Cape Town - Ivory poaching is moving down the continent “like a tsunami”, the Conservation Action Trust warns.
On World Elephant Day on Monday, the trust held an event at Moyo at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town which is running an exhibition until the end of the month.
Francis Garrard, founder of the Conservation Action Trust, said in celebrating the elephant through the exhibition the trust hoped people would be moved from “total apathy in South Africa”.
“We want to create passion and empathy in order to let the public and decision makers know about the value of these animals.”
Garrard said the poaching of elephants for ivory was already a serious problem in Tanzania.
The Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute reported that the country lost about 30 elephants a day to poaching.
Ivory poaching had also been reported in Botswana, Namibia and in Mozambique.
Garrard said the illegal trade in ivory was driven by a massive demand in China.
Under pressure from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), Mozambique government officials have committed themselves to tackling wildlife crime, especially elephant and rhino poaching.
Garrard said elephants that moved out of South Africa into Mozambique were at risk.
Ivory cannot be harvested off an elephant without killing the animal.
Garrard said as many as 25 000 elephants were lost to the ivory trade every year.
Meanwhile, in Thailand, conservation organisations WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and Traffic used World Elephant Day as an opportunity for that country to deliver on its promise to shut down the country’s trade in ivory. - Cape Argus