Last year, poachers killed 22,000 African elephants. 2013 is shaping up to be a lot worse
By Gwynn Guilford
Good news is relative. It may seem positive that 3,000 fewer African elephants were illegally poached in 2012 than in 2011, according to a report by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international organization, and Traffic, a non-governmental group that tracks elephant populations. But that still adds up to a lot of illegally killed elephants and could wipe out one-fifth of Africa’s elephant population in a decade.
The report estimates that 22,000 illegally killed elephants were killed in 2012, at a poaching rate—the proportion of illegally killed elephants measured against total population—of 7.4%. That’s much higher than the natural African elephant population increase, which doesn’t exceed 5% a year.
The estimated seizures of illegal ivory shipments, which trade experts consider to be a good proxy for poaching trends, improved slightly in 2012 from the previous year. But 2013 is shaping up to be 20% higher than 2011, says Tom Milliken, Traffic’s ivory trade expert. This year has also seen the largest quantity of ivory confiscated in large-scale ivory seizures in 25 years. It’s unclear whether this is due to stepped-up law enforcement or simply an uptick in the trade, but CITES and Traffic note that such large-scale shipments typically suggest the involvement of organized crime.
The decrease in 2012 may have to do with the growing size of tusk shipments; while the number of tusk shipments fell 30% in 2012, the average weight of large consignments rose 15% compared with 2011 data.
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http://qz.com/152967/last-year-poachers-killed-22000-african-elephants-2013-is-shaping-up-to-be-a-lot-worse/
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Supply and demand. Profit motive. Bankers and financial "wizards" of all stripes are kindred spirits with the "hunters" who are slaughtering the elephants. 
