[Watson:] You're watching CNN, and this is CONNECT THE WORLD. Welcome back. Despite bans, protests and outrage around the world, the ivory trade is still alive and well. And now African elephants are being pushed closer to the brink of extinction. Many countries including the U.S. and China have banned ivory sales. But a steady flow of Chinese cash has kept poachers in business. In a CNN exclusive, our David McKenzie traveled to the Niassa Reserve in Mozambique, the new epicenter of poaching in Africa.
[David Mckenzie, Cnn International Correspondent:] Just a few remaining villages before the remoteness takes hold.
[Philip Mclellan, Wildlife Conservation Society:] I think, you know, it's one of the last great wildernesses, and this really needs to be protected.
[Mckenzie:] From the plane, Niassa Reserve seems untouched by man's greed.
[Mclellan:] I'm looking for elephant number 30. We're sort of approaching her last known track.
[Mckenzie:] But even with the help of GPS, we struggle to find a single herd.
[Unidentified Male:] What do you see? An elephant, yes, I got one, I got one.
[Mckenzie:] Just like the rest of Africa, here, too, the poachers have found a way in. [on camera]: What's happened to the herds?
[Mclellan:] They've been decimated by poaching.
[Mckenzie:] This should be upwards of 10,000 elephants in this reserve. He estimates there are less than 2,000 left.
[Mclellan:] Just flying over what used to be bountiful countryside, you're now struggling to find animals.
[Mckenzie:] A Chinese government ban on ivory has been heralded as the key to saving the species. The world's largest market should now be off limits, but here conservationists say the slaughter continues. We were in the bush when we found a group of elephants, he says. I shot the first one, and then I shot the second one. We were about to remove the ivory when security officials arrived to apprehend us. Inside a prison yard, this poacher speaks freely. He's agreed to talk to us, because he wants people to know. I had nothing else I could do, he says. This is the only way. He says the demand for ivory hasn't diminished. Who then, are the buyers?
[Unidentified Male:] The Chinese have become strong. I think they've bought their way in here, and they have protection.
[Mckenzie:] This investigator is actively tracking poaching syndicates.
[Unidentified Male:] They know how to get things out.
[Mckenzie:] So, we're protecting his identity. Despite the ban, he says the Chinese continue to control the market. [on camera]: What does that mean for conservation?
[Unidentified Male:] Very, very bad. Very bad. If it continues like that in Niassa, there will be nothing left.
[Mckenzie:] And are the Chinese to blame for this?
[Unidentified Male:] Yes, 100 percent. 100 percent.
[Mckenzie:] We wanted to see for ourselves. Using a hidden camera, we follow an investigator as he posed as an ivory middleman at the main Chinese trading center he was invited into. It was remarkably easy to get them interested.
[Unidentified Male:] Can you get 10 meters? 10 meters, yes.
[Mckenzie:] But then China is mentioned. 11:45:00]
[Unidentified Male:] I can't take it there. But it is possible to get it through customs. That's a crime.
[Mckenzie:] It could be a negotiating technique. Drive up the risk to drive down the price, or perhaps the ban's message has made it to Mozambique's Chinese traders. But a massive bust by authorities in Maputo would show otherwise. In mid-April, more than three tons of ivory was confiscated. Police say the container is linked to a Chinese trading company. The suspects fled, and the investigation continues. Why have there not been prosecution of Chinese nationals in Mozambique?
[Unidentified Male:] That one is now the problem, the biggest problem. I think they are buying their way out.
[Mckenzie:] Corruption?
[Unidentified Male:] Corruption. Corruption.
[Mckenzie:] These photos show ammunition still wrapped in government- issued packaging. The poachers caught wearing all too familiar fatigues of the national army. The rot runs deep. Just listen to the government's own prosecutor. We have no doubt about that, he says. Corruption is at the source of poaching. But, he says, there's a commitment by the state to prevent it.
[Mclellan:] I don't believe that it's too late. No. I'm an optimist, and I believe that there are elephants out there in little pockets that we haven't seen. And they will come together and breed and come back strongly.
[Mckenzie:] But their population has reached a critical point. And unless China's ivory ban is felt here, this Eden could be emptied. David McKenzie, CNN Niassa Reserve, Mozambique.