Elephants are extinct?

African elephants are being hunted for ivory at an unprecedented rate since the international ban on ivory trade came into effect in 1989. However, the public's outcry has made this ban almost available. as no longer valid today. A conservation biologist at the University of Washington thinks it's because people don't seem to notice the desperation of this giant mammal.

The proportion of elephants dying from poaching across Africa at around 8% a year based on recent studies, higher than the 7.4% annual death rate has prompted the Government to issue a ban on international ivory trade. nearly 20 years ago, Samuel Wasser, UW's biology professor, said.

However, the poaching death rate in the late 1980s was statistically based on the number of over 1 million elephants. Today, the total number of elephants across Africa is less than 470,000.

Wasser said: 'If this trend continues, there will be no elephants outside the fortified areas along with the numerous guards'.

He is the lead author of the August issue of Conservation Biology. The article confirms that elephants are on the process that all the remaining large elephants will become extinct by 2020 , unless the pressure on public opinion makes necessary coercive measures be promoted.

The co-authors are William Clark, member of Interpol on Crime of Wildlife and Israeli Government, Ofir Drori is the organization of Cameroon's Last Great Ape, Emily Kisamo forces enforce the Lusaka Treaty in Kenya, Celia Mailand under UW, Benezeth Mytayoba of Sokoine University in Tanzania and Matthew Stephens of the University of Chicago.

Wasser's laboratory developed DNA tools to determine the origin of ivory. This is important because poachers often attack elephants in one country and transport illegal ivory from neighboring countries to avoid the law.

For example, 6.5 tons of ivory seized in Singapore in 2002 was shipped from Malawi, but DNA testing showed that the ivory originated in central Zambia. Similarly, a transport of 3.9 tons in 2006 was arrested in Hongkong from Cameroon, but the DNA results show the origin of these goods from the Gabon center.

Government seized ivory lies next to weapons used by poachers, including a grenade launcher to protect the ranger.Photo: William Clark.

Evidence gathered from recent large arrests suggests that ivory does not come from large geographical areas, but poachers target certain elephants. Wasser said, with this information, the government could step up efforts to block and focus on certain areas where poaching occurs, which could be a useful way to prevent the elephants from being killed. harm. But this only happens if there is enough pressure to publicize the capital for international efforts on a large scale to prevent poaching.

In 1989, the International Trade Conference on Dangerous Species in Flora and Fauna populations banned most international ivory exchanges (http://www.cites.org/), this action to control the sale of endangered and highly endangered animals. The ban is in effect for all ivory trade activities except ivory, which is legally exploited by their elephants or dead elephants.

At the time of the ban, poachers killed an average of 70,000 elephants a year . The ban prompted strong coercive efforts, which made poaching almost stop immediately. However, the taste of success made the ban ban loose. Western countries have withdrawn support four years after the ban was issued, which caused poaching to gradually increase until the current alarm rate.

Wasser said: 'The situation is worse than before while the public did not pay attention. This is a very serious situation because elephants are a particularly important animal. They make the environment more open, creating habitat for many animals. Without elephants, there will be large habitat changes along with negative impacts on the animals that live on their previous habitat. '

'Elephants are also an important part of ecotourism, which is an important source of income for many African countries.'

Illegal ivory trade is mostly done by large criminal organizations and comes from the needs of large markets like China and Japan, where ivory is used to carve call marks. is hankos.

In addition, in the past few years the demand has increased dramatically in the United States, where ivory is used to grip knives or firearms. In fact, the May report of the International Center for Wildlife Care, the UK's nonprofit natural protection organization, ranks the United States second after China in the ivory markets. legal.

But the illegal trade in ivory was not focused by prosecutors, and new laws to promote global trade created what Wasser called a "nightmare policy", making ivory poaching. Become a high-profit, low-risk job.

The only way to curb this illegal trade is to focus forces on areas where elephants are hunted for ivory before they are brought into a complex trade network on the global scale of teams. Crime officials. The support from the public is decisive in reducing the need and promoting the necessary support from the West.

However, Wasser argues that the information on the need to remove some surplus elephants from controlled elephants in three or four countries has led to inaccurate thoughts of many that there are too many elephants at Africa. Those controlled elephants are limited by barriers to limit their natural movement.

Wasser said: 'Public support blocked the ivory illegal trade in 1989, and could do the same thing again. The method of studying DNA samples allows us to focus the functional forces on poaching hotspots.

'It forces countries to take more responsibility for what happens at their borders, and at the same time give us a direction to search, so hopefully we can stop poachers before too. late'.