6 March 2013: The Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP16) has released a report titled “Elephants in the Dust – The African Elephant Crisis,” which highlights that populations of elephants in Africa continue to be under severe threat as the illegal trade in ivory grows.

The report, produced by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), CITES, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and TRAFFIC, documents how loss of habitat and illegal trade are threatening the survival of African elephant populations in Central Africa, as well as previously secure populations in West, Southern and Eastern Africa.

The report highlights that at sites monitored through the CITES-led Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) programme alone, an estimated 17,000 elephants were illegally killed in 2011. In addition to poaching, African elephants continue to be threatened by increased habitat loss and large-scale land conversion for agriculture.

Key findings of the report include: large-scale seizures of ivory going to Asia have more than doubled since 2009 and reached an all-time high in 2011; the involvement of organized criminal networks; illegal ivory trade activity has more than doubled since 2007, and is now over three times larger than it was in 1998; and unregulated domestic ivory markets in many African cities, together with a growing number of Asian nationals residing in Africa, facilitates the illegal trade in ivory out of Africa.

The report includes information from the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) African Elephant Specialist Group, MIKE and the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), managed by TRAFFIC on behalf of CITES. [Publication: Elephants in the Dust – The African Elephant Crisis] [CITES Press Release] [UN Press Release]