Elephant Poaching: New tracking system in place

A new tracking system to gather information on illegal elephant poaching has been put in place for the Central African Sub-region.

Meeting in Buea in the South West recently, regional experts decried the decline of elephants, stating that poachers are the main cause of their extinction.

They unanimously agreed on the putting in place of a new tracking system known as the Elephant Trade Information System, ETIS, a tool kit that facilitates data collection on ivory trade.

The Regional Director-Central Africa for the Wildlife Trade Monitory Network, TRAFFIC, Dr Paulinus Ngeh, said the region harbours a good population of elephants which are however, massacred on a large scale.

TRAFFIC stressed that there has been a 62 per cent reduction in the population of elephants from 2002 to 2012 with 25,000 elephants killed every year in the Central African sub-region.

On the international scale, 170 tonnes of ivory were seized between 2009 and June 2014. The South West Regional Delegate of Forestry and Wildlife Samuel Eben Ebai said if urgent measures are not taken, illegal trade in ivory will go off hand.