Nairobi - The latest phase of an INTERPOL-coordinated operation across six African countries has led to the seizure of 568 kilogrammes of illegal ivory and 65 arrests, including three Chinese nationals, the Kenya Wildlife Service said MondayJust under 1,800 kilograms of have been confiscated in total during the operation, including two seizures of Bangkok-destined ivory - both raw and carved - in Kenya and Ethiopia this September.
The latest phase of Africa's largest operation against ivory poachers - code-named Costa - saw investigations in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Local ivory markets, airports, border crossings and smuggling points were targeted, also bringing in a haul of big cat skins and other contraband, said KWS Director Julius Kipng'etich.
Three Chinese and three Tanzanians were amongst the 65 arrested. The rest are Kenyan.
The ivory trade has been banned since 1989, but illegal sales have thrived with demand being fuelled largely by the Far East.
"Kenya's elephant population, like those of other African countries, continues to suffer from intensified poaching to supply increasing amounts of ivory to international markets," said Julius Kipng'etich of theKenya Wildlife Service.
"Recent significant seizures of many tons of raw ivory indicate that much of this ivory is destined for markets in the Far East."
Kipng'etich said operations were still ongoing in the five countries outside Kenya and that detailed results would be released later.
Peter Younger, the head of INTERPOL's support programme for African anti-wildlife crime operations, which is funded by the German government, said the operation was a major success and would lead to further arrests internationally.
"Operation Costa will also enable law enforcement agencies, both in Africa and further afield, to identify the routes being used by smugglers, their connections and ultimately lead to the arrest of other individuals involved in these crimes," he said.
The KWS says it believes a one-off sale of ivory in South Africa last November, in which Japanese and Chinese traders took place, has helped increase demand for ivory and thus poaching.
Kenya has lost over 200 elephants to poaching this year, an increase from 98 last year and 47 in 2007.
The UN-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) gave the go-ahead for the governments of South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana to sell ivory accumulated in their national parks in one-day sales.
Animal rights groups objected to the auctions, saying all sales of ivory - even legal - stimulate black market trade in the so-called "white gold" and, consequentially, elephant poaching.
Kenya's elephant population has doubled to over 30,000 since CITES banned the ivory trade.
However, the herds have yet to fully recover from the widespread poaching that threatened Kenyan elephants with extinction.
There were an estimated 167,000 elephants in Kenya in 1973.
