The New Drug War: Militants Are Slaughtering Elephants In Record Numbers

Now the New York Times has published a weighty and solid report on the booming trade, and it comes with a twist: poaching, long conducted by roving bands of criminals, has apparently become lucrative enough to attract the eyes of militants, mercenaries, and militaries, a conclusion supported by the increasing trend efficient slaughter of entire elephant herds. Oh, and aside from dead from dead elephants, you know who else funds some of those groups? That's right, the U.S. From the piece:

Some of Africa's most notorious armed groups, including the Lord's Resistance Army, the Shabab and Darfur's janjaweed, are hunting down elephants and using the tusks to buy weapons and sustain their mayhem. Organized crime syndicates are linking up with them to move the ivory around the world, exploiting turbulent states, porous borders and corrupt officials from sub-Saharan Africa to China, law enforcement officials say.

But it is not just outlaws cashing in. Members of some of the African armies that the American government trains and supports with millions of taxpayer dollars — like the Ugandan military, the Congolese Army and newly independent South Sudan's military — have been implicated in poaching elephants and dealing in ivory.

It's beginning to look like the same perverse calculus that's militarized the drug trade: As crackdowns kill off supply, prices go up and the trade is harder to run, a ruthless selection process that leaves ever more skilled and ruthless entities in charge. Meanwhile, China, which is by far the world's biggest market for wildlife parts, is just getting richer, which means that no matter how hard it's made to kill protected species, there are pockets deep enough to attract militarized poachers with the ability to do so. According to the Times, ivory sold on Beijing's streets has reached $1,000 a pound.

So while the mobs running the wildlife trade on the sell side in Asia are pretty much untouchable, military-trained groups are taking over the supply side in Africa. That means the trade will become increasingly violent for animals and rangers alike — as shown in a stunning photo spread that accompanies the Times piece — and harder to control. But unlike the drug trade, the ruthless wildlife market has yet one more cruel facet: With elephant, rhino, and tiger (the three biggest species in the trade) populations plummeting, if poachers become too well-funded and violent to catch, the market will grind on until all of those prized animals are gone.

Follow Derek Mead: @derektmead.