• Activists: Elephant meat sold openly amid 'extensive' slaughter in Central African Republic

    © WWF-Canon / Carlos Drews

    Activists say forest elephants -- like this one seen in a forest clearing in the Dzanga Sangha Protected Area in January 2012 -- are being slaughtered amid violent chaos in the Central African Republic.

    By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News

    An "extensive" slaughter of elephants appears to be underway in the Central African Republic with reports of their meat being sold openly in markets, according to activists.

    Rebel fighters pushed into Bangui, the capital of the impoverished but mineral-rich country, in March and ousted President Francois Bozize.

    In a joint statement issued Thursday, the World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society said poachers were exploiting the chaotic situation to kill elephants and called for “immediate action” to stop them.

    The statement said that “the exact number of elephants slaughtered is not known, however initial reports indicate it may be extensive.”

    “WWF has confirmed information that forest elephants are being poached near the Dzanga-Sangha protected areas, a World Heritage Site,” the statement said.

    “Elephant meat is reportedly being openly sold in local markets and available in nearby villages. The security situation is preventing park staff from searching the dense forest for elephant carcasses,” it added.

    The statement said that up to 30,000 elephants are killed in Africa each year for their ivory tusks, which are in demand in Asia.

    WWF and WCS called on the Central African Republic and its neighbors to increase security in the area to protect the elephants and local people.

    Wildlife activists are calling for Interpol and the World Customs Association to work together to crackdown on the trade in ivory, issuing heavier penalties for those caught illegally dealing. Poaching has increased recently, fueled by a demand in Asia for jewelry and ornaments. ITV's Paul Davies reports.

    Jim Leape, WWF’s director general, said “heroic rangers” in the CAR were “standing firm in the face of immense danger,” but added that they needed more help.

    “The elephant poaching crisis – driven by insatiable ivory demand – is so severe that no area is safe,” he said.

    Staff from WWF and WCS have been forced to evacuate because of the ongoing violence. WWF said its offices in Dzanga-Sangha had been looted three times in the past month.

    Dzanga-Sangha, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to 3,400 forest elephants, smaller than their cousins on the African savannah with straighter, slimmer tusks, according to Reuters.

    Eight conservation organizations working in the Congo Basin have called on the African countries to build up their links with China and Thailand, two of Asia's biggest ivory importers, to find a solution to the crisis, the news service said. Representatives from the region's governments will meet next week to discuss the proposals. 

    Rhinos have already been hunted to extinction in the region, Reuters reported, because of the demand for their horns for Asian medicinal concoctions.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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    Poachers kill dozens of elephants, including 33 pregnant females, in Chad

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    Hunted for horns worth more than gold, S. Africa's rhinos face worst year on record

  • Poachers kill dozens of elephants, including 33 pregnant females, in Chad

    By Jean Rovys Dabany, Reuters

    LIBREVILLE, Chad - Poachers killed at least 86 elephants in Chad last week, including 33 pregnant females and 15 calves, conservation groups said on Tuesday, warning that elephants in Central Africa risked being wiped out by such slaughters.

    The killing was the worst in the region since more than 300 elephants were slaughtered in Cameroon early last year. Both raids took place during the dry season when poachers armed with automatic weapons launch coordinated attacks on herds of elephants in the region.

    Conservationists warn that organised criminal gangs are illegally trafficking huge quantities of tusks to cash in on soaring demand for ivory in Asia.

    Wildlife activists are calling for Interpol and the World Customs Association to work together to crackdown on the trade in ivory, issuing heavier penalties for those caught illegally dealing. Poaching has increased recently, fueled by a demand in Asia for jewelry and ornaments. ITV's Paul Davies reports.

    The attack was reported to have taken place on March 14-15 in southern Chad, near the border with Cameroon.

    "This tragedy shows once again the existential threat faced by Central Africa's elephants," Bas Huijbregts, head of the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) campaign against illegal wildlife trade in Central Africa, said in a statement.

    Citing local officials, WWF said the poachers were on horseback and spoke Arabic, suggesting that they were the same group who had been involved in the March 2012 attack that killed more than 300 elephants in northern Cameroon.

    Faced with mobile and heavily armed poaching teams, Cameroon has deployed military helicopters and hundreds of troops to some national parks to protect the animals.

    Callous brutality
    The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) confirmed the attack, saying the elephants' tusks had been hacked out. It said elephant populations in the region risked being wiped out.

    "The killing of 86 elephants, including pregnant cows, is evidence of the callous brutality demanded to feed the appetite of the ivory trade," said Celine Sissler-Bienvenu, head of IFAW in France and Francophone Africa.

    Demand for ivory for use in jewellery and ornamental items is rising fast in Asia. Conservationists say growing Chinese influence and investment in Africa has opened the door wider for the illicit trade in elephant tusks.

    "Cross-border cooperation and intelligence-led enforcement are the only ways we can bring these ivory traffickers to justice. It is too big a problem for any one country to tackle," said Kelvin Alie, director of IFAW's Wildlife Crime and Consumer Awareness Programme.

    “We need range states, transit countries, and destination countries to share their law enforcement resources, including intelligence, or we'll never be in a position to shut down the kingpins of the international ivory trade," Alie said.

    Data collected by conservationists shows that killing rates for elephants in Africa have risen dramatically in recent years.

    From about 11,500 elephants illegally killed in 2010 in areas observed by the Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants programme, estimates for 2011 and 2012 rose to around 17,000. 

    Related:

    Family of 12 elephants slain by poachers in Kenya

    Cursed creature: India battles rhino poachers

    Rhino slaughter in South Africa sets savage pace

     

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Activists to call for sanctions over Thailand's elephant ivory trade

    Sukree Sukplang / Reuters file

    Thai custom officials display seized ivory tusks during a news conference at the customs office of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok in this Feb. 25, 2011, file photo.

    BANGKOK -- Ivory is easy to find on the stalls of Chatuchak Market and River City mall in Bangkok. On display at just one shop are hundreds of pounds of carved elephant tusk, unthinkable in most capitals but freely and legitimately for sale in Thailand.

    As many as 30,000 elephants were slaughtered globally last year, environmental groups say, and populations are rapidly dwindling, with poachers undeterred by a ban on the international ivory trade in existence since 1989.

    Thailand allows its nationals to trade in ivory from elephants that have died of natural causes inside its borders.

    But animal activists say the system is abused and ivory from Africa and elsewhere is "laundered" through the country.

    The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) holds a conference in Bangkok from March 3 to 14 and -- to the embarrassment of the hosts -- environmental groups such as World Wide Fund for Nature and TRAFFIC plan to table a motion calling for sanctions against Thailand.

    "One of the reasons Thailand is being hit so hard in the CITES conference is, if you look at the numbers of domestic elephants and the numbers of Thailand's ivory carvers, it doesn't add up," said William Schaedla, director of Southeast Asia for TRAFFIC, an NGO for monitoring wildlife trade.

    TRAFFIC estimates the country's elephant population and the natural death rate would provide only 18.5 pounds of ivory per registered carver a year. But poor enforcement and regulation mean Thai merchants can lay their hands on much larger quantities.

    'A bottomless pit'
    After the 1989 ban, countries were supposed to inventory their pre-existing stockpiles so CITES could keep tabs on them. Thailand never did, animal rights groups say.

    "There's an undisclosed amount of ivory in the country, so essentially a bottomless pit to launder through," said Schaedla.

    Thai ivory is supposed to be certified, but according to Schaedla this involves an easily forged slip of paper that the government doesn't bother to track, meaning African ivory can easily enter the market.

    These failures mean Thailand now faces sanctions that, at their strongest, would ban its participation in international trade in the most endangered CITES-listed species, including reptile skins and rare orchids in which it has thriving markets.

    Only Thai nationals should be able to buy ivory inside the country but buyers from Europe, the Americas and China are more common. Crackdowns are rare, and mostly occur during the run-up to CITES conferences, NGOs said.

    Efforts have been made to clean up the laws governing elephants, but lobbying from ivory carvers and elephant owners derailed the process.

    "The resolution of this issue is about political will, and Thailand has repeatedly kicked the can down the road," said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC's director for South and East Africa.

    Some believe sanctions aren't enough, and that the only way to save Africa's elephants is to ban all ivory markets, including those in Thailand and China, the world's largest.

    "Our position is any legal market provides a parallel illegal market," said Mary Rice of the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based NGO.

    Ivory 'should be illegal'
    The EIA estimates that over 90 percent of the ivory on sale in China is illegally sourced.

    "We must target the demand side and ensure markets in China and Thailand for ivory are banned. Ivory should be illegal without exception," Shelley Waterland of the Born Free Foundation told a news conference in Bangkok on Thursday.

    Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Wednesday Thailand would "consider" a ban on the domestic ivory trade, but some officials apparently see no need.

    "The Thai government has a system to control the ivory trade from domestic animals already," said Theeraphat Prayurasith, deputy director of Thailand's Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Protection.

    "We do not use African ivory in this country, and the quantities are not too large to be from domestic ivory. It is the right of Thai people to use domestic elephants," he said.

    Activists will argue at the CITES conference that this system is not working, and the Thai ivory trade is a big factor behind dwindling African elephant populations.

    "No one is going to hammer them and hit them with sanctions if they do something. But there's an appearance of subterfuge and stalling," said Schaedla.

    Reuters

    Related:

    Family of 12 elephants slain by poachers in Kenya

    South Sudan's elephants could be gone in five years, group warns

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  • Orphaned elephants find sanctuary in Kenya amid rampant poaching

    Workers at a Kenyan sanctuary for elephants who have lost their mothers, many through rampant poaching, talk about how they care for one of Africa's most endangered species. By NBC's William Angelucci.

    By Ron Allen, Correspondent, NBC News

    Kenyan police announced on Jan. 15 they had seized the biggest haul ever of smuggled elephant ivory. Two tons of ivory valued at around $1.5 million was stuffed in a container at the port of Mombasa.

    "This is a big catch, the biggest ever single seizure of ivory at the port of Mombasa," Kiberenge Seroney, the port's police officer in charge of criminal investigations, told Reuters.

    "We fail to understand where one gathers the courage to park such enormous quantities of ivory, hoping that they can slip through our security systems."

    Earlier in the month, poachers killed a family of 11 elephants in the single biggest slaughter of the animals on record in the east African country.


    The harrowing news prompted NBC News cameraman William Angelucci to pull out a video he had filmed at a unique elephant orphanage in the country.

    The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has been trying to save African elephants since the 1970s. It takes in young elephants that have been orphaned by the slaughter of their mothers and fathers for their tusks. The staff essentially become surrogate parents, feeding the youngsters by hand. As they grow older, for some elephants, humans are the only "parents" they've known.

    So far, more than 80 elephants have been reintroduced to the wild after reaching an age between eight to 10 years old. That, however, doesn't end the relationship. The trust’s handlers say many of the animals "keep in touch," and even have brought their own young to visit their human families.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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    'A big catch': Record two tons of ivory seized in Kenya

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  • 'A big catch': Record two tons of ivory seized in Kenya

    Police in Kenya have seized more than two tons of ivory worth $1.15 million. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By James Macharia, Reuters
    MOMBASA, Kenya — Police in Kenya have seized more than two tons of ivory worth 100 million shillings ($1.15 million), the biggest haul on record in the east African country, officials said on Tuesday.

    "This is a big catch, the biggest ever single seizure of ivory at the port of Mombasa," said Kiberenge Seroney, the port's police officer in charge of criminal investigations. "We fail to understand where one gathers the courage to park such enormous quantities of ivory, hoping that they can slip through our security systems."

    Poaching is a growing problem for sub-Saharan African countries reliant on rich wildlife in their game reserves to draw foreign tourists.

    Heavily-armed criminals kill elephants and rhinos for their tusks, which are used for ornaments and in some folk medicines. Most of the elephant tusks smuggled from Africa ends up in Asian countries, according to police.

    On Jan. 5, poachers killed a family of 11 elephants in the biggest single mass shooting of the animals on record in Kenya, wildlife officials said.

    Gitau Gitau, an assistant commissioner with the Kenya Revenue Authority, said paperwork accompanying a container at the port of Mombasa declared it contained decorative stones.

    The carcasses of a family of elephants have been found in a wildlife reserve in Kenya - the victims of the worst massacre on record by ivory poachers there. NBC News' Rohit Kachroo reports.

    "But when we opened it we found elephant tusks," said Gitau as he displayed the ivory. "The ivory was originating from Rwanda and Tanzania and was to be exported to Indonesia."

    Related stories:

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Family of 12 elephants slain by poachers in Kenya

    The carcasses of a family of elephants have been found in a wildlife reserve in Kenya - the victims of the worst massacre on record by ivory poachers there. NBC News' Rohit Kachroo reports.

    By Rohit Kachroo, Correspondent, NBC News

    TSAVO EAST NATIONAL PARK, Kenya -- The bodies of five elephants lie under the shade of the trees – their giant ears flapping in the wind, but their majestic bodies totally still.

    It is a gruesome sight in this, one of Kenya’s oldest, largest and most stunningly beautiful national parks.

    As our helicopter circles the scene, we glimpse two other elephants nearby: A mother lying dead next to a baby calf - her daughter. The bodies of another three siblings sit in the baking heat. Other corpses are slumped across several acres of parkland.

    In total, there are 12 slain elephants – a family, murdered on Saturday in Kenya’s bloodiest attack by poachers on record.

    The spot is so remote – inaccessible by road vehicles – that it was only possible for us to reach them by the air. And yet, the poachers are thought to have trekked for days – maybe weeks – through the dense bushes with the intention of killing the family for their horns. It is, perhaps, an indication of the poachers’ determination, and the sophistication of their planning.

    Armed with guns and axes, the 15-strong gang struck during the day. They shot the animals one by one before sawing off their tusks. Park rangers chased their footprints for 10 miles into the bush, but the trail vanished. Investigators believe that they may have dumped the tusks in the park to collect later, before splitting up and disappearing into the woods.

    Wilson Korir, who leads the military-style defense force tasked with protecting the park from poachers, said: “These guys [the gang of poachers] are now looking for some crude transport like the use of a donkey to be able to transfer the tusks to the nearest center where they can ferry it using a vehicle.”

     “We have a lot of covert operations going on outside. We have positioned a platoon of rangers outside there just to wait and see. If they appear they will pounce and arrest.”

    Accompanied by rangers, we leave our helicopter and walk towards the spot where some of the bodies lie. We are all struck by the stench of the corpses, as flies swarm and maggots eat away at them. The face of each of the animals is badly severed – it is clear where the poachers’ axes have struck.

    From the position of the elephants, investigators suspect that there was a stampede as the animals tried -- and failed -- to race away.

    It is grim evidence of a growing problem for Kenya. According to the country’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga, 360 elephants were killed in Kenya last year – almost one a day – up from 289 in 2011.

    Demand comes from the growing middle class in China, where ground tusk is said to have medicinal value, and ivory is still desirable in jewelry and home decorations. A pound of illegal ivory can fetch around $1,000.

    “The dynamics of poaching are taking a different angle altogether because there is a lot of demand for ivory from outside,” Korir said.

    “But in the history of Tsavo National Park this is the worst.”

    He welcomes promises of greater investment in wildlife security, and calls by world leaders for a global campaign against trafficking. But his priority now is to find the poachers behind Saturday’s attack. 

    “The message is clear. They come (back) into the national park at their own peril. The rangers are there and waiting for them. They come and they will be eliminated.

    “These are dangerous gangs. They carry firearms. There are no two ways about it – fire for fire. So let them come. We are equally prepared. We are waiting.”

    Wildlife activists are calling for Interpol and the World Customs Association to work together to crackdown on the trade in ivory, issuing heavier penalties for those caught illegally dealing. Poaching has increased recently, fueled by a demand in Asia for jewelry and ornaments. ITV's Paul Davies reports.

    Related stories:

    Cursed creature: India battles rhino poachers

    Rhino slaughter in South Africa sets savage pace

    Hunted for horns worth more than gold, S. Africa's rhinos face worst year on record

    Kenya Wildlife Services step up collaring efforts in wake of increased poaching


     

  • Cameroon army to take on machine-gun-toting elephant poachers

    Reinnier Kaze / AFP - Getty Images

    Cameroonian soldiers patrol on Dec. 15 during a field trip organized for the press at Bouba N'Djidda National Park in northern Cameroon.

    By Randy Joe Saah, Reuters

    BOUBA NDJIDA NATIONAL PARK, Cameroon - The welcome committee for Cameroon's Bouba Ndjida National Park, a former safari tourism destination, would not look out of place on a battlefield.


    Faced with the threat of horse-mounted Sudanese elephant poachers armed with machine guns, the central African nation has deployed military helicopters and 600 soldiers to try to protect the park and its animals.

    Its decision to call in the army follows a bloody incursion into the park last winter during which poachers from Sudan killed some 300 elephants, or 80 percent of the park's elephant population, within a few weeks.

    Armed only with World War One-era rifles, the park's eco-guards were defenseless in the face of the Sudanese "jandjaweed" poachers who had traveled thousands of miles on horseback to seize the tusks.

    The raid left hundreds of elephant corpses in its wake.

    Elephants slaughtered, orphan found in latest Africa poaching

    Many of the animals' faces had been hacked off and the bodies lay decomposing in a park that used to attract safari tourists in large numbers.

    Cameroon says it is determined to make sure such a scene is never repeated.

    "With the kind of deployment we have in the park here today, the message is very clear," Brigadier General Martin Tumenta told Reuters during a visit to the park. "Any poacher who finds himself here will simply be destroyed."

    Boubandjida Safari Lodge via AP

    The carcasses of elephants slaughtered by poachers are seen in Boubou Ndjida National Park, located in Cameroon, near the border with Chad, in this February 2012 photo.

    Tens of thousands of elephants likely killed last year, experts say

    Equipped with helicopters, night vision gear, and scores of jeeps, Cameroon's military has set up two garrisons in the park and several camps along Cameroon's border with Chad and the Central African Republic, Tumenta said.

    Last winter's massacre followed a record year for elephant poaching in 2011, an illegal trade that has become a multi-billion dollar industry in Africa fueled by demand for ivory ornaments from China, some of whose citizens are increasingly wealthy.

    Just days after Rock Center aired Harry Smith's report, "The Last Stand," on the growing epidemic of illegal rhino poaching in South Africa, three of the rhinos featured in the report were attacked by poachers. Rock Center's Harry Smith reports.

    Ivory sells for about $135 a pound on the black market, according to conservation group TRAFFIC, meaning that an average-sized tusk weighing can be sold for more than $2,000 -- a small fortune in central Africa, a region plagued by poverty and underdevelopment.

    Officials said there was evidence that the Sudanese poachers were on their way back to the park - a territory of lush forests, rivers and hilly plains about the size of Luxembourg - now that the dry season had arrived, making travel easier.

    "Tomorrow will be simply too late," Prince William warns as Africa's magnificent wild animals are mercilessly and illegally poached at a rate not seen for decades.

    "It is clear we are dealing with a very heavily-armed group of men carrying machine guns and mortars," said Tumenta, saying soldiers had seized some weapons and ivory from a poacher camp in the bush last year.

    The World Wildlife Fund has called Cameroon's deployment a "bold and courageous move" to protect the region's dwindling elephant population.

    However, local residents said the huge military presence was disturbing.

    "It's now very dangerous because of the soldiers who are just everywhere in the bush," said Saidou Sule, a 48-year-old farmer from a village near Garoua, the provincial capital. 

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  • 1,500 elephant tusks seized on way to China; biggest bust a sign of worse things to come?

    Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters

    Malaysian customs officers on Wednesday show elephant tusks smuggled inside wood planks.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Some 1,500 African elephant tusks — the biggest seizure ever — were found this week hidden within timber planks and destined for China's ivory market. Shocked conservationists noted 2012 will now go down as the worst year in 24 years of records — and warned that 2013 could be even worse.

    "In 2011 we thought the threats to elephants couldn't get any worse and 2012 draws to a close with the depressing news that the slaughter of elephants hasn't even drawn close to their zenith," said Jason Bell, who runs the International Fund for Animal Welfare's elephant program. "The illegal trade is simply voracious in its appetite for ivory."


    Hidden in 10 crates shipped in two cargo containers, the tusks were found Monday by Malaysian customs officials at the port near Kuala Lumpur. The shipment had come from Togo in West Africa.

    The tusks weigh about 20 tons, nearly as much as all that was seized in 2011 — a year when an estimated 25,000 elephants were slaughtered for their tusks. For all of 2012, about 34 tons have been seized.

    Ivory can fetch up to $1,000 a pound, the World Wildlife Fund said in a new report on poaching of elephants, rhinos and tigers.

    "The bloody ivory trade has reached new heights of destruction and depravity in 2012," echoed Will Travers, head of Born Free USA. 

    "No part of Africa is now safe," he added. "Across the continent, for the first time, the number of carcasses recorded as a result of poaching exceeds the number reportedly dying from natural causes." 

    The groups worry that the start of Africa's dry season will fuel a new round of poaching in the coming weeks. Since 1979, when Africa still had an estimated 1.3 million elephants, the population has declined to an estimated 450,000 in 2007, according to the group Save the Elephants.

    Some 150 armed Sudanese men were seen riding on camels and horses across the Central African Republic a few weeks ago and locals suspect they were looking for elephant herds, according to a report on nationalgeographic.com.

    Conservationists fear another massacre like the one in Cameroon earlier this year when some 600 elephants inside a national park — half the local population — were killed. 

    The tusks from that slaughter were never recovered, Bell noted. 

    A poaching resurgence has pushed up the price of ivory, resulting in more elephant carnage. But some of the baby elephants orphaned in the wake of such violence will survive -- thanks to the dedication of naturalist Daphne Sheldrick. NBC's Chelsea Clinton reports.

    "It is an indication of an illegal industry completely out of control that lawmakers still have no idea where the massive amounts of ivory poached in Cameroon have gone," he said.

    The groups urged the international community to fund a protection plan already endorsed by African nations with elephant populations.

    Bell said needed actions include "swift DNA identification of seized ivory, so that we know how and where to point our efforts to prevent further poaching and close down transit routes for smuggled ivory."

    Related: Religious groups rally to save elephants, rhinos

    China's status as an authorized ivory trading nation is also under fire from conservationists, who want it revoked until it can prove that the only ivory traded is from legally authorized stockpiles.

    Born Free, for its part, has started an online campaign at bloodyivory.org to build public pressure against China.

    As for the latest seizure, Malaysian officials did not make any arrests but are investigating a local trading company involved with the shipment. It could face fines and any individuals found guilty of knowingly trading in the tusks could get up to five years in prison, customs officials said.

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  • South Sudan's elephants could be gone in five years, group warns

    F Grossmann / Wildlife Conservation Society

    People believed to be wildlife poachers dry meat in the wild in southern Sudan in a photo taken on July 30, 2008.

    By Hereward Holland, Reuters

    JUBA, South Sudan -- The once-thriving elephant population of South Sudan could be wiped out in five years if rampant poaching is not brought under control, a wildlife protection group said on Tuesday. 

    After decades of civil war the African country, which became independent last year, has fewer than 5,000 elephants left, down from around 130,000 in 1986, according to the United States-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

    Driven by demand from China, the price of ivory has quadrupled in the last few years, Paul Elkan, South Sudan director at WCS, said.

    "Within the next five years the elephants in South Sudan could completely be gone with the current rates of poaching," Elkan told reporters.


    He said 2011 was the worst year on record for poaching worldwide, with 24 tons of ivory seized. 

    Black market trade in wildlife and wildlife products is worth an estimated $10 billion per year, according to the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking, a group of government and wildlife organizations.

    Elkan said the southern rebel army ate much of the country's wildlife during the 1983-2005 civil war against the Khartoum government in the north. Raiders from the north also massacred wildlife, particularly elephants, he said.

    South Sudan's zebras and rhinos may have already been wiped out, Elkan said, warning that the new nation's giraffes are also on the brink of extinction.

    South Sudan's infrastructure has been devastated by years of war and economic neglect, and conservationists are now worried new road construction will make poaching and trafficking easier.

    "Those elephants that survived the war are having a hard time surviving the peace," Elkan said.

    Gabriel Changson Chang, South Sudan's minister of wildlife conservation and tourism, said South Sudan has struggled to prosecute poachers and smugglers because it lacks the laws to try them.

    The government hopes to pass anti-poaching legislation in the middle of 2013 to help end the illegal trade, he said.

    "There must be a legal framework so that when they are apprehended, they are tried according to specific articles of that act," Chang told reporters.

    He said the government was reviewing a 30-year land lease agreed in 2008 with the United Arab Emirates-based Al Ain National Wildlife. The deal gave the Gulf company a hotel and wildlife concession in the pristine grasslands of the eastern Boma National Park.

    The minister said the company had built a 50-room lodge on the concession but had not yet opened it.

    "We need to know if they are still interested in operating that facility or not. If not it will be auctioned out to other interested investors."

    South Sudan wants to set up a safari tourism industry based around the migration of an estimated 800,000 white eared kob antelope -- one of the largest migrations in the world with numbers that potentially rival the migrations in Tanzania's Serengeti plains. 

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Tusks from hundreds of slain elephants found by Hong Kong in ship containers

    Dale De La Rey / AFP - Getty Images

    Ivory tusks seized during an anti-smuggling operation are displayed during a Hong Kong Customs press conference Saturday.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Hong Kong Customs announced Saturday that it had found 1,209 elephant tusks smuggled in two shipping containers from Kenya and Tanzania. Seven people were arrested in what customs said was the biggest such bust in Hong Kong history.

    The tusks, valued at $3.4 million, are used for making ivory ornaments. A single tusk can fetch thousands of dollars on the black market.

    Most large seizures of illicit ivory from Africa have originated from either Kenyan or Tanzanian ports.

    Large-scale seizures have gone up in recent years -- 13 in 2011, compared to 6 in 2010.

    A 1989 ban on the ivory trade helped elephant populations increase, but an analysis of data from 1979 to 2007 found that some of the 37 countries in Africa with elephants continued to lose substantial numbers of them.

    Related: Religious leaders organize to stop ivory trade

    About 450,000 elephants roam Africa today. In 1930, the number was estimated to be between 5 million to 10 million African elephants. 

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Christian, Muslim and Hindu religious leaders unite to help stop slaughter of elephants, rhinos


    Watch a National Geographic video on the connection between religions and ivory.
    By NBC News and wire services

    Religious leaders are the latest recruits in the war by conservationists against those slaughtering thousands of elephants and rhinos across Africa each year. The World Wildlife Fund on Friday announced a partnership with various religious groups — some of which are themselves fueling the crisis by allowing religious artifacts to be made from ivory.

    "Halting wildlife trade is a moral issue," Dekila Chungyalpa, WWF’s Sacred Earth program director, said in a statement announcing the partnership with the Alliance of Religions and Conservation.

    The partnership was sealed Thursday night inside Kenya's Nairobi National Park, where three dozen religious leaders from nine African countries gathered amid rhinos, zebras, buffalo and ostriches all within site of the skyline of Kenya's capital.

     Standing before a pile of charred elephant ivory as dusk covered the surrounding savannah, Christian, Muslim and Hindu religious leaders grasped hands and prayed. The remains were from a 1989 burn of confiscated ivory that Kenya set on fire to draw attention to the slaughter.  

    "We are the ones who are driving God's creatures to extinction," said Martin Palmer, secretary-general of the Britain-based alliance. "We are the ones who can change the way Africa works."

    Poachers are escalating their assault on Africa's elephants and rhinos, and conservationists warn that the animals cannot survive Asia's high-dollar demand for ivory tusks and rhino horn powder. Some wildlife agents, customs officials and government leaders are being paid off by what is viewed as a well-organized mafia moving animal parts from Africa to Asia, charge the conservationists. 

    Ben Curtis / AP

    Religious leaders of different faiths pray around a pile of charred elephant ivory at Kenya's Nairobi National Park on Thursday.

    Moreover, poachers can earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a rhino horn or elephant tusk. That money represents far more than they could earn after years of labor in the typical village job. 

    "Faith leaders are the heart and backbone of local communities," Chungyalpa noted. "They guide and direct the way we think, behave and live our lives," she said, adding later: "I think this is the missing piece in conservation strategies... WWF can yell us much as we want and no one will listen to us, but a religious leader can say 'This is not a part of our values. This is immoral.'"

    Ben Curtis / AP

    Elephants gather at dusk on March 25 to drink at a watering hole in Kenya's Tsavo East National Park.

    It's not known what kind of impact religious leaders may be able to make, but Mike Watson, the chief executive of Kenya's Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, said he and other conservationists will take any help they can get.

    National Geographic

    Lewa saw one of its rhinos killed by poachers last week. The park had never suffered a rhino poaching death before 2009; it's had five of its rhinos killed since then. 

    "We know for a fact that one of the demands for ivory is religious icons in the Far East, and if pressure can be brought to bear to reduce that demand both locally here in Kenya through assistance by religious leaders, and overseas, it can only be a good step," he said. "It might take generations. If religious leaders can some way speed that process up, all well and good, but all efforts need to be on the table." 

    The significance of religious icons was underscored by National Geographic magazine, which in its October issue traced how Catholics in the Philippines and Buddhists in Thailand make up part of the demand for ivory.

    Chungyalpa said WWF is working with Buddhists to try to educate Asian consumers about ivory and rhino horn powder. Yao Ming, the oversized basketball star from China, visited Kenya last month to raise awareness and make a film called "The End of the Wild," she noted.

    Brent Stirton / National Geographic

    A master ivory carver works on the head of a Madonna in his studio outside Manila, Philippines. He prefers carving wood but says that ivory has a special quality he finds irresistible — "much high prices."

    The poaching numbers are grim. The number of rhinos killed by poachers in South Africa has risen from 13 in 2007 to 448 last year, WWF says. Last year saw more large-scale ivory seizures than any year in the last two decades, it added. Tens of thousands of elephants are being killed by poachers each year.

    Chungyalpa compared the effort to enlist religious leaders in the anti-poaching fight to how religious pressure helped end the era of apartheid in South Africa.

    "There has to be a rising up of moral outrage," she said. "This is the spirit we're after." 

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Second orphaned elephant found in Chad after killings

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    A second orphaned elephant was rescued in Chad after poachers attacked a herd twice in the same week, SOS Elephants said Tuesday. 


    "The new orphan was rescued yesterday and reached our camp early this morning," SOS Elephants founder Stephanie Vergniault told NBC News. "He is fighting for his life now in our camp with the vet."

    The attacks happened on July 23, when 34 elephants were killed, and on July 27, when 5 carcasses were found.

    Two adult elephants were found alive after the July 27 killing. A female that had three calves with her was wounded and a team was trying to track her to eventually provide aid. 

    An orphan found earlier by SOS Elephants has since been adopted by a female from the herd and appears to be doing well.

    No arrests have been made, Vergniault said.

    The poachers have hacked off the trunks of the elephants in order to take their tusks and sell the ivory.

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