Farewell Jumbo?

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is holding its triennial conference in Bangkok from 3 to 14 March. The main business is to decide how to improve the world's wildlife trade regime that has been in place for 40 years.

This 19th Century teak elephant, with ivory tusks and nails, serves to highlight two species that are now seriously endangered because of illegal trade.

Millions of elephants once ranged across most of Africa, but huge numbers have been wiped out by hunting. Today only 500,000 to 700,000 African elephants survive spread across 37 countries across the sub-Saharan region. According to a new report entitled "Elephants in the Dust - The African Elephant Crisis", populations of elephants in Africa continue to be under severe threat as the illegal trade in ivory grows - with double the numbers of elephants killed and triple the amounts of ivory seized, over the last decade. Poaching is spreading primarily as a result of weak governance and rising demand for illegal ivory in the rapidly growing economies of Asia, particularly China, which is the world's largest destination market.

Since 1948 trade in African teak has soared. Levels of exploitation have been unsustainable in all countries and the species' habitat has declined to an alarming degree. Excessive exploitation of this species over the last 50 years by commercial and illegal loggers destroys the natural resources on which local indigenous communities rely for their livelihoods. It also directly impacts on other endangered species which live in these forests, including chimpanzees, gorillas and forest elephants. African teak is used in boat building, joinery, flooring and decorative veneers. The main importing country is Italy.