Tunde Folawiyo | Elephant poaching on the rise in Africa

May 26, 2014 Editor african elephant conservation, Africa’s Endangered Primates, Tunde Folawiyo, tunde folawiyo africa, tunde folawiyo bio, tunde folawiyo london, tunde folawiyo oil, tunde folawiyo profile, Uncategorized

Last year in central Africa, approximately 60 elephants were killed each day. Wildlife conservation enthusiasts like Tunde Folawiyo are probably aware that poaching is a very serious problem across the continent, due to the high value of elephant tusks; those who sell them on the black market can usually get at least $1,500 per pound. The ivory is then used to make trinkets and ornaments.

Unfortunately, there is a great demand for this product in many Asian countries, and this demand has continued to fuel the poaching trade in Africa. Conservationists now believe that the expanding market for ivory could result in the extinction of this species in the very near future. Up until recently, Zimbabwe was one of the few countries in the continent which had managed to maintain a relatively large population of elephants. However, military and political elites have begun to seize areas where elephant groups are known to reside. This habitat encroachment, coupled with the possibility of increased poaching, is likely to result in a rapid decline in Zimbabwe’s elephant population.

As someone who is interested in conservation, Tunde Folawiyo may know that, in a bid to protect this species, the United States government recently announced that it would be suspending imports of all elephant trophies obtained via ‘sport hunting’ in Zimbabwe. The representative who spoke to the press regarding this matter explained that this decision was due to the lack of effective law enforcement surrounding this activity, and the questionable management practices by those who allow this form of hunting to take place in safari parks. The ban was proposed in 2013, shortly after hundreds of elephants were killed by poachers, who had spread cyanide around Hwange National Park in order to capture the animals.

Poaching has become hugely problematic in Kenya too; just a few days ago, poachers killed six elephants who had been roaming by Tsavo West National Park. In total, six were killed; however, four were juvenile elephants, who did not yet have any tusks. The two adults’ tusks had been chopped off. This part of Kenya is home to over 11,000 of these creatures, but numbers are dropping at an alarming rate, due to the presence of poachers. Over the last four months, 65 have already been killed.

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