Archive — poaching

“Ivory belongs to elephants only” is the message  of African natives who march and protest.  “Please be our protector.  Please deliver us from evil” is the imagined cry of the elephants.  Some good news: Daphne Sheldrick and a team of supporters have been rescuing orphaned baby elephants.  A British zoology professor, Lee White, left studying elephants and moved to Gabon to protect them.  He leads  250 army rangers in protecting 13 national parks.  President Obama’s recent rule change will ban interstate sales of elephant  ivory across state lines.  He also will use the intelligence agencies to target the $20 billion illegal wildlife trade. link

Posted on August 27, 2015

Only a few thousand forest elephants remain in the Central African Republic.  62 %   of them were killed and they lost one third of their range between 2002 and 2011.  Peter Canby wrote in the New Yorker about Andrea Turkalo, a biologist who has observed them for years.  Activists, groups, game wardens, and researchers try to protect the elephants.    Militias and armed gangs poach them to sell to Chinese profiteers.  Chinese logging companies log the buffers around the parks, and the logging roads and trade  in conflict timber  to China allow the poachers to get  access to the elephants and to export the ivory.  link

Posted on August 12, 2015