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Like the menace of farmer-herder clashes and kidnapping for ransom affecting many rural communities across Nigeria, the destruction of crops by elephants has become a significant problem for many farmers in Nigeria's tropical rainforest and savanna ecological zones. These elephants' activities are fueling hostile behaviours among locals and posing significant threats to the population of the elephants. The farmers who spoke to our correspondent did not admit to killing elephants, perhaps because they know that the law prohibits this.

However, due to long periods of over-hunting and poaching their meat (subsistence poaching) and ivory tusks, that number declined significantly across the continent between the 70s and 80s. It’s reported that an average of 100 000 elephants were killed each year during that time, and by 2016, experts estimated a drop in those numbers by 111 000 within a decade. Today, there are only 415 000 elephants across Africa, with Botswana being home to the world's largest elephant population.

In Namibia, despite famed conservation efforts, close to 300 rhinos have been poached over the past 4 years (2020 to 2023), according to wildlife reports from the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.

Even though wildlife criminals the world over use money-laundering techniques to disguise the origin of their proceeds, there is only one case in South Africa in which money laundering related to poaching is being investigated. According to the Wildlife Justice Commission's July report - Dirty Money: The Role of Corruption in Enabling Wildlife Crime - tackling financial flows and recovering proceeds from these crimes is key to removing profits from criminality and preventing investments to perpetuate crimes. The report said: …