© 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.

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.

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

Family of 12 elephants slain by poachers in Kenya

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

More than one rhino is being killed in South Africa by poachers each day -- with 2012 on target to be the worst year on record.

Some 159 rhinos have fallen victim to poachers since January, a death toll that looks set to surpass last year's grim figure of 449.  In 2007, only 13 were killed in the country.

Demand comes from parts of China and Vietnam, where new wealth has combined with an age-old myth that rhino horns can be used to cure cancer. 

Rhino horns are now worth an estimated $25,000 per pound, making their natural weapon worth more than gold.

Report: Poachers slaughter half of elephants in African park

Three rhinos were wounded in a single incident last month. Two died, but one -- named Thandi -- survived, though she remains seriously ill.

'Some glimmer of hope'
With little positive news from the frontline of the war with poachers, "Save Thandi" has become a rallying cry amongst those who care about the plight of the rhino in South Africa.

Bringing up baby ... elephants

"People are desperate to see something going right, some positive news, some glimmer of hope that we can actually do something that saves one," wildlife veternarian Dr William Fowlds said. "I think what has come through so strongly over the past month is how important every single animal is to us."

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IFAW / EPA

Celine Sissler-Bienvenue of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) examines a slain elephant in Cameroon.

At least half the elephants in Cameroon's Bouba N'Djida reserve were slaughtered because the west African nation sent too few security forces to tackle poachers, the World Wide Fund for Nature said on Thursday.

In what was described as one of the worst poaching massacres in decades, as many as 200 elephants have been killed for their tusks since January by poachers on horseback from Chad and Sudan, the fund said.

Rising demand in Asia for jewelry and ornaments made from elephant tusks is understood to be among the factors behind the spike in poaching.

"WWF is disturbed by reports that the poaching continues unabated," Natasha Kofoworola Quist, WWF's representative in the region, said in a statement.

It was the second major elephant-poaching report out of Africa this month. On March 5, the warden at Virunga National Park, a U.N. World Heritage Site in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said poaching had become so severe that rangers began using bloodhounds to track down poachers. The Virunga elephant population has fallen to fewer than 400 from an estimated 3,000 in the 1980s.

In Cameroon, about 20 fresh elephant carcasses were discovered last week, a WWF spokesperson said.

The government of the Central African state has sent special forces to track the poachers and end the killing spree in the north of the country, but the WWF said this may be too little, too late.

"The forces arrived too late to save most of the park's elephants and were too few to deter the poachers," Quist said. She said the organization regretted that a soldier was killed during a clash with the poachers.

Bing Maps

Bouba N'Djida reserve

Biologically diverse and protected only by unarmed rangers, Bouba N’djida is located near Cameroon’s porous northern border, where it presents a tempting target for poachers from Sudan and Chad, the magazine Nature reported. They typically cross into the park on horseback at the beginning of each dry season and return north before rains begin in April, using ivory profits to procure more weaponry.

Legalize ivory trade to save elephants, rhinos?

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, or IFAW, said the scale of this year’s killings was unprecedented.

IFAW said it was not clear how many elephants remained in Cameroon but a 2007 estimate put the figure at between 1,000 and 5,000.

Conservation groups have said the spike in poaching and illegal ivory trade in Africa was a direct consequence of China's investment drive into the continent and as the demand for ivory, used in jewelry and ornaments, grows in Asia.

In South Africa, rhinos are under assault by poachers, who killed more than 400 last year, NBC’s Rock Center reported.

More stories on this topic:
Rangers arrested for killing rhinos, selling horns
NBC's Rock Center reports on efforts to protect rhinos
Rhino dies during operation to protect it from poachers

This article includes reporting by Reuters.

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

JOHANNESBURG – Fueled by an Asian demand for ivory, poachers have slaughtered more than 200 elephants in the past five weeks in a patch of Africa where they are more dangerously endangered than anywhere else on Earth, wildlife activists say.

Heavily armed poachers from Chad and Sudan had decimated the elephant population of Bouba Ndjida National Park in Cameroon's far north in a dry season killing spree, officials say.

"We are talking about a very serious case of trans-frontier poaching, involving well-armed poachers with modern weapons from Sudan and Chad who are decimating this wildlife species to make quick money from the international ivory trade," said Gambo Haman, governor of Cameroon's North region.

Speaking on local radio, Haman said some of the poachers were on horseback and operated in cahoots with the local population, who were given free elephant meat and were glad to be rid of animals that damage their crops.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare said cross-border poaching was common during the dry season but the scale of the killings so far this year was unprecedented.  "This latest massacre is massive and has no comparison to those of the preceding years," the group said in a statement.

Embassies of the United States, the European Union, Britain and France had sounded alarm bells about the slaughter and had called on Cameroon's government to take urgent action to stop the killing.

Cameroon has dispatched a rapid reaction force to the zone but Haman said there were not enough troops to cover the remote park in Cameroon's far north.

Need for ivory
Citing a record number of large scale ivory seizures in 2011, TRAFFIC, a conservation group that tracks trends in wildlife trading, has warned of a surge in elephant poaching in Africa to meet Asian demand for tusks for use in jewelry and ornaments.

"The ivory is smuggled out of West and Central Africa for markets in Asia and Europe, and the money it raises funds arms purchases for use in regional conflicts, particularly ongoing unrest in Sudan and in the Central African Republic," said the animal fund's Paris-based spokeswoman Celine Sissler-Bienvenu.

Wildlife experts said recently that large seizures of elephant tusks made 2011 the worst on record for elephants since ivory sales were banned in 1989.

The fund said estimates suggested as many as 3,000 elephants were killed by poachers across the continent last year.

The organization warned that countries such as Chad could lose their entire elephant population in the very near future if current poaching levels are sustained.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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