- The two CITES monitoring programs — the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) and Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) — will present their reports at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the CITES in September.
- According to the ETIS report, levels of illegal ivory trade reached their highest levels in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, the only subsequent year with sufficient seizure data for analysis, illegal trade in ivory was lower.
- The MIKE report indicates that levels of illegal elephant killings peaked in 2011, and appear to have slowed or stabilized since then. But levels of poaching still remain far too high to allow elephant populations to recover, the statement said.
Poaching has decimated elephant populations across Africa.
Every year, an estimated 30,000 African elephants are killed for the illegal ivory trade, and fewer than 400,000 animals are thought to remain today.
Now, two new reports suggest that the upward trend of elephant poaching for the illegal ivory trade — which started in 2006 — may be slowing down. But levels of poaching still remain “unacceptably high”, according to a statement by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The two CITES monitoring programs — the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) and Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) — will present their reports at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the CITES in September.
“There are some encouraging signs,” CITES Secretary-General, Mr John E. Scanlon said in the statement. “The momentum generated over the past five years is translating into deeper and stronger efforts to fight poaching and illicit trafficking on the front-lines, where it is needed most — from the rangers in the field, to police and customs at ports of entry and exit and across illicit markets… but much more remains to be done.”
According to the ETIS report, levels of illegal ivory trade reached their highest levels in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, the only subsequent year with sufficient seizure data for analysis, illegal trade in ivory was lower. But to confirm a meaningful decline in this trade, additional data of following years would be necessary, conservationists say.
The MIKE report indicates that levels of illegal elephant killings peaked in 2011, and appear to have slowed or stabilized since then. In 2015, for example, poaching accounted for 60 percent of all African elephant deaths, down from around 75 percent in 2011.
However, levels of illegal killings still remain far too high to allow elephant populations to recover, the statement said. In fact, levels of poaching are higher than they were in the 2000s and may even lead to the local extinction of some elephant populations.
Moreover, poaching levels may be down simply because elephant numbers have plummeted and elephants are now harder to find, Susan Lieberman from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), told the BBC.
The picture is particularly grim for elephants in Central and West Africa where poaching still remains very high. In East Africa though, levels of poaching seem to be declining in some areas like Kenya.
The only region where deaths due to poaching does not exceed natural deaths is Southern Africa. Poaching levels do remain high in some Southern African sites, though, such as Niassa Reserve in Mozambique. Moreover, reports indicate a recent spike in elephant in South Africa’s Kruger National Park for the first time. If this current trend continues, elephant population in Kruger could face considerable decline in the future, conservationists warn.
“Governments must continue to strengthen their efforts right across the illegal ivory supply chain, while international bodies and civil society must further enhance their much-needed support if we are to reverse the devastating poaching trends of the past decade,” Scanlon said.
