Mozambique’s Land and Environment Minister Ivete Maibasse has said the country has recorded a 70% drop in elephant poaching.
Maibasse in a statement attributed the drop to the commitment of security forces protecting conservation areas including more investment on law enforcement, technological methods and education.
The minister said “until 2014, we would register the loss of 1,200 elephants per year,” she said, adding that the numbers reduced to 360 elephants per year between 2015 and 2019.
According to her, the Niassa Reserve which is the largest protected area in the country, had not lost an elephant to poaching in the last two years.
Elephants population in the area was said to have reduced from an estimated 15,400 to an estimated 6,100.
Elephant tusks are prized in Asia, where they are carved into ivory statuettes and jewellery.
Across Africa, up to 30,000 elephants are estimated to be killed illegally each year to fuel the ivory trade.