Despite an international trade ban on ivory in 1989, elephants are still being slaughtered in their tens of thousands every year for their tusks. According to iflscience , a new report has revealed that the number of elephants being poached seems to have stabilized, however the total number being killed is “at levels that remain unacceptably high overall,” and still far exceed the numbers that are being born, meaning that the animals are continuing to decline.

The report has been released by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which compiles the definitive set of numbers on the trends of elephant populations. They have found that the steady increase in African elephants being poached for their ivory, which started in 2006, has finally halted. The figures show that the number of elephants being illegally killed peaked in 2011, when poaching accounted for 75 percent of all elephant deaths, and since then has declined, although not enough for the populations to start recovering.

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