Live From the Congo: Will A ‘Notoriously Violent’ Poacher and Rapist Hamper Elephant Ivory Project’s Efforts to Stop Poaching?

It’s been a fortunate few days. We arrived in Kinshasa on Monday, exhausted from 36 hours of transit, and found the Congo just as hot as we left it two years ago. On Tuesday morning, we met with Dr. Teresa Hart, a 30-year veteran of conservation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Teresa first came to the country as a Peace Corp volunteer in 1974. She’s now in her tenth year studying bonobos, an ape found only in the DRC, in a 25,000-square mile block of forest known as TL2. The region is an elephant sanctuary on paper, but animals are disappearing there faster than ever.

“Research here leads to advocacy because it’s all being destroyed,” says Hart.

Chad Central Africa over 2000 Elephants Dead

Since 2006, 2,000 savanna elephants have been killed in and around Chad’s Zakouma National Park. Ivory poachers using automatic weapons have decimated elephant populations there — particularly when herds venture seasonally outside of the park.

Poached Elephant carcass

Dr. Mike Fay is an ecologist and conservationist that discusses his experiences on the ground in the Zakouma National Park.  He explains how in the 1980’s Arab horsemen would ride up behind elephants killing as many as they could by cutting the tendons in their legs so that they could not get up and they would just die off exposure.  Then they would take the tusks and leave the meat to rot.

To read more about the slaughter of savanna elephants click here

Rhino horn worth more than gold

POACHERS see this rhino as their way to get rich quick – for its horn is now worth more than gold for the first time in a decade.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2740235/Rhino-horn-worth-more-than-gold.html#ixzz0XzrHvFM9

What is the Bushmeat Trade?

The bushmeat trade is the illegal, over-hunting of wildlife for meat and income.

Already in West and Central Africa this trade has resulted in declines and local extinctions of many wildlife species and the economic, cultural and ecosystem services they provide. In addition, a number of human health threats have emerged from the trade in bushmeat including linkages to  HIV/AIDS, ebola and the threat of anthrax.

Bushmeat trade is not regulated or managed by any authority. Economic benefits from the trade go mainly to hunters and traders. If current trends continue, future generations of citizens in Africa will not have the opportunity to access benefits from wildlife. Using wildlife to meet protein and income demands cannot be supported in the long term.

The immediate threat of loss of economic opportunity, cultural and ecological services, and other values to a wider community must be addressed today.

(Taken From: www. bushmeatnetwork.org)

Here are some images from the Bushmeat Trade for you to get an idea of what we are talking about:

Smoked Gorilla Meat

Poachers kill 65 elephants, 30 rhinos in Zimbabwe

Due to recent shift on the African political landscape,  International crime syndicates take advantage of the situation and are threatening the survival of rare African wildlife species. A recent press release by AFP confirms this report.

Some images from gruesome aftermath: