20 percent of Africa’s elephants killed in three years – ‘We are shredding the fabric of elephant society and exterminating populations across the continent’

By Jeremy Hance19 August 2014 (mongabay.com) – Around 100,000 elephants were killed by poachers for their ivory on the African continent in just three years, according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Between 2010 and 2012 an average of 6.8 percent of the elephant population was killed annually, […]

Sri Lanka still losing forests at rapid rate, on track to ‘go beyond the critical point’

By Janaki Lenin15 July 2014 (mongabay.com) – In 1983, Sri Lanka became embroiled in a 26-year-long civil war in which a rebel militant organization fought to establish an independent state called Tamil Eelam. The war took an enormous human toll; unknown numbers disappeared and millions more were displaced. Economic development stagnated in the rebel-held north […]

Price of ivory triples in China – ‘Although half a world away, China holds the key to the future of the African elephant’

By Jeremy Hance7 July 2014 (mongabay.com) – In the last four years the price of ivory in China has tripled, according to new research from Save the Elephants. The news has worrying implications for governments and conservationists struggling to save elephants in Africa amidst a poaching epidemic, which has seen tens-of-thousands of elephants butchered for […]

5 ways saving wildlife from poachers has turned into all-out warfare

By Evan V. Symon and Asgar Pathan 23 June 2014 (Cracked.com) – Right this second, there are men with AK-47s fighting a guerrilla war over rhino horns and elephant tusks. Everything about poaching in Africa is utterly insane, even if you put aside the fact that the poachers are quickly driving animals to extinction. We […]

Ivory’s curse: The militarization and professionalization of poaching in Africa – 35,000 to 50,000 elephants slaughtered each year

21 April 2014 (Born Free USA) – It has been a quarter century since Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) placed all African elephants on Appendix I, thus eliminating commercial trade in elephant ivory. This uniform global prohibition on ivory commercialization demonstrably reduced elephant poaching, helped elephant populations to stabilize, […]

Mountain Bull, legendary Kenyan elephant, found slaughtered by poachers – ‘He was killed while being tracked night and day with modern technology and within the confines of a fenced national park and World Heritage site’

By M. Sanjayan16 May 2014 (CBS News) – Mountain Bull, the magnificent six-ton elephant, featured prominently in our reporting on the poaching crisis in Africa for CBS Evening News and CBS Sunday morning, has been discovered dead. Perhaps he had been living on borrowed time, but the manner and place of his death is shocking […]

Land grabs threaten last elephant bastions

By Richard Lardner20 April 2014 WASHINGTON (AP) – Political and military elites are seizing protected areas in one of Africa’s last bastions for elephants, putting broad swaths of Zimbabwe at risk of becoming fronts for ivory poaching, according to a non-profit research group’s report that examines government collusion in wildlife trafficking. Zimbabwe has maintained robust […]

Ivory’s shocking toll: 65 percent of forest elephants killed in 12 years – ‘At least a couple of hundred thousand forest elephants were lost between 2002-2013 to the tune of at least sixty a day, or one every twenty minutes, day and night’

By Jeremy Hance 12 February 2014 (mongabay.com) – Forest elephants have suffered unprecedented butchery for their ivory tusks over the past decade, according to new numbers released by conservationists today in London. Sixty-five percent of the world’s forest elephants have been slaughtered by poachers over the last dozen years, with poachers killing an astounding nine […]

Elephant deaths rise in Tanzania after shoot-to-kill poachers policy is dropped

By David Smith, Africa correspondent 31 December 2013 (The Guardian) – Elephant deaths in Tanzania have risen dramatically since the government abandoned a shoot-to-kill policy against poachers, officials admit. Lazaro Nyalandu, the deputy minister of natural resources and tourism, said 60 elephants were “butchered” in November and December, compared with two in October. Soldiers, police, […]

Mongabay: Wildlife stories in 2013

30 December 2013 (mongabay.com) – Like every year, wildlife conservation had its ups and downs in 2013. Elephant and rhino poaching hit levels unseen since the 1970’s, but there were nascent signs of growing awareness in China on the impacts of wildlife trade, including official bans on the serving of wildlife products at official state […]

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