About 3,000 forest elephants roam the Central African Republic. But environmentalists say 500 have been slaughtered over the past year. Conservationists are on alert, here in Central African Republic and in neighboring Chad. They are struggling to combat a growing menace to a diminishing population: poachers.

Elephants are no longer a threatened species. Periodic international sales of ivory recovered from illegal poaching are even allowed. But the toll is high on these forest elephants.

Josué Nambama, conservationist, WWF, Parc of Dzanga-Sangha: “This is what we’ve seized recently: these tusks were being smuggled by Cameroonian poachers. Our legal proceedings are carried out in due form but despite this poachers are usually released a few days later. And because the justice system is independent there comes a level where we just can’t follow anymore. We are very restricted by what we can do…”

Elephants in Central African Republic are not only killed for their ivory. Elephant meat is widely available in village markets. These women refused to let us see what they were cooking: “If we had enough money, enough funding, we wouldn’t have to do this! We wouldn’t be killing elephants, we’d be protecting them! shouts one the villager. What should we do? We have to kill elephants! That’s our problem!” “Do you often find elephant meat in the village?” “Of course we do! There’s a lot!”

About thirty rangers: that's all Central African Republic has to protect its elephants. Authorities are also tied down with two rebellions in the north and have an entire country to rebuild. So the protection of forest elephants is not a top priority.