reserves. (AFP)

Tourism in Africa loses R343-million per year through elephant poaching

High cost to conserve elephants from poachers is compensated by tourism income.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta set fire to the world’s biggest ivory stockpile bonfire in April after demanding a total ban on trade in tusks and horns to prevent the extinction of elephants in the wild.

Rhino, elephant, lion fates to be decided at Cites

The most important conservation meeting in a generation will see debates on the future of more than 500 species.

Threat to Africa’s elephants a headache for CoP17

Conservationists worry that ivory poaching is moving through Zambia towards Botswana’s Okavanga Delta, location of the world’s largest elephant herds.

Corrupt officials to blame for ​illegal ivory trade, says Cites

Research shows that legal sale of ivory increased smuggling by 71%.

Legal ivory trade led to sharp rise in poaching

The thinking behind the move was widely accepted at the time, and ‘has only been proved wrong in hindsight’ – researchers

Morgan’s Somalia trek a sign of hope

Morgan’s Somalia trek a sign of hope

Joy as thirtysomething pachyderm makes three-week journey from Kenya.

Elephant. Chris Jek, AFP/ Getty Images

Botswana’s ‘shoot-to-kill policy’ against suspected poachers

The Botswana government has been accused of valuing wildlife more than human life, as it ups the ante against illegal hunters in the region.

Kill-off: An elephant hard hit by poaching rests in a marsh. The flow of ivory to international black markets is along smuggling routes through Dar es Salaam and other ports.

Tanzania’s elephants under siege

Poaching linked to crime syndicates has seen 85 000 tuskers being slaughtered in five years.

Target the traders in ivory war

It is not only armed insurgent and rebel groups that fuel the slaughter of elephants, it is also greed.

Spoils: Almost four tonnes of elephant tusks were found

Wildlife devastation in South Sudan war ‘alarming’

Slaughtered for tusks and meat, endangered wildlife numbers have taken a huge knock since soldiers and rebels began fighting in December.

Misappropriation of ivory funds threatens rhino horn sale

900 rhino poached so far this year, with 600 of those being poached in the Kruger National Park.

Mozambique elephants obliterated

A year-long investigation has exposed official complicity in slaughter for the ivory trade.

UN targets wildlife traders in Africa sanctions

New UN resolutions bring sanctions against illegal wildlife and resource traders who support armed groups committing social atrocities in Africa.

‘The elephant charged at them

One-fifth of Africa’s elephants could be killed this decade

25 000 elephants have been killed last year across Africa, and the numbers will grow, a continental conference on poaching has heard.

Zimbabwe elephant poisoning toll rises

Zimbabwe wildlife authorities have discovered 10 elephant carcasses poisoned by cyanide, which raises the number found to over 100.

Rangers learn new tricks to win fight against rhino poaching

Madikwe Game Reserve used to be the most poached placed outside of Kruger. But the rangers have learnt how to fight back – and word has spread.

Africa’s ecosystems now run on less than two-thirds of their historical energy, with the decline of elephants, lions, and rhinos reshaping landscapes and livelihoods

Police fingered for taking bribes in Hwange poisoning

The claim that officers are accepting bribes from suspected poachers is raising questions over the ability of police to combat poaching syndicates.

Probe launched into the deaths of Zim elephants

Wildlife experts suspect at least 64 elephants were poisoned to death for their tusks at the Hwange National Park, in Zimbabwe.