A TV programme has uncovered the entrenched nature of the problems facing those attempting to curb the illegal trade in ivory. Government officials, local villagers, foreign diplomats and the ongoing war in Somalia are all ensuring that poachers and smugglers remain one step ahead of authorities and elephants are still at a real risk of extinction.

The two one-off sales of ivory that have taken place since the worldwide trade in ivory was banned have been one of the main focusses of blame for the gradual upsurge in poaching and smuggling over the last ten years.

The latest such proposal by Tanzania and Zambia was rejected over fears that they were not doing enough to clamp down on the illegal trade in their respective countries.

But both previous sales were allowed despite vehement opposition from conservation groups on the basis that the largest buyers of the ivory, China, was responsible for much of the demand that drives the illegal trade and was also the location of many high-end cartels who are in charge of smuggling the ivory out of Africa.

An undercover journalist speaking to people in villages and cities, wildlife managers, rangers, government officials, and illegal ivory sellers in Kenya and Tanzania found that all of them said China is the main buyer of banned ivory.

Filming secretly, sellers told the journalist from Unreported World that during a presidential visit from Chinese Communist Party leader Hu Jintao in 2009, two hundred kilos of ivory was bought by Chinese diplomats and taken out of Tanzania.

This kind of collusion between illegal sellers and high-ranking officials points towards a worrying inadequacy in either China’s ability or possibly their willingness to clamp down on this illegal activity.

Such discoveries highlight the fight that authorities have on their hands, as diplomatic immunity and the lack of customs checks that such figures are subject to suggests that unless there is well-funded, internationally collusive law enforcement, such activity is unlikely to be reigned in.

The difficulty for even local law enforcement to tackle to trade was also shown to the journalist when he interviewed a police informant who lived in a village known for its illegal ivory deals.

He described how armed groups of 30 often came from Dara Salam in Senegal to take back ivory in 440-to-660-pound batches. (An average tusk weighs about 4.4 pounds.) The informant, whose face was not shown for fear of reprisals, recently had his house burned down.

Another man, who did not want to be identified as he had received death threats, talked of how the officials responsible for preventing poaching and smuggling were in fact involved in it themselves.

“I think the wildlife department knows exactly what’s going on here,” he said. “There are some members of the games department who are poaching to supplement their pay and feed their families.”

He said they could not get through the 15 to 20 policed roadblocks without help from “some very well-placed people.”

One illegal dealer said he had friends in airport security, and explained that once smugglers have made even small amounts of money, they then have the ability to move onto larger-scale deals as officials in these poor countries are extremely receptive to bribery:

“It’s no problem with money,” he told the reporter. “If you have money, it’s easy.”

Authorities ability to clamp down on the trade is further hampered by the ease with which the poachers are able to get access to weapons.

Whereas in years gone by poachers may have used somewhat archaic weaponry such as spears or poisoned darts or arrows to take down elephants in order to harvest their tusks, things are very different now.

When the journalist was taken to see elephant bodies that had been recovered from a wildlife park in Kenya, many hides showed multiple bullet holes. The lead ranger said the killers had used AK47 automatic weapons to spray herds. The shootings were indiscriminate, killing young and old.

He said the weapons were bought from neighbouring Somalia where the civil war has continued since 1991.

During the latest meeting of CITES, the war on the illegal trade was made a priority, but these discoveries have shown the scale of the task that authorities face.

The hope may come from the few good stories that were uncovered in this filming.

While most villagers were seen to stand by while violence around the poaching continues and felt threatened, unable to prevent the elephant deaths. Now, many are beginning to see tourism as the main way they can earn a living, so they are protecting the animals and habitat as much as they can.

HELP SAVE THE ELEPHANTS – ADOPT ONE WITH WWF TODAY