African Spring 117: Stopping elephant poachers

African Spring 117: Stopping elephant poachers

Kampala, Uganda, June 25, 2012

Poached for ivory (200! elephants in Cameroon)
http://bit.ly/KwkndO

In March 2012 around 200 elephant were slaughtered in Cameroon’s Bouba N’Dijida Park.  It is said the poachers came from Chad and Sudan. Despite military intervention by Cameroon half of the park’s elephants were killed. Although the scale was larger than normal poaching of elephants in the Congo Basin Forest is unfortunately relatively common. Numerous publication show the involvement of military (DRC) in up to 75% of killings (http://bit.ly/Mi3LMi). During conflict and war (Rwanda 1994, first and second Congo war) populations are often decimated even in protected national parks (Virunga, Garamba and Okapi reserve) 

The two subspecies forest (Loxodonta africana ciclotis) and savannah (Loxodonta africana africana) elephant are under pressure for a range of reasons:

1. Poaching for the ivory demand (mainly from Asia) or for meat (local)
2. Loss of habitat due to destruction of rainforest
3. Increased interaction with humans due to logging, building of roads, towns and agricultural projects. Elephants may be killed as they destroy crops of farmers
4. Local Wildlife Authorities are poorly funded and legislation may be missing
5. Lack of knowledge about elephant populations and their environment

Elephants have many important roles in the region. They are symbols of power, force and intelligence. In the forest they uproot trees, dig and disperse seeds of plants, change the nature of forests. For centuries they have been chased for their ivory. Despite the ban on commercial ivory hunting since the 1930 it has been an ongoing affair. Estimates range from 4,000-12,000 poached elephants per year.

Estimates vary but a reduction of up to 50% is expected. http://bit.ly/NpHp7n . Elephant population lose viability at a population of 200. Many groups are nearing that threshold while the connections between groups is interrupted more and more by human construction.

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership (http://www.comifac.org/) consist of the following 10 nations: Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Republic of Congo and Sao Tomé & Principe. The just came together to launch an initiative to protect this “flagship species” by close collaboration. This report from 2005 http://bit.ly/KVSke6 comes up with a lot of suggestions which are probably true today. Let us hope that the states in the Congo Basin come together before it is too late for the elephant. 

Namaskar,

Ashis

Let us protect them
This looks much better
http://annamiticus.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Elephants-trunk-cuddling.jpg