By Natalia Lima / Source: Ecorazzi

elephants

In the Africa Elephant Summit currently taking place in Botswana, conservationists presented new alarming figures about elephants showing that due to the current number of animals being poached, they could go extinct in the next 10 years.

“This species could be extinct in our lifetime, within one or two decades, if the current trend continues,” stated Dune Ives, senior researcher at Vulcan, a philanthropic organization run by US billionaire Paul Allen. “In five years we may have lost the opportunity to save this magnificent and iconic animal.”

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, between 2006 and 2013 the elephant population has declined from 550,000 to 470,000 and in East Africa their numbers have gone from 150,000 to 100,000.

Delegates from around 20 countries attended the summit, including China, which was publicly blamed for those declining numbers since that’s where a lot of the ivory products made with those illegally poached tusks are sold.

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