Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of poaching on elephant numbers in Zimbabwe.

The UK does not undertake its own assessment. Global assessments of poaching and illegal trade in elephants and their ivory are carried out through two programmes operated through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants) system monitors trends in levels of illegal killing of elephants and ETIS (Elephant Trade Information System) monitors the pattern and scale of illegal trade in ivory and other elephant specimens.

The IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group also carries out African elephant population assessments and trends by country and published the African Elephant Status Report in 2016. This report includes elephant numbers at a national level.