Report insists on African elephants threatened existence
An updated assessment by a United
Nations Environment Programme-administered treaty has confirmed that poaching
continues to threaten the long-term survival of the African elephant.
Based on the Proportion of
Illegally Killed Elephants data, or PIKE, the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has evaluated the levels
of illegal killing through MIKE, the acronym for the Monitoring of Illegal
Killing of Elephants programme.
MIKE has calculated that illegal
killing is the chief cause of death for elephants.
Evidence reveals that PIKE levels
peaked in 2011 when an alarming 10 percent of African elephants were poached,
before steadily declining through 2017. That level has remained relatively
unchanged throughout 2018.
Such high PIKE levels are of
concern because even in well-established and protected elephant populations,
the annual losses to illegal killing and other mortalities are not being
compensated by birth rates.
Many African elephant populations
are small and fragmented and not well-protected, making them even more
vulnerable to poaching. As PIKE levels remain above 0.5 in Africa, the number
of elephants in some countries continues to decline.
African elephant populations have
fallen from an estimated 12 million a century ago, to some 400,000, according
to the most recent estimations contained in the 2016 African Elephant Status
Report.
“Illegal killing of African
elephants for ivory remains a significant threat to elephant populations in
most of the range States,” said CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero. “At the
same time, the human population of Africa has grown tenfold, from 125 million
to 1,225 million, creating competition for land with elephants.”
While international trade in
elephant ivory has been banned by CITES since 1990, opinions differ between
countries about whether it should continue or not.
The African elephant and the
debate over the ivory trade will be a major item on the agenda of the next
triennial CITES Conference of the Parties, originally planned for May in
Colombo, Sri Lanka, but now to be rescheduled for a later date.
“We must continue to reduce
poaching and illegal trade in ivory and find solutions to ensure the coexistence
of elephants with local people,” stressed Higuero. “The international community
should further expand its work with the African range States to find solutions
that work both for the elephants and for local communities.”
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