LONDON (CNN) — Africa’s western black rhino is now officially extinct according the latest review of animals and plants by the world’s largest conservation network.
The subspecies of the black rhino — which is classified as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species — was last seen in western Africa in 2006.
The IUCN warns that other rhinos could follow saying Africa’s northern white rhino is “teetering on the brink of extinction” while Asia’s Javan rhino is “making its last stand” due to continued poaching and lack of conservation.
“In the case of the western black rhino and the northern white rhino the situation could have had very different results if the suggested conservation measures had been implemented,” Simon Stuart, chair of the IUCN species survival commission said in a statement.
“These measures must be strengthened now, specifically managing habitats in order to improve performance, preventing other rhinos from fading into extinction,” Stuart added.
The IUCN points to conservation efforts which have paid off for the southern white rhino subspecies which have seen populations rise from less than 100 at the end of the 19th century to an estimated wild population of 20,000 today.
Another success can be seen with the Przewalski’s Horse which was listed as “extinct in the wild” in 1996 but now, thanks to a captive breeding program, has an estimated population of 300.
The latest update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species reviews more than 60,000 species, concluding that 25% of mammals on the list are at risk of extinction.
Many plants are also under threat, say the IUCN.
Populations of Chinese fir, a conifer which was once widespread throughout China and Vietnam, is being threatened by the expansion of intensive agriculture according to the IUCN.
A type of yew tree (taxus contorta) found in Asia which is used to produce Taxol (a chemotherapy drug) has been reclassified from “vulnerable” to “endangered” on the IUCN Red List, as has the Coco de Mer — a palm tree found in the Seychelles islands — which is at risk from fires and illegal harvesting of its kernels.
Recent studies of 79 tropical plants in the Indian Ocean archipelago revealed that more than three quarters of them were at risk of extinction.
In the oceans, the IUCN reports that five out of eight tuna species are now “threatened” or “near threatened,” while 26 recently-discovered amphibians have been added to the Red List including the “blessed poison frog” (classified as vulnerable) while the “summers’ poison frog” is endangered.
“This update offers both good and bad news on the status of many species around the world,” Jane Smart, director of IUCN’s global species program said in a statement.
“We have the knowledge that conservation works if executed in a timely manner, yet, without strong political will in combination with targeted efforts and resources, the wonders of nature and the services it provides can be lost forever.”
IN 30 YEARS of fighting poachers, Paul Onyango had never seen anything like this.
Twenty-two dead elephants, including several very young ones, clumped together on the open savannah, many killed by a bullet to the top of the head.
There were no tracks leading away, no sign that the poachers had stalked their prey from the ground. The tusks had been hacked away, but none of the meat.
Several days later, in early April, guards in the Congo’s Garamba National Park spotted a Ugandan military helicopter flying low over the park on an unauthorised flight but they said it abruptly turned around after being detected. Park officials, scientists and the Congolese authorities now believe the Ugandan military killed the 22 elephants from a helicopter and spirited away ivory worth more than $1 million.
”They were good shots, very good shots,” said Mr Onyango, Garamba’s chief ranger.
Conservation groups say poachers are wiping out tens of thousands of elephants a year. Some of Africa’s most notorious armed groups, including the Lord’s Resistance Army, al-Shabab in Somalia and Darfur’s Janjaweed, are hunting elephants and using the tusks to buy weapons. Organised crime syndicates are linking up with them to move the ivory around the world.
But it is not just outlaws cashing in. Members of some of the African armies the US government trains and supports financially – the Ugandan military, the Congolese army and newly independent South Sudan military – have been implicated.
The vast majority of the illegal ivory – experts say up to 70 per cent – is flowing to newly rich China, where the price has soared to $2000 a kilogram.
Last year, more than 150 Chinese citizens were arrested across Africa for smuggling ivory. There is evidence poaching increases where Chinese workers are. ”China is the centre of demand,” said Robert Hormats, a US official. ”Without the demand from China, this would all but dry up.”
In Tanzania, impoverished villagers are poisoning pumpkins for elephants to eat. In Gabon, subsistence hunters in the rainforest are being enlisted to kill elephants and hand over the tusks, sometimes for as little as a sack of salt.
The New York Times
- Ivory for China: poaching soars (smh.com.au)
- US-Funded Armies Slaughtering Record Number of Elephants | Common Dreams (2012indyinfo.com)
- Slaughter on a huge scale: do you want your children to grow up in a world without elephants? (smh.com.au)
- Africa’s Elephants Are Being Slaughtered in Poaching Frenzy (nytimes.com)
- Africa in grips of epic elephant slaughter (smh.com.au)
- Africa’s Massive Elephant Slaughter Increasingly Militarized, Mafia-ized (treehugger.com)
- Elephants slaughtered to provide ivory to China (chinadailymail.com)
- Tens of thousands of elephants are being slaughtered as the ivory trade becomes militarised (refreshingnews99.blogspot.com)