Wildlife trafficking funds warlords and criminals

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week reported to the UN Security Council that heavily armed and sophisticated gangs of wildlife traffickers pose a "grave menace" to central Africa. The UN chief urged governments in Africa to recognize that the illegal slaughter of elephants, rhinos, tigers and other species posed a direct threat to national and regional security.

Conservation groups have recorded an explosion in the illegal trade in elephant tusks and rhino horns in recent years. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), global smuggling in ivory has doubled since 2007. An estimated 17,000 African elephants were killed in 2011 alone, the IUCN said.

One of the biggest concerns, experts say, is the entry of armed rebel groups and crime syndicates in wildlife trafficking. UN chief Ban Ki-moon singled out Uganda's Lord Resistance Army in his report, saying it used the ivory trade to buy arms, fund criminal activities, and that some of those weapons might be coming from Libya.

Conservationists say the emergence of heavily armed gangs in the illegal trade has brought with it a new level of cruelty on a massive scale. In March this year, officials in Chad reported gangs slaughtering 86 elephants, including pregnant females, with machine guns in a single week.

Conservationists say rhinos, which are killed for their horns, are at particular risk. Volker Holmes, head of species conservation at the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Germany says that until a decade ago, only about 12 rhinos were poached each year. That has exploded to 700 rhinos killed each year, he said, adding that the species are being pushed to "local extinction."

The surge in poaching in recent years has largely been seen in Central Africa. The UN report said many of the gangs and crime networks are taking advantage of political instability across the region. "Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad and Gabon in particular are facing this problem," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

Much of the illegal ivory and tiger skins taken by traffickers is sold through middlemen and transported to Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. From there, it's shipped to east and southeast Asia with the Philippines and Vietnam playing important roles as transit routes.

Much of the illegal ivory ends up in China. Conservation groups say China is the world's largest ivory market. Some estimate the country accounts for as much as 70 percent of global demand. The country's rising economic power is said to be driving the trade as hundreds of millions of newly wealthy Chinese seek to buy ivory carvings, sculptures, jewelry and gifts.