VANISHING POINT Criminality, Corruption and the Devastation of Tanzania’s Elephants ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CONTENTS Special thanks to the Rufford Foundation, and to Brian and the team at Emmerson Press 2 INTRODUCTION for their support. Report design by: 3 AFRICA’S ELEPHANT POACHING CRISIS www.designsolutions.me.uk November 2014 5 SOURCE: TANZANIA All images © EIA unless otherwise stated 18 EIA CASE FILES 26 TRANSIT COUNTRIES 28 END MARKET: CHINA 33 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY (EIA) 62/63 Upper Street, London N1 0NY, UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7354 7960 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7354 7961 email: [email protected] www.eia-international.org EIA US P.O.Box 53343 Washington DC 20009 USA Tel: +1 202 483 6621 Fax: +202 986 8626 email: [email protected] FRONT COVER: Skulls of poached elephants, Quirimbas National Park, northern Mozambique, October 2012. © EIA / Mary Rice BACK COVER: © EIA / Mary Rice 1 INTRODUCTION The devastating poaching crisis in Tanzania 25 years ago was characterised by increased criminality, corruption, the proliferation of firearms, the failure of the judicial system and the perception that Tanzania was a sanctuary for criminals. Between 1977-87, Tanzania lost over 50,000 elephants, more than 50 per cent of its population. The Government concluded that without Tanzania is a key player in the illegal Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, drastic action the country would lose ivory trade. While the escalation in Sri Lanka and Taiwan. The poaching both its elephants and international poaching is generally traced to 2009, crisis in Tanzania is due to a toxic credibility. In 1989, recognising it could evidence suggests the trend started mix of criminal syndicates, often led not tackle the situation alone and, in the four years earlier, indicating deeper by Chinese nationals, and face of considerable opposition from entrenchment than previously corruption among some Tanzanian key allies, Tanzania proposed an acknowledged. Between 2009-13, Government officials. international ban on all African ivory there has been a devastating decline. trade. As a result, it was hailed as a The Selous population fell by 66 per This report shows that without a champion for African elephants and a cent in just over four years. Based on zero-tolerance approach, the future global conservation leader. available evidence, Tanzania has lost of Tanzania’s elephants and its tourism more elephants to poaching during this industry are precarious. The ivory The ban succeeded for a decade. The period than any other country. In 2013 trade must be disrupted at all levels poaching crisis was brought under alone, it reportedly lost 10,000 elephants, of criminality, the entire prosecution control and many elephant populations equivalent to 30 a day. chain needs to be systemically either recovered or stabilised. In restructured and all stakeholders, Tanzania, the population increased to Tanzania’s elephants continue to be including communities exploited by about 142,788 by 2006, with over half poached to supply a growing demand the criminal syndicates and those on in the Selous ecosystem. in an unregulated illegal ivory market, the front lines of enforcement, given predominantly in China. Seizure data unequivocal support. All trade in ivory However, all the indicators that raised implicates Tanzania in more large flows should be resolutely banned, especially the alarm in the 1980s have made a of ivory than any other country. It is in China. disturbing reappearance and also consistently linked to criminal Tanzania’s elephants are again cases featuring exceptionally large being slaughtered en masse to feed consignments of ivory recovered in Environmental Investigation Agency a resurgent ivory trade. places as diverse as Hong Kong, November 2014 Skull of elephant poached in Selous, 2010 © XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 2 AFRICA’S ELEPHANT POACHING CRISIS ABOVE: The survival of African elephants hangs Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe were Poached elephant, Ruaha in the balance as a surge in poaching downlisted to CITES Appendix II and an National Park, Tanzania, convulses the continent. Both sub-species “experimental” sale of nearly 50 tonnes September 2014. of African elephants, the forest elephant of ivory from these African countries to (L. a. cyclotis) and the savanna elephant Japan occurred in April 1999. This was (L. a. Africana), are facing precipitous followed by a further “one-off” sale of population declines and a real threat 102 tonnes of ivory from Botswana, of extermination.1 While more than Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to 1.3 million elephants roamed Africa in China and Japan in late 2008. Further, 1979, today the population is estimated CITES Parties are currently discussing a to be as low as 419,000.2 “decision-making mechanism for future trade in ivory” that could potentially In 2011 alone, 25,000 African elephants enable regular trade in ivory. This is were reportedly killed, with 22,000 recorded taking place despite an ongoing elephant in 2012.3 Such figures are estimates and poaching crisis in Africa. the true scale of the carnage is likely to be worse.4 For example, other estimates put Currently, two CITES-mandated systems the number of elephants killed in 2011 at exist to monitor levels of poaching and 40,000.5 Escalating poaching now poses a illicit trade in ivory – the Monitoring the direct threat to the survival of elephant Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) populations as killing rates exceed birth system and the Elephant Trade rates, raising fears of virtual extinction in Information System (ETIS). Both the next decade.6 document alarming increases, especially since 2006 and with a major surge This level of killing has not been seen from 2011. since the 1980s, when a wave of elephant poaching spread across Africa prompting In 2011, the MIKE system recorded the the adoption of a ban on international highest poaching level since systematic commercial trade in ivory in 1989 under monitoring began a decade earlier. Figures the UN Convention on International Trade showed 7.4 per cent of elephant populations in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and at the monitoring sites killed illegally, a Flora (CITES) by listing African elephants total of 17,000 elephants compared with on CITES Appendix I. 11,500 in 2010.7 A scientific study published in August 2014 analysed data Although the ban relieved the pressure collected by MIKE and found that during and key elephant populations began the past decade, the proportion of recovering, it was soon undermined. illegally killed elephants has climbed from In 1997, the elephant populations of 25 per cent to between 60-70 per cent.8 3 The Proportion of Illegally Killed Tanzania was the country of export for Elephants (PIKE) index measures the 37 per cent of large ivory seizures volume of elephant carcasses due to during the period, followed by Kenya illegal killing. The index ranges from with 27 per cent.12 0.0 showing no illegal killing to 1.0 where all carcasses were illegally killed. Seizure data also confirms China’s The highest poaching rate is found in position as by far the largest single Central Africa, with a PIKE level of 0.9. destination for illicit ivory, with This is confirmed by studies revealing Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Philippines that forest elephants in central Africa and Malaysia as the main transit have declined by over 65 per cent countries for shipments from Africa. between 2002-13.9 In East Africa, the Between 2009-13, out of 76 large PIKE level has tripled from 0.2 to 0.6 seizures of ivory two-thirds occurred in between 2006-11. For example, more Asia, indicating the porous nature of than 60 per cent of elephant carcasses East Africa’s ports. This changed in found at MIKE monitoring sites in 2013, when, out of a total of 18 large- Kenya had been illegally killed. scale seizures totalling 41 tonnes, 80 per cent occurred in just three Unsurprisingly, data showing increased countries in East Africa – Tanzania, poaching levels is mirrored by surging Kenya and Uganda.13 illicit trade in ivory. According to ETIS figures, the illegal ivory trade has grown Both the escalation of elephant poaching three-fold since 1998.10 The surge has and the increase of large scale ivory been especially pronounced since the shipments indicate the involvement of period 2011-13, with record levels of organised criminal syndicates in the ivory totalling 116 tonnes seized during burgeoning illicit ivory trade, abetted by this time.11 corruption at key stages in the smuggling chain. Overall, East Africa is losing the ETIS data also reveals the emergence of highest number of elephants as criminal East Africa as the biggest source region gangs ruthlessly target the remaining of illegal ivory, especially Kenya and herds to feed the seemingly insatiable Tanzania. Between 2009-11, these two markets of Asia and, especially, China. BELOW: countries were the exporters of 16 out of If this is allowed to continue at the Ivory travelling from Tanzania 34 large scale ivory seizures (weighing current rate, only a few significant and Kenya to China seized 500kg or more) recorded worldwide, elephant populations will remain in by Hong Kong Customs, amounting to 35 tonnes. In total, Africa in the next decade. October 2012. © Hong Kong Customs and Excise 4 SOURCE: TANZANIA elephants lived in the Selous.17 TANZANIA SITUATION In the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem, a population decline of 37 per cent has The current situation for Tanzania’s been recorded from 31,625 in 2009 to elephant population is dire in the 20,090 in 2013.18 extreme. The country has lost half of its elephants in the past five years and The overwhelming cause of this two-thirds since 2006. Available catastrophic decline is poaching to evidence indicates it has since lost feed the ivory trade.