Adjust font size: June 07, 2012 Demand for Ivory Increases
Poaching by Cathy Majtenyi International Fund for Animal Welfare
report has linked the increasing number of elephants being
killed in Africa with the rising demand for ivory in China.
According to the report, in 2011 poachers gathered more than
5,200 elephant tusks, (23 tons) resulting in the deaths of more
than 2,500 elephants. It says the majority of that ivory went to
China. “The growing demand for ivory products in China is
actually driving elephant poaching across Africa," explained
Elizabeth Wamba, communications manager for the International
Fund for Animal Welfare in Eastern Africa. "It has just been too
high. It has escalated by, in some places, in hundreds of
percentages.” The report quotes an auction newsletter describing
the 2011 sale of more than 11,000 ivory pieces in mainland China
for a total of $95.4 million, an increase of 107 percent from
the previous year. The report says the price for ivory has
soared, but a strengthened Chinese c