The CITES Secretariat announced on 13 June 2013 in Geneva that over 20,000 African elephants were poached across the continent in 2013 according to a CITES report. Although the sharp upward trend in illegal elephant killing observed since the mid-2000s, which had peaked in 2011, is levelling off, poaching levels remain alarmingly high and continue to far exceed the natural elephant population growth rates, resulting in a further decline in elephant populations across Africa.