With wildlife crime now thought to be second only to drugs in terms of profit, BBC Panorama reporter Rageh Omaar goes to Africa to follow the trail of the ivory poachers, smugglers and organised crime syndicates and to investigate the plight of Africa's elephants.
As demand for ivory rises in the Far East, this Panorama special goes undercover in central Africa and China to ask whether the African elephant can survive in some parts of the continent.
Last year saw the highest number of large seizures of illegal ivory for over two decades - despite a 23 year global ban on its international sale. One area of northern Kenya has lost a quarter of its elephants in the last three years, largely due to poaching. Panorama visits an elephant orphanage to see the impact of the killing on the young and confronts the dealers in Africa and in China, who are now the world's biggest buyer of illegal ivory.
You can read the transcript for the first twelve minutes of the documentary here.
