IVORY WARS

In 1989, four years after Discovery Channel first launched, the network brought to U.S. audiences the landmark television documentary IVORY WARS, shedding light on the severity of the elephant poaching situation in Africa. Now, despite a 23-year international ban on ivory trade, African elephants are under siege once again, being killed for their tusks - with much of the ivory going to the Far East where demand is especially high. Last year marked the most illegal ivory seizures in more than two decades. One area of northern Kenya lost a quarter of its elephants in just the last three years, largely due to poaching. With the long term survival of the world's largest land mammal at risk in parts of Arica, Discovery Channel and BBC have teamed up to investigate the illegal practices of both poaching and selling ivory from African elephants for the one-hour special IVORY WARS.