ABSTRACT
This chapter examines common characterisations of wildlife trafficking, and ivory trafficking in particular, as a force fuelling conflict. It examines a case on which the authors have conducted extensive research – that of conflict and ivory trafficking in Central African Republic (CAR). In many African contexts, war is a killer for wildlife and the ecosystems on which it depends. The conceptualisation of ivory as a driver of conflict first received high-level attention in the early 2010s. In May 2013, world recoiled at images of mass slaughter of 26 elephants in CAR's Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas. The killings occurred in Dzanga Bai, a world-famous watering hole known as 'village of elephants', where hundreds of forest elephants would gather daily to drink mineral salts from the sands. In CAR, complexities of contemporary poaching trends, compounded by a national and violent political and security crisis, have forced practices in parks such as Dzanga Sangha to evolve, stepping up to a more militarised threat.
