One-off ivory sale, Chinese workers kindle demand

By Tom Kirkwood

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Elephant poaching is rising in Kenya due to demand from an influx of Chinese workers in Africa and a one-off sale of ivory, a Kenyan conservationist said.

More than 100 of Kenya's 38,000 elephants were killed for their tusks in the first six months of 2009 compared to 98 in all of 2008 and 45 in 2007, said Paula Kahumbu, director of Wildlife Direct, a Kenya-based non-government organisation.

Southern African countries successfully lobbied for a lifting of a ban on ivory sales allow a one-off sale of stocks last November. This had sent the wrong message, Kahumba said.

The bulk of the demand is in Asia, especially in China. Chinese nationals working on projects in Africa were placing orders for tusks with poachers, she said.

"We've seen a huge increase in the amount of poaching. We believe it is primarily due to the fact that the ivory sale last November has actually stimulated the markets," she said.

"There's a massive influx of people, who are not very wealthy, who can afford to buy ivory at local prices and who make a lot of money out of it when they get it back to China."

East Africa is still recovering from extensive poaching in the 1960s and 1970s before the global ban. In 1989, poaching had reduced populations to about 17,000 elephants.

Kenya's elephant population has been recovering by between 4-5 percent annually and the stock is not in danger of decimation. But the rate of the new spate of killings is worrying and reminiscent of the bad old days, Kahumbu said.