An elephant is killed every 15 minutes in Africa. China is slaughtering all of Africa's elephants. Yes China is killing all of Africa's elephants not for food and not for clothing but just for their tusks/ivory. In the last 3 years alone, Tanzania has lost more than 40% of its elephants and the simple reason is that, China has taken over Africa's wildlife. The international ban on ivory trade about 2 decades ago means absolutely nothing to China. China needs more and more ivories to satisfy its "ivory-crazed" population and they are more than ready to kill any elephant they come into contact with in Africa. China never accepted the ban on ivory trade.
In China today, it is all legal. It is even the politicians and policy makers who buy ivory the most in China today. In fact, there is nothing like illegal ivory trade in China today and the sad truth is that, most of the Chinese investors in Africa today are in Africa just to invest in this barbaric trade of killing and selling wild animals and their parts. In China, elephant tusks represent the economic and social status of a person and possession of a sculpture made from elephant tusks represents a person's place in the society.
In the olden days, only the mighty rich and powerful in China could purchase such precious sculptures. However, due to the rise of the middle class in today's China, more and more people are able to afford these sculptures and because of that, more and more elephant tusks must come to China, and from where else if not Africa. In other words, elephant tusks are on high demand in China today so African elephants are being slaughtered not for their meat and not for their skin but just for their tusks. China needs more and more tusks to satisfy its deluded population who consider the tusk, a status symbol.
Not just elephants. The horns of Rhinos are more expensive than cocaine in China today with false promises of curing everything from impotency to cancer to even hangovers. Officially, more than 25,000 African elephants were poached in 2011.That number more than doubled last year and that is just the "official" statistics and if this trend continues for the next 10 years, there would be no wild elephant left in the world and all thanks to China. Those who volunteer to protect these majestic creatures are often slaughtered like wild animals. More than 1000 rangers have been slaughtered in the last 6 years or so and who sponsors all those killings? China.
To give you an example, Tanzania's Selous reserve in the country's south had about 70,000 elephants in 2006 but just 13,000 elephants in 2013 according to a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). The Rangers and the forestry department at this reserve don't even have the proper equipment to carry out their day-to-day activities and they are easily out-gunned by the numerous Chinese gangs roaming the reserve all day and night. Many people keep asking, who sponsors all those terrorist groups in Africa today? Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al Shabaab in Somalia, the numerous guerrilla groups, etc. The simple answer is that, China sponsors most of them in one way or the other through this illegal ivory trade. Ivory trade is no longer a trade. It is a full blown war and who is sponsoring this war? Once again, no other country but China.
Someone may ask, what are the governments and leaders in Africa doing about this situation? The simple answer is NOTHING. African leaders are doing almost nothing. Take Tanzania for example. Tanzania is one of most corrupt countries in Africa today and it may surprise you to know that even the leaders in Tanzania today from the president all down to the forest rangers, all benefit from this barbaric trade. Every single day, Chinese criminal gangs conspire with corrupt Tanzanian officials to traffick vast quantities of ivory. There is huge money involved and so no official is ready to point fingers at those Chinese criminals. That is the situation in Tanzania today and that is the situation all across East and Central Africa where this barbaric trade continues to flourish.