Africa Focus: Organized crime threats wild species in Africa: UN project

A UN-backed wildlife project on Monday urged the international community to be serious about organized wildlife crime, the threat of which, it said, has been on the rise to wild species.

The Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) said wildlife and forest crime today has transformed into one of the largest transnational organized criminal activities alongside drug trafficking, arms, and trafficking in human beings.

"Beyond immediate environmental impacts, the illegal trade in natural resources is depriving developing economies of billions of dollars in lost revenues," GRASP said in a statement received in Nairobi.

The statement comes as the international community prepares to mark the second World Wildlife Day on Tuesday to examine the challenges and opportunities of stepping up international efforts to combat wildlife crime at a global scale.

GRASP said the illicit traffic in live great apes is an increasingly serious threat to chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos in Africa and orangutans in Asia, with seizures averaging 1.3 per week since 2014.

According to the organization, many more great apes die during capture and captivity than ever enter the illicit traffic, and it is estimated that a minimum of 220 chimpanzees, 106 orangutans, 33 bonobos, and 15 gorillas have been lost from the wild over the last 14 months.

Such killings also target elephants.

"The number of elephants killed in Africa annually ranges from 20,000 to 25,000 per year out of a population of 420,000 to 650, 000," the statement said.

According to recent data from the Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, as many as 100,000 elephants were killed in a three-year period from 2010 through 2012.

For forest elephants, the population declined by an estimated 62 percent between 2002 and 2011.

Poached African ivory may represent an end-user street value in Asia of 165 million U.S. dollars to 188 million dollars of raw ivory, in addition to ivory from Asian sources.

According to GRASP, the UNDP Development Program (UNDP) is launching new projects to halt the illegal trade in wildlife in Asia and Africa.

"These initiatives will tackle wildlife crime by focusing on law enforcement, regulations, and engaging the private sector and strengthening collaboration between governments within and across the two regions," it said.

According to new figures released on Sunday by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), overall elephant poaching rates remained virtually unchanged in 2014 compared to 2013, and still exceed natural elephant population growth rates, which means a continued decline in elephant numbers overall is likely.

CITES reports that 1,215 rhinos were poached in South Africa alone in 2014, which means one rhino killed every eight hours.

About 94 percent of rhino poaching takes place in South Africa, which has the largest remaining populations.

The involvement of organized syndicates has seen poaching rise from less than 20 in 2007 to over 1,000 in South Africa in 2013, and rhino horn poached in 2014 is valued at an estimated 63 million U.S. dollars to 192 million U.S. dollars.

The Spix's macaw, the bird portrayed in the animation "Rio" by the friendly character "Blue" is one of the most endangered species on the planet.

"Today there are only 80 Spix's macaws in the world, the majority of which are kept by foreign bird keepers in Spain, Germany and Qatar," GRASP said.

The illegal trade in precious timber such as rosewood is also lucrative, well organized, transnational and involves corruption. Endi