The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has expressed deep concern over the rise of armed violence, poaching and destruction in the Dzanga-Sanga National Park, in Central African Republic. The site is part of Sangha Trinational, inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2012 and located in the north-western Congo Basin, at the meeting point between Cameroon, Congo and the Central African Republic.

WWF and WCS have received alarming reports from their field operations that elephants are being slaughtered in the violence-ridden Central African Republic (CAR), where new powers in place struggle to gain control over the situation. The conservation organizations are issuing today a joint call for immediate action.

Without intervention elephant poaching in the Congo may lead to more devastating effects than the extinction of one of the last megafauna on earth, with researchers predicting widespread implications for biodiversity in the region.

The diminishing forest elephant population in Salonga National Park, a World Heritage listed site since 1999 located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is at the centre of new scientific research which remonstrates many tree species are dependent on elephants for survival.

Eighty-six elephants were killed in the last week close to Fianga, an area in Chad nearby the Cameroon border; the latest devastating elephant massacre. Wildlife officials said armed gangs killed the elephants, including 33 pregnant females, and their tusks were hacked out. First investigations reveal that the group of poachers was from Sudan, moving along the Chad -Cameroon border in the Mayo-Kebbi East Region.

Bangkok, Thailand - A critical wildlife trade meeting closed Thursday with decisions from world governments to regulate the international trade in several species of sharks and timber, and to start taking action against countries doing little or nothing to stop the illegal ivory and rhino horn trades.

Conservation Justice worked with the Gabon Judicial Police to arrest elephant poachers based on their investigations in Gabon. 15 traffickers and elephant poachers in the Woleu-Ntem province and 3 in Nyanga province were arrested in February and are currently behind bars in the Woleu-Ntem locality and in Nyanga respectively. As a result of these arrests, remaining elephants may actually have a chance to survive. A bit of hope in an otherwise very grim picture.

For rural, young men in Mali, elephant conservation is proving more attractive than being recruited by the Jihadi's , and is reducing conflict along the way. The escalating conflict in Mali poses a real threat to the Gourma Elephants. The Mali Elephant Project is finding that adapting its methods to respond to the challenges, and the perspectives of the local people, has led to new, creative activities.

Moses has always been a little fighter who has beaten the odds against him since he was orphaned in Feb at a week old but over this weekend he finally faced a hurdle too big for him to overcome. He developed really bad colic and diarrhea which was particularly acute at night so that he spent most of Friday night on a drip – rallied during the day on Saturday then crashed again Saturday night spending most of the night on drips and so on until last night at midnight when he finally passed away in my arms.

More than 50 elephants have been killed at the Tsavo conservation area this year, the Kenya Wildlife Service has revealed. Most of the elephants were killed at the Galana and Taita ranches which border the park. Acting KWS assistant director in charge of the Tsavo conservation area, Michael Wanjau, said poaching incidents had increased this year compared to the previous years.

Cameroon wildlife officials have uncovered an alarming black market trade in human body parts and elephant meat in an operation that saw the arrest of five people in Djoum - a small town in the South Region of the country.