The next battle in Africa's ivory war will be far from the sun-baked savannah where it is usually waged against heavily armed poachers. It will be fought on a diplomatic level in Santiago, Chile, where the 12th conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will consider proposals by five southern African countries to loosen the 12-year-old ban on trading ivory. Kenya, which fears its elephants will be targeted by poachers seeking to "launder" dirty ivory with legal supplies, is leading the charge to keep the ban firmly in place at the meeting, which is due to run until November 15.