Poaching upsurge causes concern

An alarming increase in rhino and elephant poaching across Africa recently has sparked renewed concerns about the future of these fragile species. A sharp rise has been recorded in the number of animals that have been killed, despite both elephants and rhinos being protected and their hunting being strictly outlawed.

The Kenya Wildlife Service reported that 278 elephants were killed in Kenya alone last year, the highest figure for 11 years. The international trade in ivory was banned in 1990 but an illegal market has flourished over the last year years.

Also of grave concern is the sharp rise in the poaching of both black and white rhinos. These species, which numbered tens of thousands across Africa in the 1970s, were hunted almost to exinction, reaching lows of only a few hundred individuals. Thanks to committed conservation work, the populations began to grow and stabilise.

However, this trend is threatened by the recent upsurge in illegal poaching, which has been attributed to a growing black market in rhino horn. The demand comes largely from some traditional Chinese medicine systems, which assert, without any scientific basis, that the horn possesses therapeutic properties. The high demand has led to the value of rhino horn outsripping that of gold by weight.

To combat this rising trend in poaching, a crisis meeting of politicians, wildlife groups and NGOs met in Nairobi last month to formulate a response. The parties present pledged to tackle poaching through increasing and integrating surveillance, empowering national wildlife bodies and taking steps to persuade governments of the main consumer markets for poached products to take firm action against the illegal trade.