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“Botswana remains resolute in supporting the ending of the ivory trade,” says Tshekedi Khama, Botswana Minister of Natural Resources and Environment. “We have stopped hunting, but our neighbours still undertake trophy hunting and practice captive animal breeding.”
New research shows that elephant numbers increase when more ecotourists visit the areas with elephant populations. This is in stark contrast to trophy hunting which can have devastating effects on elephant herds.
Africa’s wild apes are being illegally exported to China using fraudulent permits from the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), according to conservationist and researcher Karl Ammann.
The failure to effectively shut down domestic ivory markets at the recent COP17 in Johannesburg leaves the ban on international ivory trade as little more than an ineffective facade and greatly threatens the survival of Africa’s imperiled elephant populations.