For decades nations have worked to curb international sales of endangered plants and animals. But in countries like China, with high demand and speculative investors, that strategy fuels bidding wars.
African elephant in Kruger national park, South Africa.
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In large ecosystems, managing elephant populations so they don't exceed a certain threshold number is arbitrary.
Mammoths went extinct tens of thousands of years ago, but trade in their ivory is threatening their living elephant cousins.
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Amid a growing human population, African elephants are confined to an increasingly managed existence. Do we want more for one of the world's most loved species?
Botswana has about 122,000 elephants left.
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The destruction of a massive haul of illegal ivory was supposed to send a message to poachers and those who trade in the tusks. Did they notice, or can the ivory be used to help elephant conservation?
Police officers mark and register bundles of seized python skins in Linyi, Shandong province, China.
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The idea that terror groups like Boko Haram fund their activities through ivory poaching in Africa is a compelling narrative. But it’s undermining wildlife conservation and human rights.
Zimbabwe are looking to resolve a debt to China by selling animals to them. But one of the concerns is that the elephants sold will eventually be farmed and their ivory harvested.
The 27-year old ban on international ivory trade has clearly failed to deliver a sustained solution to the poaching crisis.
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Ivory was a major talking point at the CITES CoP17 conference.Many feel the ban on trade doesn't work while others believe the ban is the only way to save the iconic species.
Markets and militarisation as responses to wildlife threats are dangerous because they often fail.
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