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Elephants could disappear from Tanzania world heritage site by 2022: WWF

Xinhua, June 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Wednesday warns that one of Africa's oldest reserves could see its elephant population decimated by 2022 if urgent measures are not taken to stem industrial-scale poaching.

The international organization said that rampant ivory poaching has seen the elephant population reduced by 90 percent in fewer than 40 years in the Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania's largest protected area and home to one of the greatest concentrations of African elephants on the continent.

Nearly 110,000 elephants once roamed the savannahs, wetlands and forests of Selous, but now only about 15,000 remain in the ecosystem, WWF said, adding that at the recent peak of the crisis, an average of six Selous elephants were being gunned down by criminal syndicates each day.

In 2014, UNESCO already placed Selous on its list of world heritage in danger due to the severity of elephant poaching.

UNESCO also has expressed concerns about other potentially harmful industrial activities threatening the reserve, such as mining, oil and gas exploration, and dam construction. Enditem