October 24, 2017
Continent-wide, Botswana has the most number
of elephants, while populations in Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa and
Uganda are holding steady or climbing
Elephant poaching in Africa declined for a
fifth straight year in 2016 but seizures of illegal ivory hit records highs,
the CITES monitor said Tuesday, calling it a "conflicting phenomena".
In its latest report, the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species also noted that despite the overall
fall in poaching, Africa's elephant population has continued to drop "due
to continued illegal killing, land transformation and rapid human
expansion."
But 2016 saw a full 40 tonnes of illegal
ivory seized, the most since 1989, as well as the hightest-ever number of
"large-scale ivory seizures", the group said.
"The overall weight of seized ivory
in illegal
trade is
now nearly three times greater than what was observed in 2007", CITES
added in a statement.
That could be a result of increasing
vigilance among border guards and "scaled up enforcement", said CITES
secretary general John Scanlon.
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