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Agence France-Presse

A leading conservation group has warned of surging elephant poaching in parts of Botswana and estimated nearly 400 were killed across the country in 2017 and 2018, according to a report published Thursday, adding to conservation concerns.
The Elephants Without Borders research in the scientific journal Current Biology is likely to increase pressure on Botswana, which last month sparked controversy by lifting its ban on hunting saying it would help control a booming population that was damaging farmers’ livelihoods.
Thursday’s report noted a 593 per cent increase in fresh elephant carcasses in the north of the country since 2014, with many of these found clustered in five northern “hotspots”.
“This evidence suggests that ivory poaching on the scale of hundreds of elephants per year has been occurring in northern Botswana since 2017 or possibly earlier,” the report said.

EWB last year said it had identified nearly 90 elephants thought to have been poached after an aerial survey, a number that was vigorously contested by the government.
The expanded study published on Thursday estimated that some 385 elephants were killed for their tusks between 2017 and 2018, with 156 confirmed as being poached last year alone.
EWB founder Dr Michael Chase, a co-author of the report, said the latest research was “indisputable and supports our warning that elephant bulls are being killed by poaching gangs”.
Good news: elephant slaughter down. Now the bad news ...
Botswana officials were not available for comment on the latest research.
The country, which has the largest elephant population in Africa, has previously been a haven for elephants with “little poaching reported” the report said, noting that researchers had not observed any poached carcasses in a 2014 survey.
But its 2018 survey over a 94,000 square kilometre (36,000 square miles) area found 94 recent carcasses and 62 older ones that researchers verified as having been poached.

The researchers did however find that elephant populations had remained broadly stable between 2014 and 2018, at around 122,700.
Last month, Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi lifted the country’s five-year ban on elephant hunting, citing increasing “conflicts between humans and elephants”.
British soldier killed in Malawi by elephants he was sent to protect
This decision provoked an outcry from environmental protection organisations.
Botswana’s abundant wildlife has made it a popular luxury safari destination and tourism is the second fastest growing sector of the country’s economy after diamond mining.


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Conservation

Grim warning as report states ‘hundreds’ of elephants are being poached each year in Botswana, a 593 per cent increase since 2014

Three elephants eat and play in the grasses in the elephant orphanage at Elephants Without Borders in Kasane, Botswana. Photo: Washington Post photo by Carolyn Van Houten

Tuli interacts with her caretakers as they change shifts in the elephant orphanage at Elephants Without Borders in Kasane, Botswana on May 24, 2019. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Carolyn Van Houten

FILE - In this March 3, 2013 file photo elephants drink water in the Chobe National Park in Botswana. Botswana's government says it has lifted its ban on elephant hunting, a decision that is likely to bring protests from wildlife protection groups. (AP Photo/Charmaine Noronha, File)

Mass poaching massacre: nearly 100 elephants slaughtered for ivory in Botswana

File photo of elephants drinking in the Chobe National Park in Botswana. Photo: AP

After elephant massacre, Botswana mulls end to hunting ban

Elephants in Botswana. Photo: AP

(180831) -- BEIJING, Aug. 31, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) communicates with Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi at a welcoming ceremony before their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 31, 2018. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) (mp)

Who is slaughtering Africa’s elephants? DNA study identifies three criminal ivory cartels

A handout photo provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) shows an aerial view of a dead, poached elephant lying in a National Park in South Sudan on July 10, 2015. Photo: Agence France-Presse

(FILES) In this file photo taken on April 30, 2016 Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) rangers stand guard around illegal stockpiles of burning elephant tusks, ivory figurines and rhinoceros horns at the Nairobi National Park. - DNA tests on smuggled elephant tusks have identified three major ivory cartels in Africa and are helping investigators bolster the criminal cases against some of the most dangerous traffickers, researchers said September 19, 2018. Around 40,000 African elephants are killed every year for their tusks, which are illegally traded as part of a multi-billion dollar industry that extends from Africa to Asia and beyond. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on March 20, 2015 an elephant splashes at sunset in the waters of the Chobe river in Botswana Chobe National Park, in the north eastern of the country. - Ninety elephant carcasses have been discovered in Botswana with their tusks hacked off, a charity said on September 4, 2018, in what is believed to be one of Africa's worst mass poaching sprees. Most of the animals killed were large bulls carrying heavy tusks, Elephants Without Borders said. (Photo by CHRIS JEK / AFP)

A herd of elephants leaves a drinking spot in the Mababe area, Botswana, September 19, 2018. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

Good news: elephant slaughter down. Bad news: they still face total doom

FILE PHOTO: Mount Kilimanjaro in the distance, as elephants walk in Amboseli National park January 26, 2015. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic/File Photo

FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 4, 2017 file photo, pyres of ivory are set on fire in Nairobi National Park, Kenya. Kenya's president Saturday set fire to 105 tons of elephant ivory and more than 1 ton of rhino horn, believed to be the largest stockpile ever destroyed, in a dramatic statement against the trade in ivory and products from endangered species. According to a scientific report from the United Nations released on Wednesday, March 13, 2019, climate change, a global major extinction of animals and plants, a human population soaring toward 10 billion, degraded land, polluted air, and plastics, pesticides and hormone-changing chemicals in the water are making the planet an increasing unhealthy place for people. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Botswana’s elephant population has increased nearly tenfold since 1970. File photo: AP

News

World

Africa

Elephants Without Borders research likely to increase pressure on Botswana, which last month sparked controversy by lifting its ban on hunting


Elephants Without Borders research likely to increase pressure on Botswana, which last month sparked controversy by lifting its ban on hunting.


Ivory trade in Hong Kong and China

Environment