Page 180 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

Jorge rios

that positively affect many other species. In 1980 there were about one million
elephants in Africa. Since then the population has declined by more than half.
Between 2010 and 2012, over 100,000 elephants were poached in Tanzania
alone.

The scale of poaching was impressed upon me, as I witnessed the burning
of 105 tonnes of ivory tusks in April 2016 in Kenya. Poaching has a dramatic
impact on tourism in Africa, which is largely based on wildlife. The contribu-
tion from tourism to GDP can be significant: in Tanzania for example, tourism
contributed an estimated 15.3% of GDP in 2015. The decline of the elephant
population threatens tourism and could lead to unemployment and other live-
lihood problems.

Illicit trafficking does not only involve mega fauna but also a wide variety
of other, perhaps less iconic, species. Traffickers are ready to smuggle anything
that can fetch high prices, and they will often use the same trafficking routes
that are already in use to traffic arms, drugs and humans.

Investigative techniques that are used to tackle other transnational organi-
sed crimes are not sufficiently used in the fight against wildlife crime. We often

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