Ivory Price Triples Over Past 4 Years in China: Poachers on the Prowl
Ivory Price Triples Over Past 4 Years in China: Poachers on the Prowl
African elephants are being slaughtered for their tusks on an increasing sale now that the price of ivory has tripled in the past 4 years in China. China is the world's biggest market for ivory currently. Campaign group Save the Elephants has indicated in a new report that the surge in the price of ivory is responsible for the killing of elephants across Africa.
With ivory price in Africa the tenth of what has been reached in China, profits are being generated for organized crime. This is adding to insecurity, corruption and preventing local habitats from wildlife needed to preserve the natural balance.
Researchers from the Kenya-based group involved in examining ivory sales in China has indicated that prices had risen for raw ivory from $750/550 euros per kilo in the year 2010 to $2,100/1540 euros in the year 2014. Prices were taken from retail outlets plus factories in Beijing and Shanghai.
Wildlife group TRAFFIC has also warned that the ivory market in Thailand is “out of control” with the number of ivory products on sale in Bangkok has trebled in the past year. Save the Elephant estimates that around 33,000 elephants were lost to poachers annually between 2010 to 2012.
Without efforts and international efforts to lower the demand for ivory, measures taken to prevent the killing of elephants for ivory will not be effective, according to Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants.
China now holds the key to the future of African elephants. Ivory sales have also been tracked within Africa as Lagos in Nigeria followed by Luanda in Angola have the highest number of ivory trinkets being sold openly.
Organised crime syndicates and rebel militia have increasingly used poaching to fund insurgencies leading to the multi-billion-dollar demand for ivory in China. Around 20,000 African elephants were poached across the continent in 2013 alone, according to a report by the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
A rise in the number of illegal elephants since the mid-2000s peaking in the year 2011 is levelling off now. But poaching levels remain high and they exceed the natural elephant population growth rates. This is what has contributed to a decline in elephant populations in Africa, according to the experts.
Large-scale ivory seizures indicate transnational organised crime in illicit ivory trade, according to analysts. Africa's elephants are facing threats to survival from poaching for ivory. Southern parts of Africa have the majority of the elephants with close to 55% of the population residing here. East and Central Africa hold around 28% and 16% of the total elephant population. Poverty and lack of law enforcement have spurred the increase in poaching. Prompt action needs to be taken if conservation efforts are to meet the desired degree of success.
