“Is it time for a war on poaching? When Hillary Clinton unveiled an $80 million plan last week to combat elephant poaching in Africa, she highlighted a new and worrying trend: money from wildlife crime may be helping to fund terrorist groups. These include the al-Shabaab group that attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya two weeks ago.

The initiative, which is backed by five conservation groups and several African governments, involves scaling up anti-poaching activities, targeting supply lines and traffickers, and reducing demand for ivory in major markets, mostly in east Asia.)

Source : New Scientist

Author : Michael Marshall

To read full article : http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24319-elephant-ivory-could-be-bankrolling-terrorist-groups.html