Svært bevæbnede krybskytters jagt på Afrikas sidste elefanter og næsehorn er nu så alarmerende, at Kenyas vildtforvaltning uofficielt har givet sine rangers lov til at skyde for at dræbe – kinesiske elfenbensopkøbere over alt.
Wildlife rangers have shot dead five suspected ivory poachers during a gun battle in western Kenya, BBC online reports Saturday.
Two rangers were hurt during the battle in West Pokot county, said officials from Kenya’s Wildlife Service (KWS).
They said 50 kg of elephant tusks (stødtænder) and AK-47 rifles were recovered.
Kenya has recently taken a more aggressive stance against poaching as it combats a surge in demand for ivory from Asia, despite a long-standing ban on the international trade.
KWS spokesman Paul Udoto said on Saturday that rangers were determined to make poaching “a high-cost, low-benefit activity”.
The KWS says about 100 elephants are killed each year in Kenya by poachers. Ivory from elephants is often smuggled to Asia for use in ornaments, while rhino horns are used in traditional medicine.
Værre end nogensinde
Despite a 23-year ban on international trade in ivory, elephants continue to be shot for their prized tusks, with much of the material ending up on sale in China.
The very future of the African elephant, the largest land animal on Earth, could be at risk, and last year saw the highest number of large seizures of illegal ivory for more than two decades, BBC notes.
From Kenya to Zambia, African law-enforcement and conservation authorities are facing a continuing battle with the poachers.
In the DR Congo, where governance is at its weakest, the elephant population is being hit hardest, with thousands of elephants killed each year.
Conservationists have recorded steep declines in population and fear fewer than 20.000 of the region’s forest elephants remain in the Congo basin.
In Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo, poached ivory is openly on sale at large, unregulated markets.
Poached ivory from Congo or other countries is often shipped out via Kenya. Despite policing efforts, nearly 85 per cent of ivory seized from around the world that could be traced had come from or passed through East Africa, much of it via the international airport at Nairobi.
“Ninety per cent of all the people we have arrested at the airports ferrying ivory are Chinese,” said Julius Kipng’etich, director of the Kenya Wildlife Service.
