Johannesburg: The number of elephants in Africa has dropped by 111,000 in 10 years to just 415,000 today. The 20 per cent drop between 2006 and 2015 is because of a surge in ivory poaching, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a report.
Swiss-based IUCN is regarded as the most authoritative source on wild fauna populations and the report's release at a UN conference on the global wildlife trade will lend a sense of urgency as some countries seek to keep the global ivory trade shut while others want to reopen it.
"This is yet another set of data clearly indicating that governments must take all necessary actions to address the crisis," said Susan Lieberman, head of international policy for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The IUCN, which drew on a range of estimates and census data, said it now had a fairly accurate count of 415,000 elephants in Africa in the areas where extensive surveys could be taken, down from over 500,000 in 2006.
The African Elephant Status Report found that southern Africa had more than half the continent's elephants, followed by East Africa - although its populations were found to be the worst-hit by poachers with an estimated 50 per cent decline in numbers. The survey confirms the decline revealed by the Great Elephant Census, released last month, which looked at savannah elephant populations in 18 countries and found they had dropped by 30 per cent to 352,000 in seven years.
There are a number of regions where systematic surveys could not be taken and so it is difficult to say what is happening to elephants in such places. These include South Sudan, Liberia and savannah areas of Central African Republic.
Losses in some countries have been staggering. Tanzania, which relies heavily on wildlife tourism, saw a 60 percent decline in its elephant population.
"The surge in poaching for ivory that began approximately a decade ago - the worst that Africa has experienced since the 1970s and 1980s - has been the main driver of the decline," the IUCN said.
Elephant poaching has risen to meet red-hot demand among fast-growing consumer markets in Asian economies such as China's, where ivory is a coveted commodity used in carving and ornamental accessories.
Despite the huge drop in numbers, Namibia and Zimbabwe have submitted proposals to the UN's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to lift a ban on ivory trade so they can sell existing stockpiles.
Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa argue that selling national stockpiles will release much-needed conservation funds and thwart illegal poaching.
