
Perhaps a quarter of Africa's elephants live in Tanzania, and estimates reach as high as 36,000 elephants per year are killed for their tusks, worldwide.

Poachers such as Iddi Mbwana are driven by poverty and the possibility of high earnings to foreign buyers

Mloka, a village on the edge of the Selous Game Reserve, is home to many poachers and a major transit point for ivory.

Poachers habitually burn grasslands to provide a better view of elephants in order to kill them for their tusks. "This fire was definitely started by poachers" said a source involved in tackling illegal poaching in Tanzania.

The Selous Game Reserve has seen a massive decrease in its population of elephants over the past decade, largely due to illegal poaching of the animals for their tusks, which fuels the illicit international ivory trade.

Wildlife rangers are responsible for patrolling near 55,000 square kilometres of the Selous reserve - an area larger than the territory of Switzerland. Poaching is rife within the park, marked by its proximity to the port city of Dar es-Salaam.

An elephant's skull—the orbits of the skull where tusks are attached in the forefront—lies in the savannah in the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania.

Sleepers stamped with Chinese characters sit on a railroad carving through the Selous Game Reserve. The railway cuts through the reserve, a sign—according to conservationists in the park—that China's involvement in infrastructure has ulterior motives.

Simba Michael, a Wildlife Ranger of 7 years, walks through the Selous Game Reserve near to a railway line that connects the economic hub of Dar es-Salaam with neighbouring Zambia.

An elephant walks through the edge of Lake Manze in the Selous Game Reserve. Safari guides here say it is increasingly difficult to find elephants, particularly larger bulls.

Jugi ("Judge" in Kiswahili) is an informant to conservationists tackling the illegal ivory poaching in Tanzania.

The "Big Power Arts Group", acting as Wildlife Rangers, charge during a reenactment of a film they are producing, entitled "Who is to blame?" The film explores the illegal poaching of animals stemming from Mloka, a village notorious for elephant poaching.

An elephant walks along a forest road on the outskirts of Mloka, near to the edge of the Selous Game Reserve. Locals in Mloka say that many of the elephants have disappeared from the area surrounded the village due to high rates of poaching.

Wildlife ranger Simba Michael, walks holding his AK-47 semi-automatic rifle through the Selous Game Reserve.

The Mwenge market in Dar es-Salaam is home to stalls selling ivory. The shops sells various sculptures, paintings and jewellery to tourists, but also harbour an illicit market in illegal ivory.

A journalist holds a piece of ivory in a small curio shop for tourists in the Mwenge Market. The owner of the shop produced the end of one elephant's tusk, weighing around 1-1.5kg which he was prepared to sell for 400,000 Tanzanian Shillings (approx. 200 Euros) and said that he could get more.

An advertisement for flights to Guangzhou by Kenya Airways stands in the streets of Dar es-Salaam. Guangzhou is China’s main ivory-carving-and-trading center.

A view over the port of Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania's economic hub, as seen from the restaurant of a hotel. The port—to which access is strongly limited—is a major hub for illegal ivory leaving the country to far-eastern markets.

An employee of the Wildlife Division in the Tanzanian Ministry for Natural Resources and Tourism pulls back a tarpaulin covering a seizure of 347 tusks outside the Tanzanian ivory warehouse in Dar es-Salaam.

A pile of ivory from a seizure of 347 tusks, weighing 1049kg, seized from a house on the outskirts of Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania's economic hub. Eight men were arrested for questioning.



















