Asian Demand for Ivory Drives Massive Slaughter of Elephants

Cameroon - In less than two months' time more than 200 of Cameroon's elephants have been poached, according to a local radio station and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Gambo Haman, governor of the country's north region said "We are talking about a very serious case of trans-frontier poaching, involving well-armed poachers with modern weapons from Sudan and Chad who are decimating this wildlife species to make quick money from the international ivory trade...In January we counted 146 (elephant) carcasses and since the beginning of this month we've had close to 60 already. This may only be a tip of the iceberg as some may have been killed in parts of the park that we cannot access." He also mentioned the poachers usually road on horses and got help from the local populace in exchange for the meat.  The locals also see the elephants as pests.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said cross-border poaching was common during the dry season but the sheer number of killed elephants so far is record-breaking.


TRAFFIC, a conservation group, warned last year that the huge demand for ivory in Asian countries such as Malaysia and China would cause a supply spike in Africa. This puts the number of killed elephants to about 2,500 and the weight of ivory to 25 tons. The elephants aren't the only ones in danger. So far six Chadian soldiers were also killed as they tried to arrest poachers.

Although Haman said he's released troops to respond as quickly as possible to the poaching, he said there weren't enough troops to cover the entire area.

When asked how many elephants may remain in the country, IFAW said they weren't sure but put the estimate to between 1,000 and 5,000.

Sumatran elephants could be extinct in 30 years

JAKARTA, Indonesia  — The Sumatran elephant could be extinct in the wild within three decades unless immediate steps are taken to slow the breakneck pace of deforestation, environmentalists warned Tuesday.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently listed the animals as "critically endangered" after their numbers dropped to between 2,400 and 2,800 from an estimated 5,000 in 1985.

The decline is largely because of destruction of their habitat, with forests all across the Indonesian island of Sumatra being clear-cut for timber, palm oil and pulp and paper plantations.

Sumatra has some of the most significant populations of Asian elephants outside of India and Sri Lanka and is also home to tigers, orangutans and rhinos.

"The Sumatran elephant joins a growing list of Indonesian species that are critically endangered," Carlos Drews of the conservation group WWF said in a statement Tuesday. "Unless urgent and effective conservation action is taken these magnificent animals are likely to go extinct within our lifetime."

Indonesia's endangered elephants sometimes venture into populated areas searching for food and destroy crops or attack humans, making them unpopular with villagers.

Some are shot or poisoned with cyanide-laced fruit, while others are killed by poachers for their ivory.