Is this the dark side of China’s presence in Africa?
Last year over 100 tonnes of elephant tusks were sold exclusively to Chinese and Japanese buyers in a multi-million dollar auction held in Namibia. Photo: Mwangi Kabiru
The once long and bumpy road to Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya is now a smooth riding joy thanks to the teams of Chinese workers tarring a fresh road through the wilderness.
But conservationists fear that there is a dark side to this local intervention. Reports suggest that Chinese workers are buying ivory tusks hacked from the heads of illegally hunted elephants in a banned trade that could decimate herds already threatened by the years-long drought in Kenya.
One of the first to note the problem was the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, which published a report in early 2008 stating: “The situation for elephants in the [Amboseli] area has become critical over the past year and more particularly over the past four months.” The Trust has worked to conserve the elephants of the 150square mile reserve for over 37years.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) also warned that poaching is on the increase following the slaughter of five elephants in six weeks in the nearby Tsavo National Park at the start of 2008. (Related Story Sizing up China’s African Footprint)
The Amboseli report pointed the finger directly at the Chinese workers. “There are two Chinese road camps in the general area,” said the report, “We are told by our informants that they are buying ivory [and] bush meat”.
Patrick Omondi, head of species conservation at Kenya Wildlife Service, backs the claims. “There has been an upsurge in poaching and we associate this with the Chinese. We fear that the presence of Chinese in the country is causing an increase in ivory smuggling.”
Omondi reckons that Kenya lost 98 elephants to poaching in 2008, double the number killed in 2007, but he says the news from Amboseli is particularly worrying. “This is the first time in a decade that we’ve seen poaching in Amboseli,” he says.
Chinese officials have denied that its citizens fuel the illegal poaching in Kenya, but thousands of African elephants are killed every year to supply a market largely driven by demand from Asia. Last year over 100 tonnes of elephant tusks were sold exclusively to Chinese and Japanese buyers who fought to outbid each other in a multi-million dollar auction held in Namibia – the first legal ivory auction in nine years.
Some conservationists claim that the auction encouraged poaching. “Since the one-off ivory sales from Southern Africa countries late last year, we have noted an unprecedented rise of elephant poaching incidents in Tsavo,” reports Jonathan Kirui, assistant director at Tsavo.
In October, the anti-poaching and conservation group TRAFFIC issued an assessment of the illegal ivory trade, which it said was on the increase globally. “Kenya remains an important link on trade routes to international destinations for illicit consignments of ivory,” said the report. “Kenya’s percentage of the trade… is indicative of some degree of organised criminal activity in the country.”
The international ivory trade was banned in 1989, but in the decade before that Africa’s elephant population plummeted from 1.3-million to 600,000. In Kenya, the effect of the trade was even worse with 85 percent of the elephant population killed off in the 15 years before the ban came into force. While herds have recovered dramatically since then, ivory remains a highly prized Far East commodity used in medicines, ornaments and family seals.
Elephant ivory sold on Kenya’s black market fetches around Ksh3,000 a kilogramme, andthe tusks of a large male bull elephant can weigh over 50 kg each.
In late 2007 Interpol coordinated a sting operation on illegal wildlife traffickers that led to the seizure in Kenya of 113 separate pieces of ivory weighing a total of 358 kg. Of the 36 poachers and brokers arrested, three were Chinese and the rest were from Kenya or neighbouring countries.
As many as 44 elephants were wounded or killed by poisoned arrows, stabbed with spears or shot with rifles in Amboseli during 2008 and early 2009. Ten of these were discovered with their tusks hacked out. In one particularly brutal case, a young four-month old calf was found with dozens of spear wounds.
Many of the elephant deaths are attributed to conflict with people as farmlands encroach on the animals’ traditional habitat or animals roam into human areas and destroy desperately needed crops. The ongoing drought has intensified these clashes.
This problem has existed for many years, but the Trust says that what is happening now “is dramatically and alarmingly different”, pointing to the huge rise in elephant poaching activity.
In 2008, four Chinese nationals were arrested as they attempted to smuggle elephant tusks out of the country from Jomo Kenyatta International airport. In one case smugglers were caught with a haul of 110 kg of fresh elephant tusks.
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[...] But the presence of teams of Chinese workers is not always welcomed. Some complain that deals signed with Chinese companies include provisions that Chinese workers will be employed doing local Africans jobs, while unsettling stories are emerging of the role that China’s emigrant citizens play in damaging Kenya’s valuable wildlife stock. [See Separate Story | Is China Killing Africa's Wildlife?] [...]
[...] Is China Killing Africa’s wildlife? [...]