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In an article titled “Another inconvenient truth” (a convenient title I must admit), Elizabeth Bennet states that “A continuing global failure to crack down on a booming trade in body parts from endangered animals could soon cause some species – including rhinos and tigers — to “wink out” of existence. We have been saying in WildlifeDirect that elephants and rhino’s are particularly vulnerable.

But a couple of recent developments, including a recent United Nations decision to make combating wildlife crime a core concern, and a “potentially powerful” new International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) – could spur needed action.

Bennet says that wildlife criminals are getting away with murder, and she’s right. Stories of illegal traders getting light penalties for killing, transpoting, tradeing and buying illegal species abound including hollywood suppliers , US businesses, veterinarians in South Africa, and even government officials.

Now governments are saying that they are going to get serious about this and bring an end to the illegal trade and threats to endangered species through, wait for it, yes, MORE ENFORCEMENT. Is a new International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) really what we need now that species are on the brink of extinction?

well, I disagree! I just witnessed the burning of 5 tons of contraband ivory from Zambia and Malawi in Kenya that was seized in Singapore in 2002. The scary thing was that this ivory came from government stockpiles that had been raided! Secondly, it was headed for China and Japan, both countries are authorized by CITES to trade in ivory because they can “control the illegal trade”. This was the 19th shipment from southern Africa. The solution demands that Africa invests in high tech enforcement to save species that are in demand in China and Japan. It is garbage that the revenues raised from legal sales through CITES ‘help’ to conserve these charismatic species. In fact, the legal trade triggers demand and leads to unmanageable illegal trade. With China’s growing status in Africa, we know that regardless of penalties in Africa, Chinese nationals are getting off scot free. The solution is not greater enforcement – that is just driving up an arms race that African countries simply can’t win. So long as there is a demand for trade in those countries elephants and rhino’s will continue to die. The solution is to destroy the trade, remove China and Japan as trading partners for ivory, destroy the supply, and kill the demand by changing cultures in China and Japan. We all know that these two countries can do it but they simply don’t have the will.

I was interviewed on national television after last weeks ivory burn when local journalists began to ask the question – why was no Kenyan ivory burned on the 22nd of July along with the contraband Zambian and Malawian ivory?

This piece aired on Saturday and it obviously raised some ugly discussions – I had to explain my statements (don’t ask to whom but know it’s someone big?). I stand by my statement that legal ivory trade has triggered illegal ivory trade and killing of elephants leading. The trading status of China and Japan should be revoked, and Kenya should have burned at least 5 tons of ivory along with the Zambian/Malawian stocks.

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YouTube DirektIVory burned in Kenya

I asked the KWS Director why not a gram of Kenyan ivory was burned he said that the Kenyan Government recognizes the Kenyan stockpile as an asset and the process of destroying is rather bureaucratic. Mr Kipngetich said he does not see it being destroyed within the next 18 months. What a lost opportunity for us. A massive shame on all of us for failing to use the opportunity to make a much more dramatic statement.

PS. The day after the ivory was burned, KWS pilot Lelesit lost his life after conducting a patrol – his plane crash landed and he died on the spot. I met him in Galana when we rescued a shot elephant Akili a few weeks ago.  Lelesit was one of Kenya’s top conservation pilots and his death is a massive loss to conservation. We send our  heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

Dear friends

Yesterday, together with most of Africa’s top elephant conservationists, I witnessed the burning of 5 tons of ivory at the Kenya Wildlife Service training center in Manyani, which is located in one of Kenya’s greatest National Parks, Tsavo West Kenya.

(I recorded video, photographs and podcasts of the event which WildlifeDirect is willing to sell to raise funds  for conservation. Please leave a comment on this post if you are interested in supporting us by buying your own copy of the event to support WildlifeDirect and elephant conservation)

This is the strongest conservation statement that has come out of Africa in a very long time – the destruction of ivory worth about 15 million dollars.

This is the second time that Kenya has burned ivory to send a powerful message about how the ivory trade is killing Africa’s elephants. Although the Kenyan President, Mwai Kibaki lit this funeral pyre of over 200 elephants, this time it wasn’t Kenya’s ivory. The elephants that had been slaughted for this ivory came from Malawi and Zambia, thousands of kilometers south of Kenya.

The ivory burned was part of a shipment seized in Singapore in 2002 following an investigation spearheaded by the Lusaka Agreement Task Force and the Environmental Investigation Agency. Susan Rice of the EIA told me that it was the 19^th shipment of ivory from Zambia that was seized in an operation that revealed a complex web of players including poachers, government agents, and traders.

This massive illegal trade in ivory, was linked to China and Japan that had been authorized by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered species, CITES.

Ambassadors of both countries were visibly absent at the ceremonial ivory burn.

Conservationists have been warning that the massive demand for ivory in China cannot be satisfied by Africa’s  elephants and as a result, ivory prices have been increasing, triggering a surge in poaching across Africa.

Wildlife enforcement authorities in Africa are struggling to defend elephants against this renewed threat. And the unwillingness of African Governments to prosecute Chinese nationals involved in illegal ivory trade makes it near impossible to stop them.

The effect is devastating for elephant and it is particularly evident than in Samburu in northern Kenya where so many elephants have been killed in recent months that adult males are noticeably abswent, and some elephant families no longer have matriarchs – the oldest female leaders who maintain order in elephant society.

Saving Africa’s elephants requires not only bold statements and commitments by African leaders.  We need action and we need it now. Everyone can agree that African elephants will continue to be at risk of extinction unless the trade in ivory is stopped. This can be achieved if the demand for ivory is destroyed.

Only 5 tons of ivory were burned today – it represents a tiny fraction of Africa’s stockpiled ivory. Kenya alone has 60 tons of ivory held in vaults in Nairobi and in the field. Valued at between 500 and 2000 dollars per kilogram, the cost of protecting this ivory is immense. But it’s mere presence creates a threat that it will be raided by outsiders or even insiders. The maintenance of the Kenyan stockpile sends a confusing message to the world that while Kenya is ready to burn Malawian and Zambian ivory, she is holding onto her own stockpile – could this be for future sales perhaps?

While congratulating the countries of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force for burning this ivory, conservationists identified  three additional actions that would secure the future of elephants in Africa

1. To appeal to the CITES convention to remove China and Japan’s status as a approved ivory trading partners
2. To destroy all of Africa’s ivory stockpiles
3. To strengthen enforcement by enacting and enforce laws with significant penalties  against poachers, traders and buyers of ivory  regardless of their nationality

In 2 days time, on the 2oth of July, Kenya will burn 5 tons of ivory, not her own stockpile but part of a shipment that was sized in Singapore in 2002. The tusks originated from Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia.

Bonaventure Ebayi, the director of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force, said the burning of the ivory follows an agreement reached by the three countries in May in Nairobi. This will be the second burning of ivory in Kenya. In 1989 torched 12 tons of ivory in a statement that led to the ban on international trade in ivory. Elephant populations across Africa began to recover soon after international markets were closed. But conservationists now warn that recent  experimental sales form four Southern African  countries to China and Japan, have re-ignited the demand for ivory leading to a renewed spate of poaching.

Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants reported that the latest loss was that of Khadija, a radio collard elephant matriarch that was killed on the 12th of July in Samburu District northern Kenya. He warns that  the Samburu population of elephants is now experiencing the highest rate of poaching in the last 10 years.

RIP Khadija, last of the Swahili Ladies (Samburu Elephant family)

Male elephants with the largest tusks are targeted in favour of females leasing to a skewed sex ratio of 70% males. Read the full press release here.

In a recent article in Vanity Fair on the crisis facing African elephants, Alex Shoumatoff predicts that the poaching of elephants is partly related to the the growing presence of Chinese expatriates who get preferential treatment in Kenya and across Africa. Without hard evidence to back this up it’s hard for governments to challenge China. But we can all agree to one thing – that the demand for ivory must be reduced in order to halt the escalating ivory prices which is driving the killings across Africa.

I will be there to witness the burn of ivory and on behalf of WildlifeDirect I will be urging the Kenyan Government to burn the remaining 60 tons of ivory in the countries stockpile.

Paula Kahumbu

The Lusaka Task Force is Africa’s interpol on illegal wildlife Trade. It is charged with implementing the 1992 Lusaka Agreement designed to help African law enforcement.

Save the Elephants headed by Ian Douglas-Hamilton is the  leading conservation organization studying and protecting elephants in northern Kenya

WildlifeDirect Executive Director Dr. Paula Kahumbu has for the second time this year won a National Geographic award after being declared the winner of the prestigious National Geographic Society/Buffet Award for Leadership in African Conservation. Moi Enomenga, a community leader of the Huaorani people from the Ecuadorian Amazon, who is working to preserve his cultural heritage and the forests where his people live, is the winner of the award for South America. Previously, in May 2011, Dr. Kahumbu was named – together with 13 other trailblazers – as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer for 2011.

Kahumbu and Enomenga have been recognized for their “outstanding leadership and the vital role they play in managing and protecting the natural resources in their regions. They are inspirational conservation advocates who serve as role models and mentors in their communities,” said Peter Raven, chairman of the Conservation Trust, the body that screens the submitted nominations.

Kahumbu’s award is in recognition of her work at WildlifeDirect. As the Executive Director of WildlifeDirect, she uses the power of the Internet to spotlight key conservation issues and raise awareness and donations for projects saving wildlife and wild places. Thanks to her efforts, about 120 conservation projects have an online platform to share challenges and victories via blogs, videos, photos and podcasts, saving species from ants to lions. By celebrating the work of conservation heroes, Kahumbu has turned WildlifeDirect into a tool to advocate for and share home-grown conservation solutions to such challenges as ivory and rhino horn poaching, roads through parks, climate change and wildlife conflict in areas that neighbor parks.

The National Geographic/Buffet Award for conservation leadership in Africa is given to one African conservation leader every year by Howard Buffet the president of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which focuses on humanitarian and conservation issues. The award is the greatest accolade that Kahumbu has ever received for her work. She will be presented with the award and a cash prize of USD 25,000 on the 21st of June at a ceremony at the National Geographic Society.

Read the press release announcing the two winners at the National Geographic website

Who is Paula Kahumbu?

Coached and mentored by legendary Kenyan conservationist Dr. Richard Leakey, who remains one of her closest allies and supporters, Nairobi, Kenya-born Kahumbu has had an illustrious career more than spanning two decades. Her entry into conservation work was marked by one of the most memorable event in the history of elephant conservation when she was assigned the task of weighing Kenya’s ivory stockpile prior to the 1989 ivory burning ceremony – a powerful international statement that Kenya would not tolerate the effect of the trade in ivory on her elephants. She would later deliver passionate and forceful speeches at two consecutive conferences of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) as head of the Kenya delegation – while working for the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) – to the convention.

Kahumbu’s achievements are numerous. While conducting her PhD research on elephants in Shimba Hills at the Kenya coast, Shestarted the Colobus Trust – a volunteer organization that conserves the black and white colobus and other primates in the resort beachfront of Diani – and introduced the colbus bridges or “colobridges” to help the monkeys cross the busy Diani highway. All the while, she was singlehandedly raising her 2 year old son Joshua – now a grown man serving in the US Navy.

After attaining her doctorate from the prestigious Princeton University, Kahumbu would briefly return to KWS before joining Bamburi Cement where she launched the environmental subsidiary, Lafarge Eco Systems. She published the best selling childrens book, Owen and Mzee (Scholastic Press), the story of the giant tortoise that adopted a baby hippo orphaned by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. The book sold more than 1 million copies and is translated into 27 languages.

Kahumbu joined WildlifeDirect in 2007 and spearheaded its growth into Africa’s largest wildlife conservation blogging platform. With a keen eye, she noticed reports of poisoning of wildlife in several blogs. The poison used in all cases was Furadan, an American made pesticide formulation of the lethal chemical carbofuran. She documented the massive nationwide misuse of Furadan for killing lions, other predators, scavengers and wetland birds and the catastrophic decline of Kenya’s lion and vulture populations that this caused. KWS estimate a population of fewer than 2000 lions and the vulture population is said to have declined by between 50% and 80% due to poisoning. Kahumbu led a campaign against Furadan resulting in the manufacturer, FMC Corporation of Philadelphia, withdrawing the product from East African market but it still is in use and birds and fish are still being poisoned. Kahumbu still campaigns for a total ban and revocation of licenses for the deadly poison.

Kahumbu is known for her passion and recently, she has taken up the task of ensuring that development in the outskirts of Nairobi City do not compromise the wellbeing of the wildlife of Nairobi National Park, the city’s ‘green’ jewel. Convinced that the park is integral to the value of the city for instance, she has persuaded many organizations including KWS, ILRI, the community, AWF, the Wildlife Foundation, ACC, the Friends of Nairobi National Park, the Kenya Land Conservation Trust, WildlifeDirect, private land owners and many others to conduct an ecosystem wide wildlife census that will help guide the decisions taken by the ministry of transport regarding the controversial Greater Southern Bypass. She chairs the board of the volunteer organization, Friends of Nairobi National Park, whose sole mission is to preserve the beautiful and unique park.

Kahumbu’s education and passion for championing the environment cause has greatly influenced others to take up the mantle. William Kimosop, who recently opened a hiking trail across Kenya’s Great Rift Valley to conserve the Greater Kudu and connect communities through ecotourism, and Anthony Kasanga who saves lions in the Mbirikani area near Tsavo National Park – and who recently returned from Oxford University with a diploma in wildlife management after being spotted by the prestigious school on the WildlifeDirect blogs – are just a couple of the many she has inspired.

Kahumbu recently launched a partnership with Screaming Reels Production where she presents the documentary series, Wildlife Sentinels, reporting on news from the conservation frontline and bringing to light the ivory trade, poaching, human wildlife conflict and other real life wildlife stories.

“All Kenyans should be thrilled that Paula has been recognized for her achievements through the National Geographic/Howard Buffet Award. She is the country’s most passionate advocate for wildlife conservation and has made enormous personal sacrifices to protect it. Her efforts to have the pesticide carbofuran (sold locally as Furadan) banned have so far not been received well by the relevant ministries in Kenya, but this award will boost interest locally and internationally and I urge the government of Kenya to fully support Kahumbu’s initiatives to save Kenya’s unique wildlife heritage” said Richard Leakey, proud of the talent he has helped nurture.

Dear Friends

Here is the edited video of the elephant that was shot in Galana last week.

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For more details on the written story go here.

The making of this video was a work of art that involved several different cameras and people. We thank everyone involved that enabled us to tell the story live as it occurred, and enabled us to have a successful outcome; the KWS rangers and veterinarian Jeremiah Poghon, Richard Moller, Shadrack and his team at Galana Ranch, Shadrack and the ADC Ranch staff, Nathalie Gomes, Helen Gibbons, Simon Thomsett, Byba, Kimberley Smith, Sandy Simpson and all the others who helped save Atiki’s life.

Dear Friends,

The ivory trade is once again threatening Kenya’s elephant herds. This video has some shocking images, but a happy ending.

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After seeing the ivory seized in Nairobi Airport, several people have been asking where the ivory is coming from. Afterall, there is no poaching epidemic is there?

Well, on Friday night during a visit to the newly established Galana Conservancy, we heard that six gunshots had been heard a few days earlier, and that there was an injured elephant somewhere in the area. On Saturday we went out to look for him, and found him at 8 am. A large 35 – 40 year old bull elephant with impressive ivory, but a shortened trunk. He clearly  had suffered from an old snare injury that had cut the end of his trunk off. He was standing hunched over, in extreme pain. We could see a weeping wound on his side that seemed  entirely consistent with gun shot wound.  We could see the entry and exit wound of the bullet.

As we watched him he leaned on bushes and sat on an ant hill, he seemed to be suffering so much that he hardly noticed our presence.  He wasn’t eating but moved from bush to bush and rubbed his distended belly against the ant hill.

We immediately called the KWS but unfortunately the local veterinarian had returned to Nairobi. Then the injured elephant collapsed. Convinced he would die if he remained lying down, we revved the car engines and he stood up again and continued staggering about.

However, upon hearing about the condition of the animal, KWS took a strong decision and flew the vet back to the area about 2 hours east of Nairobi in the dry plains of Galana.

Unfortunately due to poor weather, the vet did not arrive until early afternoon, it was so hot that the elephant had moved down to the water and was not in a position to be darted. We decided to wait for him to come back out of the water. We left one person to watch him while we went off to investigate a “bad smell”.

Sure enough, the bad smell that emanated from within a dense salt bush area, was a dead elephant.  It’s face was reduced to a mass of bones and maggots, the rest of the body revealed a massive old bull – much bigger than the injured one. Initially the KWS rangers believed the cause of death to be a poisoned arrow. This area is notorious for the  use of native plants to procure poison for killing elephants. Howver, the hacked face was inconsistent with a traditional method of killing an elephant. The poiosoning of elephants leads to a slow paralyzing death and the elephant will be followed for days by the hunter who would leave the carcass to rot for a few weeks before removing the ivory. In this case the elephant ivory had been removed immediately using axes and the entire body of the elephant covered with green bushes. The condition of the cut bushes revealed that the elephant had been dead for no more than 2 or 3 days – about the time that the six gunshots were heard. We found the trunk some meters away from the body of this elephant, and to our dismay, his trunk was also shortened. That was when Garry recognized the pair of bulls that usually hung out together. Both had shortened trunks, and one had much larger ivory than the other. This one named Kulalu had the larger ivory. The KWS vet Jeremiah examined the carcass and concluded that it was consistent with a gunshot wound.

So we had two elephants shot in the last 3 days. And then another pair of ivory tusks were recovered from another elephant carcass that appeared to be a natural death – however, judging from the size of the ivory, it is likely that this was not a natural death but another victim of poaching who died in a place and the poachers failed to find him.

These three deaths suggest to me that there is a level of poaching in Kenya that we are not aware of. Were it not for the smell of the dead elephant so close to the houses, this dead elephant may not have been detected.

Finding carcasses in this part of Kenya is difficult, the terrain is vast and bushy and It is easy to hide the carcasses.

After darting him the KWS vet treated the entry and exit wounds of the elephant which involved turning him over – a task that required much manpower and a landrover.

After he was cleaned up the vet gave him 70% chance of survival and injected the antidote but the elephant would not get up. After about 15 minutes of trying unsuccessfully to get up, the KWS tied a rope to one of his tusks and pulled it with the landrover. This got the elephant up very fast – whereupon we discovered that he was wide awake and extremely angry. He charged his rescuers, nearly toppled one vehicle and then ran down to the river. I covered this story on twitter as it was happening and we videoed and tape recorded the entire sequence which will come out soon.

Now, 24 hours after the incident, the elephant now named Atiki, is fine and is feeding comfortably a few kilometers from where we darted him.

Dear Friends

Elephants are once again in grave danger,  they are increasingly being poached for their teeth.

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Ivory seizure Nairobi Airport

We documented the recent seizure of ivory at Nairobi International Airport.  With ivory prices rising in China, Thailand and Vietnam we anticipate much more of this. The combination of massive rewards as an incentive, the presence of large numbers of Chinese workers in Africa, and weak enforcement+high levels of corruption we have a deadly combination for elephants. We thank the Amboseli Elephant Project for use of photographs in this video.

Let us know what you think of this video and support our work by making a donation.

Thank you

Paula

Dear Friends,

The poaching of rhino for it’s horns has reached a new high and Africa is losing an average of one rhino per day to poachers. These critically endangered species could disappear forever if we don’t halt the poaching. In the last two weeks we have lost two white rhino near the Masai Mara Reserve where they were under 24 hour surveillance.

The Kenya Wildlife Services are taking no chances. To prevent any further losses, one of the remaining whites was brought to Nairobi Park earlier this week. I was there to witness the event. Enjoy

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Rhino Release in Nairobi Park

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