{"id":2809,"date":"2015-03-23T14:53:57","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T14:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/?p=2809"},"modified":"2018-04-22T12:11:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T16:11:11","slug":"elephant-poaching-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2015\/03\/elephant-poaching-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephant poaching rates virtually unchanged in 2014, reports UN-backed programme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Positive progress in East Africa, but situation deteriorating in Central and\u00a0West Africa. First compliance measures adopted<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the latest figures released by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), overall elephant poaching rates at monitored sites remained virtually unchanged in 2014 compared to the previous year. Poaching rates still exceed natural elephant population growth rates, meaning a continued decline in elephant numbers overall is likely.<\/p>\n

The latest figures by the CITES CITES programme for Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants, commonly known as MIKE, were presented today\u00a0at the African Elephant Summit in Kasane Botswana. They show no increase in the overall poaching trends in 2014, with levels dropping and then levelling off since the peak in 2011. However, with overall killing rates exceeding natural birth rates, poaching trends remain far too high and at a level that cannot be sustained<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

“African elephant populations continue to face an immediate threat to their survival from high-levels of poaching for their ivory, especially in Central and West Africa where the situation appears to have deteriorated. We are however also seeing some encouraging signals in parts of East Africa where the overall poaching trends have declined, which shows us all what is possible through a sustained and collective effort\u201d said John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

CITES has identified 22 countries that are mostheavily implicated in the illegal trade in ivory. These are categorized as countries of \u2018primary concern\u2019, \u2018secondary concern\u2019 and \u2018importance to watch\u2019. 19 of these 22 countries were requested by the CITES Standing Committee to develop and implement National Ivory Action Plans.<\/p>\n

[tweetthis url=”https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2015\/03\/elephant-poaching-rates<\/span>\/<\/span>“]Sustained collective efforts needed to stop elephant poaching in Africa #action2015[\/tweetthis]\n

The CITES Standing Committee has recommended last week that all Parties suspend commercial trade in CITES-listed species with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lao People\u2019s Democratic Republic and Nigeria, as these countries have not submitted their National Ivory Action Plans to the CITES Secretariat by the deadline specified by the Standing Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe momentum generated over the past few years is translating into deeper and stronger efforts to fight these crimes on the front line, where it is needed most – from the field, to police and customs, to illicit markets – and this enhanced front line effort gives us confidence that if we persist with, and deepen this collective effort, we will reverse the devastating poaching trends of the past decade\u201d added Mr. Scanlon.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 1. Elephant poaching trends in Africa. Poaching levels above the horizontal line at 0.5 (i.e. where half of dead elephants found are deemed to have been illegally killed) are likely to be unsustainable. The number of carcasses on which the chart is based is shown at the bottom of the figure.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Commenting on the latest figures, Julian Blanc, responsible for the MIKE programme, said: \u201cThe data contributed by elephant range States allow us to provide the only objective and quantitative measure available of poaching levels across Africa. This is made possible with the financial support of the European Union to the MIKE programme, for which we are very grateful. These poaching trends highlight the need to redouble efforts to mitigate the problem by addressing demand for illegal ivory, strengthening management and ensuring sustainable livelihoods for people who live with elephants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sites such as Bangassou (Central African Republic), Garamba (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Niassa (Mozambique), Pendjari (Benin) and Selous-Mikumi (United Republic of Tanzania) remain of particular concern. On the other hand, substantial declines in poaching levels have been reported in Caprivi (Namibia); Chewore (Zimbabwe); Meru, Samburu and Laikipia (Kenya); Ruaha-Rungwa (United Republic of Tanzania); and South Luangwa (Zambia).<\/p>\n

CITES National Ivory Action Plans<\/strong><\/p>\n

National Ivory Action Plans are the tool used by CITES in 19 of these 22 countries to strengthen their controls of the trade in ivory and ivory markets, and help combat the illegal trade in ivory. Each plan outlines the urgent measures that a CITES Party commits to deliver \u2013 including legislative, enforcement and public awareness actions as required \u2013 along with specified time frames and milestones for implementation.\u00a0The full list of countries concerned\u00a0 and detailed information about the NIAP process is available at http:\/\/cites.org\/eng\/niaps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 2. Subregional PIKE trends with 95 % confidence intervals. The numbers of carcasses on which the graphs are based are shown at the bottom of each graph.<\/p><\/div>\n

 

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the latest figures released by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), overall elephant poaching rates at monitored sites remained virtually unchanged in 2014 compared to the previous year. Poaching rates still exceed natural elephant population growth rates, meaning a continued decline in elephant numbers overall is likely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":2819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-on-land","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}