SPANISH tourist Jordi Blasi became the latest victim of an elephant attack last week which cost him his life.

In 1989 the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) secured an agreement in 1989 among its member states, including Tanzania, to ban the international trade in ivory.

The UK has secured an international agreement to curb the illegal trade in rhino horn, which is now being sold for more than diamonds, gold and cocaine.

A United Nations backed meeting on wildlife conservation and international trade has decided on the launching of a trust fund to ensure the long-term survival of the African elephant population, among other measures to protect various endangered species, the UN reported on Friday.

Tanzania has suspended its director of wildlife and two other officials over the illegal export of more than 100 live animals and birds from the east African nation's game parks, a government minister said.

Disturbing news emerged from Tanzania that scores of tourist vehicles were kept at gates earlier this week, while attempting to enter various national parks and that aircraft trying to take off from park airstrips were prevented from leaving by TANAPA staff, which, according to a reliable source, also arrested a camp manager on unspecified charges.

South Africa's lions are beginning to fall prey to the lucrative east Asian black market for wildlife products, with the government authorising the export of more than 200 carcasses to Laos.

Driven by rising demand for ivory, elephant poaching in and around northern Kenya's Samburu National Reserve has reached its highest rate in 14 years, with alarming consequences for the animal's population balance and potentially, the entire ecosystem.

Faced with increased poaching and illegal trade in ivory and horns of elephants and rhinoceroses, 300 government and civil society experts worldwide are seeking to strengthen conservation with new financial mechanisms at a United Nations-backed meeting in Geneva this week.

Selling the tusks from a single large male elephant can earn a local poacher the equivalent of 15 years' wages

The University of Twente has played a key role in the development of an internationally accessible database to combat the illegal trade in endangered animals. Meanwhile the illegal trade in ivory is high on the agenda at a conference on the international trade in endangered species in Geneva this week.

Khadija, an African elephant matriarch in Kenya's Samburu National Reserve, stands with members of her herd in late June, just weeks before she was gunned down by poachers and stripped of her tusks.