Poaching On The Rise In Kenya

Poachers in northeastern Kenya have killed at least 15 elephants since September, and police and rangers have killed at least six of the gunmen, the Kenya Wildlife Service said Wednesday.

In a statement, KWS said anti-poaching forces have arrested 10 poachers suspected of killing elephants for their ivory and have seized eight firearms in the last two weeks.

"Despite the intensification of anti-poaching activities, which include surveillance, the poachers have continued to search for ivory," the statement said.

Three tusks were also seized in the town of Garissa, and two ivory dealers arrested in a separate incident in the last two weeks, the agency said.

KWS blamed the increased poaching on the relaxation of a 10-year-old international ban on all trade in ivory and other elephant products. Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia have been permitted one-time limited sales of the products.

The statement said Kenya's elephant herds have not fully recovered from the horrors of massacres in the 1980s, and many small populations could be wiped out completely if this pressure returns.

Kenya and other seven African countries maintain that the reopening of ivory trade was premature because conditions to protect elephants have not been met.

Kenya has already submitted a proposal to return the elephant to the most protected status at an April 16-20 conference in Nairobi of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Britain's Environmental Investigation said Jan. 16 that between April and December, 1999, their information showed customs officers seized at least seven illegal shipments of ivory including 1.8 tons of African ivory at Dubai airport, 221 pairs of elephant tusks shipped to southern China and about a half ton of ivory seized from a North Korean diplomat at Nairobi's international airport.

EIA chairman Allan Thornton called lifting the 1989 ban on ivory trading "the biggest conservation blunder of the 1990s."