Elephant slaughter rises in Kenya

Poachers have massacred a herd of 15 elephants in the Samburu reserve in Kenya, just a few weeks after a family of 10 were slaughtered in the country's vast Tsavo East National Park.

The leader of one of the two gangs behind the first attack was tracked down, but was killed in a gunfight, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Wardens tracking the gang recovered AK-47s and rifle-propelled grenades, as well as some of the hidden ivory.

Joe Kioko, director of the KWS, says poaching in Kenya has increased over the past 12 months. Kioko believes poachers are stepping up their attacks, in advance of a crucial meeting on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in November. Countries led by South Africa and Zimbabwe are expected to push for the convention to be changed, to allow trading in existing stockpiles of ivory.

But wildlife experts say it would be difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal ivory. "And whenever there has been a legal trade in ivory, there has always been a heightened illegal trade surrounding it," says Will Travers, director of the UK-based Born Free Foundation.

"Very, very stretched"

The KWS says that in the past, they have seen increases in poaching prior to CITES conferences, on the basis of speculation that trade rules will be relaxed.

"That could well be part of the issue this time," says Travers. "But the other side of it is that, certainly towards the end of 2001, the Kenyan tourist trade and the economy as a whole has suffered - and the resources available for KWS to be out in the field have been reduced. They're very, very stretched, and it doesn't take long for that kind of information to get around the poaching community."

Poachers are also targeting other protected animals, including rhinoceroses in the Tsavo East National Park.

The recent killings do not pose an immediate threat to Kenya's population of about 30,000 elephants. "But the situation could easily deteriorate further into a catastrophe," says Travers. "And we are also concerned about other countries we don't hear much about. DR Congo, the Central African Republic and southern Sudan used to have huge numbers of elephants but in all likelihood many of those have already been killed."

The available information on elephant numbers in Africa suggests that the slowing of the decline once seen has reversed in the past three years, says Travers: "We could be down to around 400,000 - around 30 per cent of the elephants that existed 20 years ago. By any standard that is a catastrophe."

It is impossible to predict how the CITES vote on stockpile trading will go, he adds: "But I'm convinced there will be quite a lot of pressure for a change, and that would have serious and long-term damaging effect on numerous elephant populations."

4. UK illegal wildlife trade "booming"

Poach a pheasant in Britain and you will be arrested. Try to sell a tiger skin or rhino horn and you will not. That, environmentalists claim today, is one reason why Britain's trade in endangered species and their parts is booming.

"Once criminals get past Customs, selling some of the world's most endangered species is not even an arrestable offence in British law. Wildlife criminals see Britain as a soft touch," says Stuart Chapman, of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

The trade is growing fast, he believes. Today, the WWF publishes what is says is the first detailed analysis of Customs seizures of wildlife in Britain. "One million illegal wildlife items have been seized in the past five years," says Chapman.

Even at the border, sanctions are minimal: the average fine levied per seized item between 1996 and 2000 was just nine pence. Items regularly confiscated include orchids, coral, sea horses and butterflies, as well as parts of large mammals.

But Britain is only one market for an international illegal trade in wildlife estimated by TRAFFIC, a body that analyses wildlife trade, at £5 billion a year. It is second only to the narcotics trade.

Increased penalties

TRAFFIC says some 500 million animals and plants are traded across borders each year, a quarter of them illegally. That suggests that British Customs seizures are a small element, much less than 1 per cent of the global trade.

But seizures are just the tip of the iceberg of British trade. A recent TRAFFIC survey of Chinese medicine shops in Britain found almost two-thirds sold products containing protected animal or plant species, from bear gall and musk from deer to plant roots.

The WWF study is published in support of a bill brought before the UK parliament by Conservative MP David Amess last month to increase the penalties for domestic trade in endangered species. Amess wants to raise the maximum penalty from two to five years, which would also make it an arrestable offence. MPs will vote on the bill in April.

The report, Traded towards extinction also highlights Britain's role in the legal trade in wildlife. Nine out of ten parrots imported for the pet trade come from the wild, it says. Other products ranging from ornamental ferns to caviar are also in danger through over-exploitation to supply an international trade in which Britain takes a large share.