An insatiable demand for ivory in Asia is fueling a massive slaughter of elephants across Africa. As NPR’s John Burnett reports, one of the worst poaching hot spots is Tanzania. In this story, he visits an ivory poacher’s town that sits next to a major game reserve.
It’s midday in Mloka, a cheerless village that is the gateway to one of Africa’s greatest nature sanctuaries, the Selous Game Reserve, which is larger than Switzerland and has vast numbers of giraffes, zebras and hippos in addition to elephants. The sun is stultifying, and the streets are lifeless, but business is booming for the poachers in Mloka.
Two poachers agreed to talk about their illegal work in the courtyard of a low-cost guesthouse in Mloka, where laundry hangs on a line and prostitutes slip in and out of rooms.
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