★Summary

Africa elephants ‘face survival threat’ from poaching According to the office of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the elephants in Africa still face large-scale poaching that endangers its survival as species. Ivory continues to see its high demand globally despite the law enforcement on its international trade by Cites. The number of Ivory seizure in Africa is more than that of Asia for the first time. Conservationists believe that the number of poaching is actually increasing in some areas. Although policing against poaching is becoming more strict in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, elephants in these countries account for 80% of Africa’s Ivory.

★My thoughts

Extinction of elephants is a highly concerned issue inthe global scale as there are many activists and organizations that advocate for animal rights today. I was surprised by the number of elephants killed in 2013. I also did not know that there still is very high demand in Ivory over the world. It seems to me that there are some cultural factors behind the high demand. For example, in Japan Ivory was long used to make name stamps for impression seal. For such reason, I could easily imagine Ivory being traded in many countries, even though it is internationally illegal. I believe there needs to be more strict law enforcement system that could possibly stop the elephants in Africa from extinguishing. In fact, I don’t see any other way that could be more practical in terminating poaching. In order to do this, there needs to be a firm structure that could police the poaching in the local level so that the patrolling will be more effective. I also believe there should be higher awareness on this issue. There are activists and organizations that voice the injustice; however, there needs to be more people involved. Even though people and companies who demand Ivory today may know about this tragedy, I still think it’s important to pressure them to save the elephants in Africa from extinction.