Watch Out

When that slaughter ended in 1989 with a worldwide ban on the trade in ivory, Kenya’s elephant population had been reduced from several hundred thousand to a mere 18,000. Across Africa, the elephant population was halved from 1.3 million to about 600,000.

Now poaching is back and many wildlife experts blame its increase on speculation that controls on the trade in ivory could soon be liberalised.

More than 20 African governments support easing the ban to sell up to 87 tonnes of their ivory stocks. The issue will be reviewed next week by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Kenyan officials say that 81 elephants have been poached so far this year, compared to 57 for the whole of last year, which was itself double that of the previous year.

More than one third of all Kenya’s current elephant population of about 30,000 roam the plains of Tsavo East game reserve in the northeast of the country, a remote and traditionally wild area.

Mr Woodley and his aides first noticed an increase about 18 months ago. “We had had several years of virtually no poaching at all, and then it started to hit us again,” he said. “There is clearly a market for ivory.”

About 30 elephants are known to have been poached in Tsavo this year, but the remains of others in such a vast area may still not be found.

Officials say that, while the increase in poaching may not be due to the Cites review, it shows that there is already a demand for ivory. If the trade in ivory returns, they say, prices could rise and lead directly to more poaching, which non-southern African states are not nearly as well placed to combat.

“The crucial question to ask is: if we have sales again, will demand go up and therefore the price?” Esmond Martin, a world expert in the ivory trade, said. “If the price goes up, then we will have an increase in poaching. It is as simple as that. Elephants are only killed for economic reasons.”

Mr Martin said that the current price for African ivory, most of which is now smuggled to illegal carving houses in China, was about $45 (£28.50) per kilo. Poachers got between $7 and $12.

The former director of the wildlife service, Richard Leakey, the son of the palaeontologist Louis Leakey, and the man who led the fight against the ivory trade, said: “Today we face a critical moment in the battle to save the elephant. This is no time to reintroduce the trade.”

Plea to lift ban

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