The tusks of 87 animals, which were counted during aerial surveys over the past few months in Botswana, had been chopped off — evidence of what conservationists are calling one of the biggest slaughters in recent years. Michael Chase, director of the charity Elephants Without Borders, which conducted the surveys, said he had never seen so many dead elephants in one go. After counting 48 during a single flight in August, Mr. Chase wrote in a report that the tally was “indicative of a poaching frenzy which has been ongoing in the same area for a long time.”
The numbers were expected to climb as the survey continues. But the results so far already signal a major escalation in elephant poaching, said Tom Milliken, a program manager at Traffic, a nonprofit organization that monitors wildlife smuggling. Botswana is home to the world’s largest elephant population, more than a third of all Africa’s elephants, according to the most recent
Great Elephant Census, which Mr. Chase helped produce. It is also one of the most stable countries in Africa with one of the best wildlife records. The slaughter shows that despite all the time, money and energy poured into anti-poaching operations in recent years, organized poaching gangs can still wipe out large herds with impunity.
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An elephant corpse in Botswana. Despite bans on legal sales, demand for ivory remains sufficiently high to sustain underground markets.
Botswana was until recently considered a haven for the animals, with militarized patrols in protected areas and a contentious shoot-to-kill policy intended to deter poachers. This tough stance on poaching had made Botswana “the darling of the conservation world,” said Annette Hübschle, a researcher at the Center of Criminology at the University of Cape Town.But the policies did not address the underlying drivers of the illegal ivory trade. “The fortress conservation paradigm, or separating local people from wildlife and conservation, creates pathways to illegal economies,” Ms. Hübschle said. “Rural communities are likely to support poachers and poaching economies because there are no benefits to these conservation areas for them.”
If local communities experienced no direct benefit from conservation areas, “they may not turn to poaching, but they won’t support policing either,” Ms. Hübschle said. “You need to reach out to communities for conservation to work.” Despite bans on legal sales, demand for ivory remains sufficiently high to sustain underground markets. In many African countries, the money on offer has continued drawing poachers. “Rather than shooting poachers to kill them, we should be focusing on who’s controlling the trade,” Ms. Hübschle said. “Follow the money and target the intermediaries, and the organizers behind them.”
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