Poachers kill 100 elephants a day in Africa
By John Platt Twenty years after the international ban on ivory trade took effect, poachers are still slaughtering more than 100 elephants a day, according to a report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). The ban on ivory trade, established by the U.N.’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), took effect on October 17, 1989. At the time an average of 200 elephants were killed every day in Africa. Poaching almost ceased after the ban, but it is now on the increase once again, felling an average of 104 elephants per day, the IFAW has found. In the 10 years before the ban, African elephant populations had dropped from 1.2 million to 600,000. Twenty years later, that number now stands at around 470,000. … The next CITES meeting about elephants won’t be held until March. Unfortunately, at current rates, that means at least 12,000 African elephants could die in the interim.
