{{The price of ivory from African elephants has tripled in the world’s biggest market — China — reports say.}}
The skyrocketing price is in an indicator for the huge demand of ivory products that give new insights into the challenges of the war against poaching in African countries, Tanzania included.
The red flag was raised by a conservationist group — Save the Elephants — who are concerned that there could be a new, more intense wave of elephant killings across the continent.
“With the ivory price in Africa a tenth of that reached in China, substantial profits are being generated for organised crime that fuels insecurity, corruption, and deprives local communities of valuable income,” said the group in their new report.
The report by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) and Interpol last week revealed that terrorist and militant groups operating in East Africa make tens of millions of dollars annually out of poaching and illegal trade in forestry products.
Although the report, titled The Environmental Crime Crisis, A Rapid Response Assessment, did not mention the terrorist groups, the latest events in the region point to the Islamist Al-Shabaab insurgents based in Somalia who have killed hundreds of Kenyans in recent attacks.
Researchers from the Kenyan-based group studying ivory sales in China said prices had risen for raw ivory from $750 in 2010 to $2,100 per kilo in 2014.
Save the Elephants estimates an average of 33,000 elephants were lost to poachers every year between 2010 and 2012.
“Without concerted international action to reduce the demand for ivory, measures to reduce the killing of elephants for ivory will fail,” said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants.
wirestory
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