By Justus Wanzala
NAIROBI (IDN) – African and Asian countries face a huge challenge in protecting their wildlife from the illegal killing and trafficking that has already endangered some species.
Over the years, national and regional efforts to combat the threat have met with mixed success and wildlife and their products continue to be sold in many countries around the world.
Figures released in March 2017 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) under its Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) programme showed that by 2016 the trend in poaching of African elephants – which had increased steadily since 2006, peaking in 2011– had been halted and stabilised. Nevertheless, the levels of illegal killing still remained unacceptably high overall.
