Although there is a ban on international trade of ivory, elephants continue to be poached in extremely large numbers - tens of thousands every year. This ban was introduced in 1989 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The 1980s was a decade where hundreds of thousands of elephants were being poached every year and up to 80% of elephants were lost in some areas.
As the human population continues to increase, the amount of land that is being converted for agricultural use is also increasing. This is creating less and less space for elephants to inhabit, which, in turn, is creating elephant-human contact and interaction to become more common. This is creating the conflict between the two to become more common.
Source: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/elephants/african_elephants/afelephants_threats/
