Elephant poaching is rising in Kenya due to demand from an influx of Chinese workers in Africa and a one-off sale of ivory, a Kenyan conservationist said.

 More than 100 of Kenya's 38,000 elephants were killed for their tusks in the first six months of 2009 compared to 98 in all of 2008 and 45 in 2007, said Paula Kahumbu, director of Wildlife Direct, a Kenya-based non-government organisation.

Southern African countries successfully lobbied for a lifting of a ban on ivory sales allow a one-off sale of stocks last November. This had sent the wrong message, Kahumba said.

The bulk of the demand is in Asia, especially in China. Chinese nationals working on projects in Africa were placing orders for tusks with poachers, she said.

"We've seen a huge increase in the amount of poaching. We believe it is primarily due to the fact that the ivory sale last November has actually stimulated the markets," she said.

"There's a massive influx of people, who are not very wealthy, who can afford to buy ivory at local prices and who make a lot of money out of it when they get it back to China."

East Africa is still recovering from extensive poaching in the 1960s and 1970s before the global ban. In 1989, poaching had reduced populations to about 17,000 elephants.

Kenya's elephant population has been recovering by between 4-5 percent annually and the stock is not in danger of decimation. But the rate of the new spate of killings is worrying and reminiscent of the bad old days, Kahumbu said.

Locals have received orders from Chinese people working on a road in northern Kenya, she said.
"I've been told up to 90 percent of seizures of ivory in this country are currently (from) Chinese nationals. To me, it's very clear that there's a link."

Rich middle-class buyers
A burgeoning middle class that can afford luxuries like ivory in China and Asia is driving the demand. In Vietnam, for example, ivory sells at $1,800 per kg, she said.

In Ethiopia, ivory trinkets are openly sold to foreigners in shops and in Sudan, no one bothers to hide poached tusks.

Container loads of ivory pass through countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, she said.
"It (should) not be easy to move a container load of ivory from a country to another when there are such strict regulations. It means there is facilitation going on," she said.

A few African countries such as South Africa, Botswana and Namibia are able to protect their herds but the rest of the countries on the continent do not have the resources to do so.

Congo's herds have been whittled down to about 20,000 from 100,000 several years back and the animals are now extinct in a few west and central African countries, she said.

Zimbabwe is probably the country with the worst problem with thousands of elephants slaughtered there, Kahumbu said.

"We've seen this reopening of the ivory trade and I think positions are softening, governments are less strict about enforcing the law," she said.

Source: Reuters