A Dutch artist has created a real piece of 3D street art to highlight the plight of endangered African and Asian elephants.
Remko Van Shaik, 45, chose the sidewalk outside a Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand, where her beautiful chalk work was displayed to coincide with the meeting in the city of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and flora.
According to a new report titled ‘Elephants in the Dust – The African Elephant Crisis’ presented before the summit, increasing levels of po.ac.hing, as well as habitat loss, are threatening the existence of African elephant populations in Central Africa as well as formerly safe populations in West, South and East Africa.
The systematic surveillance of large-scale ivory seizures in Asia is indicative of the involvement of criminal networks, which are increasingly active and entrenched in the ivory trade between Africa and Asia, the report said.
A new landmark study published Tuesday shows that Africa’s wild elephant population has lost almost two-thirds of their population in the past decade to poaching for ivory.
Eight key ivory trading nations, including the host Thailand and biggest market China, have been notified of trade sanctions if they fail to crack down on the trade.
Samantha Strindberg of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), one of 60 scientists on the research team, said: “The analysis confirms what conservationists have feared: the rapid trend towards extinction – likely to happen within the next decade – of wild elephants.
There are now about 100,000 wild elephants left in the forests of Central Africa, compared with about 400,000 of the slightly larger savannah elephants. Thirty years ago, the total elephant population was more than 1m, but has been ravaged by p.oac.hing due to soaring demand for ivory ornaments in Asia.
Mr. Van Shaik, who collaborates with Planet Street Painting, has exhibited his works in Europe and America.
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