‘No elephant is safe’: China’s online market for animal’s skin has decimated Myanmar population

An emerging online market for elephant skin in China is threatening the survival of the creatures in neighbouring Myanmar as poaching intensifies to meet demand, conservationists warned on Tuesday.

Myanmar has watched with alarm as the number of slain elephants found in the country’s forests rises each year, with many blaming the trade in the mammal’s hide.

The biggest market for the products is in China, where the tough skin is ground up and used to treat stomach or human skin ailments, or sold as jewellery in the form of blood-red beads and pendants. The items are increasingly advertised and sold on the internet, according to the UK-based charity Elephant Family, which outlined the findings in a new study called “Skinned: The growing appetite for Asian Elephants”

China imposes total ban on elephant ivory sales

Unlike poaching for ivory, the skin trade does not discriminate between genders and ages in elephants, making them far more vulnerable.

“This means that no elephant is safe,” said the group’s acting conservation director Belinda Stewart-Cox. “Myanmar is losing too many elephants too fast.”
This means that no elephant is safe. Myanmar is losing too many elephants too fast.

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