Description:
The African continent has struggled with political instability and conflict in recent history. Such instability encourages criminal activity including wildlife trafficking, poaching and other environmental crimes (Bouché et al. 2012; Chase and Beyers et al. 2011; Griffin 2011). While there are few big conflicts in Southern Africa today, civil unrest and sporadic fighting continues in the Congo Basin, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), as well as in Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and across many countries in Central and West Africa. These conflicts have an impact on elephant populations because of the potential profit to be made on ivory sales to domestic and foreign buyers.