Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Illegal Wildlife Trade in Africa

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has just published a highly technical analysis titled "Illegal Killing for Ivory Drives Global Decline in African Elephants" by George Wittemyer and a number of other authors.  Based on a study of illegal wildlife trade in Samburu, Kenya, the study concludes that the problem increased markedly after 2008 and was correlated strongly with the local black market ivory price and increased seizures of ivory destined for China. 

Foreign Policy magazine summarized the study in an article dated 20 August 2014 titled "These Two Charts Show How China is Helping Decimate Africa's Elephants" by Elias Groll.