Esmond Bradley Martin, whose groundbreaking investigations helped the fight against elephant poaching, died after being stabbed at home in Nairobi

A well-known American ivory-trade investigator, who pioneered efforts to combat elephant and rhino poaching, has been killed in his home in Nairobi, prompting an outpouring of shock and revulsion across the conservation world.

Esmond Bradley Martin, 75, died after being stabbed in his house in the Nairobi suburb of Langata on Sunday. His wife, Chryssee Martin, found his body. Bradley Martin had led global investigations into illegal wildlife trading since the 1970s and was a charismatic and familiar sight at conservation conferences.

Initial reports suggest that police believe the attack was part of a botched burglary. But there are also concerns that the murder may have been related to Bradley Martin’s work.

Elephant and rhino numbers have plummeted catastrophically on the African continent in the last 50 years as a result of the illegal trade in ivory and rhino horn.

In east Africa, elephant numbers have almost halved, while in some countries – Tanzania, for example – the fall has been as high as 60% over five years. Demand for rhinoceros horn has seen rhinos similarly affected, with a 9,000% rise in poaching in South Africa from 2007 to 2014. But ivory and rhino horn are hugely profitable and are an important revenue source for traffickers, although the banning of ivory sales in China last year is believed to have brought ivory prices down.

Bradley Martin, a geographer by training, played a crucial part in bringing this international black market to global attention. He began documenting the illegal trade in wildlife in the 1970s, looking in detail at the movement of elephant ivory and rhino horn among other substances.

“No one was doing this at that point,” Dan Stiles, who worked with Bradley Martin for many years, told the Guardian. Bradley Martin and Stiles went on, with Lucy Vigne, to record data about the movements of ivory and rhino horn that “provided data and numbers for what had, up until then, been anecdotal. Once you had the data you could then monitor the trade. He really woke up the world to what was going on.”

A number of campaigners against elephant and rhino poaching have been murdered in the last few years, and though most occur out in the parks, in conflicts with armed poachers, last year the campaigner Wayne Lotter was shot at point-blank range in Tanzania while in a taxi.

There appears to have been little progress in the investigation of Lotter’s murder, but a source close to the investigation said that three people were charged last year in connection with the killing.

Latest figures show that 197 people were killed around the world last year defending land, wildlife or natural resources – almost four a week.

The defenders: recording the deaths of environmental defenders around the world Read more

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Esmond Bradley Martin inspects confiscated rhino horns, elephant tusks and ivory objects at Taipei Zoo in 1993. Photograph: Tao Chuan Yeh/AFP/Getty Images

“Esmond was one of conservation’s great unsung heroes,” said Save the Elephants’ founder, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, who, along with Bradley Martin and Stiles documented the catastrophic fall in elephant numbers and brought the issue to the world stage.

“His meticulous work into ivory and rhino horn markets was conducted often in some of the world’s most remote and dangerous places and against intensely busy schedules that would have exhausted a man half his age … He was my friend for 45 years and his loss is a terrible blow both personally and professionally.”

“He was a giant of a man in his field – quite literally, his tall, gangling figure and shock of white hair made him an unlikely undercover investigator,” said Greg Neale, ex-environment correspondent at the Telegraph. “But that was part of his role as he sought to understand the extent of the rhino horn (and ivory) trade, often putting himself at real risk in some of the world’s most lawless places to establish the economic and cultural background to the forces driving the rhino and elephant towards extinction.”

Kaddu Sebunya, president of the African Wildlife Foundation, said: “He was a passionate individual who contributed tremendously not only to the conservation community, but governments all over the world in his devotion in highlighting ivory and rhino horn smuggling.”

“He was tireless in his efforts to protect elephants and rhinos,” said John Scanlon, head of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites). “His research and findings across multiple continents had a real impact.

“He was a longstanding and highly regarded member of the Cites technical teams looking into the poaching of elephants and smuggling of their ivory. He will be sadly missed by all at Cites but his legacy will live on.”</s>A world-renowned ivory investigator whose detailed reports contributed to the fight against elephant poaching and the illegal wildlife trade, was killed at his home in Kenya, police said Monday. Esmond Bradley Martin, a 76-year-old American geographer who had lived in Kenya for decades, died after being stabbed in the neck at his house in the Nairobi…</s>A world-renowned ivory investigator whose detailed reports contributed to the fight against elephant poaching and the illegal wildlife trade, was killed at his home in Kenya, police said Monday.

Esmond Bradley Martin, a 76-year-old American geographer who had lived in Kenya for decades, died after being stabbed in the neck at his house in the Nairobi suburb of Langata on Sunday afternoon, police said.

"We have four suspects in custody," Nairobi Police Chief Japheth Koome said.

They were arrested on Monday afteroon, Koome said. He did not give further details as to their identities or suspected role.

Martin focussed on the demand end of the illegal rhino and ivory supply chain, describing, quantifying and analysing the Asian markets in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos and elsewhere.

His groundbreaking investigations, often co-authored with researcher Lucy Vigne, are credited with contributing to China's decision to close its legal ivory markets last year, said Paula Kahumbu, a leading Kenyan elephant expert and chief executive of Wildlife Direct, a conservation group.

"He was one of the most important people at the forefront of exposing the ivory trade, addressing the traffickers and dealers themselves," Kahumbu said.

Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants, a conservation and research organisation that funded and published Martin's reports over many years, described him, as "one of conservation's great unsung heroes."

"His meticulous work into ivory and rhino horn markets was conducted often in some of the world's most remote and dangerous places and against intensely busy schedules that would have exhausted a man half his age," Douglas-Hamilton said.

Martin was working on a new report into Myanmar's emerging role in the illegal wildlife trade when he was killed. It is unclear whether his murder was related to his work or simply criminal.

"He was my friend for 45 years and his loss is a terrible blow both personally and professionally," said Douglas-Hamilton.

Poaching has killed an estimated 110,000 elephants over the last decade, with transnational organised crime syndicates taking over the illicit trade.

The most recent figures, for 2016, showed the global trade in illegal ivory continues to thrive in light of record seizures despite a decline in poaching.</s>World's top ivory trade investigator Esmond Bradley Martin, who had put in immense dedication throughout his life to end poaching and stop illegal trading of ivory and rhino horn, was killed in his house in Nairobi, Kenya on February 4.

Martin's wife Chryssee Martin, who had gone for a walk, found the body with a stab wound on his neck when she reached home at around 4 pm. She immediately informed the local police about Esmond Bradley's death.

The 76-year-old conservationist had recently returned from Burma for research work and was working on his latest findings of the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade in Asia. Martin was expected to publish a new expo soon on Asia's influence on the smuggling market. The investigation of the murder is still going on and no suspect has been named or arrested yet. Kenyan Police predicts the case to be a botched robbery in which Martin became the victim.

"We have already questioned a gardener and a cook who are employed at the home," police said, according to Nairobi media outlets.

Along the way, the former UN special envoy had made many enemies after being involved in the investigation of leading ivory rackets. He had also received threats and death warnings. The Kenyan based investigator was a risk taker and had also worked as an undercover agent in precarious situations, like posing as a buyer to inspect the black market dealing with ivory and rhino horn.

Martin had been traveling with wife Chryssee and colleagues Lucy Vigne and Dan Stiles as a part of a mission to explore ivory and rhino markets, the traffickers, manufacturers and its modern day uses. He passionately worked to put an end to the trafficking and had focused on the supply chain, describing, quantifying and analyzing Asian markets in China, Hong Kong, Laos, Vietnam and more.

Their research was funded by Save the Elephants organization, who revealed that the ivory market in Laos is growing rapidly. Martin had also had a major contribution in helping persuade China to shut down its legal rhino horn trade in 1993 and ivory trade in 2017.

Some of the organizations and colleagues, with whom the top investigator worked, have expressed their condolences on social media.</s>U.S. Ivory Investigator Killed At His Home In Kenya

Esmond Bradley Martin, a leading American investigator into the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade, was found stabbed to death in his home in Kenya. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Frank Pope, CEO of Save the Elephants about Martin's life and impact.</s>A WORLD-RENOWNED ivory investigator whose detailed reports contributed to the fight against elephant poaching and the illegal wildlife trade was killed at his home in Kenya, police have said.

Esmond Martin, aged 75, died after being stabbed at his house in the Nairobi suburb of Langata on Sunday afternoon.

“He was found dead in his house and had stab wounds,” said a police officer. “An investigation has been launched.”

Martin, an American who lived in Kenya for decades, focused on the demand end of the illegal ivory supply chain, describing, quantifying and analysing the Asian ivory markets in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos and elsewhere.

His groundbreaking investigations are credited with contributing to China’s decision to close its legal ivory markets last year, said Paula Kahumbu a leading Kenyan elephant expert and chief executive of Wildlife Direct, a conservation group.

“He was one of the most important people at the forefront of exposing the ivory trade, addressing the traffickers and dealers themselves,” Kahumbu said.

Poaching has killed an estimated 110,000 elephants over the last decade, with transnational organised crime syndicates taking over the illicit trade.

The most recent figures, for 2016, showed the illegal ivory market continues to thrive with record ivory seizures despite a decline in poaching.

Read: Motorists warned to take care as snow-ice warning in place for across the country</s>One of the world’s leading investigators into the illegal trade in ivory and rhino horn has been killed in Kenya. Esmond Bradley Martin, 75, was found with a stab wound to his neck at home in the capital Nairobi on Sunday.

The former UN special envoy for rhino conservation was known for his undercover work establishing black-market prices.

The US citizen had recently returned from a research trip to Myanmar.

Bradley Martin was in the process of writing up his findings when he died, reports the BBC’s Alastair Leithead from Nairobi.

His wife found him in their house in Langata. Police are investigating the circumstances but suspect it was a botched robbery.

Our correspondent says Bradley Martin had spent decades risking his life to secretly photograph and document the illegal sales in ivory and rhino horn, travelling to China, Vietnam, and Laos to pose as buyers – helping establish black market prices.

Esmond Martin (3rd R), a United Nations special envoy whose responsibility is the problem of rhinoceros poaching and trafficking, inspects 20 confiscated rhino horns, elephant tusks and ivory objects at the Taipei Zoo 04 June before the illegal goods were incinerated publicly to demonstrate the government’s commitment to protecting wildlife.

Bradley Martin spent decades working to uncover the illegal trade (pictured in 1993)

He had first come to Kenya from the US in the 1970s when there was a surge in the number of elephants being killed for their ivory.

His work on illegal wildlife markets helped pressure China to ban the rhino horn trade in the 1990s, and domestic ivory sales, which came into force this year.

Fellow conservationists have been paying tribute to him on social media.</s>Esmond Bradley-Martin, one of the world’s leading ivory trade investigators, was found dead Sunday in Nairobi, Kenya.

According to a report by The Telegraph, Bradley-Martin, 75, who recently came back from a research tour to Burma, was discovered by his wife, Chryssee Martin — with a stab wound in the neck at their residence in Langata.

Bradley-Martin, who was a pivotal figure in the fight against illegal trading of ivory and rhino horns, was in the middle of discovering rhino and ivory markets and traffickers along with his wife and other colleagues. The investigating officers working on the case suspect the incident to be a case of botched robbery, the report stated.

According to a report by The Star, Nairobi Criminal Investigation Officer, Nicolas Ireri Kamwende stated that the investigators didn’t identify the perpetrators of the crime as of yet.

Chryssee who reported the death stated she discovered Bradley-Martin’s body after coming back from taking a walk at around 4 p.m. EAT (9 a.m. EST).

Regarding the ongoing investigation, Kamwende said, “We have already questioned a gardener and a cook who are employed at the home.”

Bradley-Martin was born on April. 17, 1941 in New York City to Esmond Bradley and Edwina Martin. He received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Arizona in 1964. He then went on to get a Doctorate in Philosophy in 1970 from the University of Liverpool.

He was also the author of multiple books. Some of his books were “Run Rhino Run,” “Cargoes of the East,” "Zanzibar: Tradition and Revolution,” and “The International Trade in Rhinoceros Products.”

Bradley-Martin had recently co-authored a study along with colleague Lucy Vigne, which dealt with a decrease in the ivory trade in China. The study titled, “Decline in the Legal Ivory Trade in China in Anticipation of a Ban," was published in 2017 by Save the Elephants, a United Kingdom charity organization based in Kenya.

The 88-page report stated that 130 licensed outlets in China were slowly bringing down the amount of ivory products for display and for sale. It also said the outlets were also decreasing the prices in order to improve the sale of the products.

Save the Rhino, an UK-based conservation charity organization, tweeted offering condolences to Bradley-Martin.

Bradley-Martin, who was a one-time United Nations special envoy for rhino conservation, first landed in East Africa in the 1970s when there were numerous incidents of elephant slaughter in the region. The period was also followed by rhino slaughter in the 1980s, the report said.

Dr. Paula Kahumbu, an elephant expert and CEO of WildlifeDirect, a Kenya and United States registered charity organization, in a three-part tweet described her feelings when she heard about Bradley-Martin's death.

Kahumbu said, “It is with deep shock & horror that we learn this morning of the death of long time conservationist, Esmond Bradley Martin, whom police say died in suspicious circumstances at his home in Karen, Nairobi. Esmond led investigations into ivory & rhino horn trafficking.”

She continued, “Esmond was at the forefront of exposing the scale of ivory markets in USA, Congo, Nigeria, Angola, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos and recently Myanmar. He always collaborated with Save the Elephants and worked with many of us generously sharing his findings & views. ”

“Esmond was a global authority on ivory and rhino horn trafficking. We send our deepest condolences to his wife. RIP Esmond, pachyderms have lost a great champion,” she added.</s>One of the world's leading investigators into the ivory trade, Esmond Bradley Martin, was found stabbed to death at his home in Kenya on Sunday, The Associated Press reports.

Nicolas Kamwende, head of criminal investigations in Nairobi, told the AP that a family member had gone to check on Bradley Martin after he failed to respond to phone calls, and found his body on a bed with stab wounds to the neck.

Bradley Martin's innovative work as a conservationist and investigator made him one of the global authorities on elephant and rhino poaching.

"It is a great loss," Dan Stiles, his colleague of many years, told NPR on Monday morning. "Esmond actually revolutionized the way wildlife investigations were carried out, because he was one of the first people to actually gather quantitative data. Posing as a buyer, he would go in and take surveys of all of the different items that he saw for sale. He would get the prices, he would find out where they were made, who was manufacturing them, where the materials came from, etc. So he produced some of the first very detailed, quantified studies of wildlife trade."

But Stiles noted that such work could be risky.

"There were times that the both of us were in rather precarious situations, because you can imagine, we're posing as buyers. And then if you don't buy, the seller can get a bit upset or suspicious at times. So we had to be very careful of the situations we put ourselves in."

In 2007, Bradley Martin explained the misconceptions around the uses of rhino horn.

"If I was going to die today, my biggest contribution academically would be to show that except for one small area in India, rhino horn has never been used by Asians for sexual purposes, not at all," he told NPR. The two main uses, he said, were in East Asia with the aim of reducing fevers, and in Yemen as handles for a kind of dagger called a jambiyya.

A report by Bradley-Martin published last year by Save the Elephants found that the legal trade of ivory in China was waning in anticipation of the country's ban. That ban took effect on January 1. Reuters reports that Bradley-Martin's research was a key part of China deciding to ban trade of rhino horns, which was legal until 1993.

Stiles said that based on what he had heard so far, Bradley Martin's death sounded like a botched robbery rather than a targeted assassination, and he added that unless the perpetrators are found, we may not know for certain.

"Esmond was known for absolute rigor and painstaking precision in his methodology and reporting," Lisa Rolls, who leads UN Environment Program's Wild for Life campaign, said in a statement. "He was always willing to lend his decades of expertise to explore approaches to tackling the illegal wildlife trade with complete objectivity. Esmond's commitment to securing a future for wild rhinos and elephants was steadfast. To lose such a gentle and wise conservationist in this way is a shocking tragedy."

"Esmond was a true giant of conservation and a champion for African elephants and rhinos," U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec told the AP. "His extraordinary research had a profound impact and advanced efforts to combat illegal wildlife trafficking across the planet."

In August, wildlife conservationist Wayne Lotter was shot dead in Tanzania. He had been a leader of anti-poaching efforts in that country.</s>A leading American investigator into the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade has been found stabbed to death in his home in Nairobi, Kenya.

Esmond Bradley Martin, 75, was found dead on Sunday in his gated compound in the affluent Nairobi suburb of Karen, with his wife discovering the body on a bed with multiple stab wounds to the neck, police said.

Martin led investigations into the illegal trade of elephant ivory and rhino horn that threatens the two species with extinction, said conservationist Paula Kahumbu.

He was at the forefront of exposing ivory traffickers in the US, Congo, Vietnam, Nigeria, Angola and China, and had recently returned from a trip to Myanmar.

Colleagues said that on Friday, Martin was in the Kenyan office of Save The Elephants, reviewing progress of a Laotian translation of his recent report on Laos' growing illegal ivory trade.

His wife Chryssee Martin, who lives in a different home in the compound, grew concerned on Sunday when Martin didn't respond to phone calls, police said.

She found his body at around 4pm after returning from a nature walk, local outlet The Star reported.

'We have already questioned a gardener and a cook who are employed at the home,' said Ireri Kamwende, a top Nairobi police investigator.

Several hours before the body was found, police responded to a call about 'unusual activity' at the home, only to leave when they found the door locked, Nairobi Police Chief Japheth Koome told the Capital News.

Police have not yet made an arrest in the case.

Colleagues were shocked by the violent death, and shared their admiration for Martin's work.

'A passionate and committed man who made a big difference to our planet. May he rest in peace,' British High Commissioner to Kenya Nic Hailey said in a Twitter post.

Conservation group Save the Elephants described Martin as 'a longtime ally,' a passionate champion of wildlife and meticulous researcher.

Illicit demand for elephant ivory has led to devastating losses from illegal poaching as the natural habitat available for the animals to roam has also dwindled by more than half.

As a result, the number of African elephants has shrunk from about 5million a century ago to about 400,000 remaining. And that number continues to decline each year.

Less than 30,000 rhinos are estimated to remain in the wild due to poaching.

The price of rhino horn skyrocketed as demand has grown in Asian countries, mainly China and Vietnam, where consumers wrongly believe that the horn - made of the same substance as fingernails - has powerful healing properties.

Syndicates from Vietnam, China, South Korea and Thailand have been identified as being involved in the trafficking.

In an interview with National Public Radio in 2007, Martin said his greatest contribution academically to conservationism would be to show that except for one small area in India, rhino horn has never been used by Asians for sexual purposes.
Esmond Bradley Martin, a world-renowned ivory investigator whose detailed reports contributed to the fight against elephant poaching and the illegal wildlife trade, is murdered at his home in Kenya.