International organizations to protect elephants have recently found out that most of the ivory is going to China, where it is in high demand. There is a growing number of middle class Chinese who can now afford to buy ivory. Jewels and other items are bought by Chinese in African countries and smuggled back to their home country.
Over 11,000 pieces of ivory have been sold on mainland China in 2011 alone. As demand increases the price of ivory on the black market continues to go up. It has reached about 1,000 dollars per pound.
Conservationist groups say that poachers are killing tens of thousands of elephants every year. They compare poaching with the blood diamond conflict which has been going on in Africa for many years. They warn that if poaching does not come to a halt, African elephants will become extinct.
Not only crime organizations around the world are working together with poachers to sell ivory, corrupt army officials in various countries are also in the ivory deal. In Congo and South Sudan soldiers have been arrested for killing elephants.
In central Africa the Lord’s Resistance Army of rebel leader Joseph Kony is also in the ivory business in order to make money, which is needed to buy weapons.