Although South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir, and his former deputy, Riek Machar, agreed last week to end the country's devastating six-month conflict by forming a transitional government within the next two months, it may come too late for the country's wildlife. Conservation officials accuse fighters on both sides of killing wild animals to feed their forces.

Poaching is a common practice in South Sudan. But conservationists say that, since the conflict between the government and forces loyal to Machar began in December 2013, there has been an increase in the killing and trafficking of wildlife by government and anti-government forces as well as armed civilians.

"Since the start of this conflict, we have noticed that poaching has become terrible. Rebels are poaching and the government forces are also poaching because they are all fighting in rural areas and the only available food they can get is wild meat," Lieutenant General Alfred Akuch Omoli, an adviser to South Sudan's ministry of wildlife conservation and tourism, told IPS.

Officials say elephants are being killed for their meat and tusks while migratory animals that move in large numbers, especially the white-eared kob, the tiang (also known as the Senegal hartebeest) and the reedbuck, are being killed to provide bush meat.

"Our forces are also shooting wild animals for food. If you go from here between Mongalla and Bor [some distance from the capital, Juba] you will see a lot of bush meat being sold along the road," Philip Majak, the director general for wildlife in South Sudan, told local radio.

The conflict has also made it difficult for wildlife officers to stop both government and rebel troops from poaching, and is hindering their efforts to conduct routine patrols in national game parks and wildlife reserves.

"Wildlife officers have run away from their work stations, which means they can no longer conduct routine patrols to prevent poaching. So criminals and gangs can now easily kill animals in the bush," said Omoli. "Things will only get better when peace is restored, fighters return to the barracks and the government disarms civilians carrying illegal guns."

Wildlife conservation and tourism ministry officials say that, before the two-decade civil war between what were previously north and south Sudan, South Sudan had more than 100,000 elephants. But when the war ended in 2005 only 5,000 were left.

Last year, the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which is helping to conserve wildlife in South Sudan, fitted 34 elephants with GPS satellite collars. But between January and April, WCS officials established that some of the collars were no longer visible on satellite.

"We have evidence that some of the elephants we collared have been killed. When the conflict escalated we established that one of the collars was behind rebel forces' lines in the state of Jonglei. That means that elephant has most probably been killed by now," Michael Lopidia, WCS's deputy director for South Sudan, told IPS.

The increased availability of arms remains an issue here. Before South Sudan gained independence in 2011, it was estimated that there were between 1.9m and 3.2m small arms in circulation in the country. Two-thirds of these small arms and light weapons were thought to be in the hands of civilians, according to a February 2012 report by Safer World, entitled Civilian Disarmament in South Sudan: A Legacy of Struggle.

But this number is thought to have doubled or trebled in the past three years, owing in part to the number of rebel and militia groups that have sprung up in the states of Jonglei and Upper Nile in 2010 and 2011. There has also been an increased supply of small arms by traders from neighbouring countries.

"There is serious poaching here in South Sudan simply because there are a lot of guns in uncontrolled hands. Civilians who own guns just go into the forests and begin killing animals without permission from the ministry," Omoli explained.

Ethnic conflict has also played a role in hampering conservation efforts. During the 2013 war, when David Yau Yau led a group of Murle rebels in Pibor county, in Jonglei, communities and wildlife rangers from the Boma national park were displaced. This ultimately led to a halt in wildlife conservation activities.

"The armed conflict between Yau Yau and the SPLA [South Sudan's army] from February to May 2013 disrupted our efforts to conserve animals. WCS lost more than $5,000 worth of property. All our infrastructure, including tents, was removed and looted," Lopidia said.

But another worrying factor is that wildlife rangers lack the capacity to deal with South Sudan's highly militarised poachers. According to both the South Sudan Wildlife Service and WCS officials, poachers here tend to be heavily armed.

"Once we went to fix a signpost. There were seven rangers and they saw more than 10 poachers carrying G3s [automatic rifles] while the rangers were carrying AK47s [select-fire assault rifles]. We had to come back because if the rangers had approached the poachers they would have been overpowered," Lopidia explained.

There is also no specific law to deal with the issues of poaching and wildlife trafficking. Though wildlife officers have arrested poachers and wildlife traffickers, because of the lack of a clear law, "sometimes in the courts they ask under what section are you charging this person", Omoli said. Most often, suspected poachers are set free.

"That's why we want to speed up the laws so that they are put in place and implemented as soon as possible," Omoli said.

South Sudan Wildlife Service officers also do not have powers to prosecute. Arrested poachers and wildlife traffickers are often handed over to the police for prosecution.

"The problem is that, when these cases are taken to police, they are sometimes not tried and the cases just die out. We would prefer to try these cases. But the cases end up pending and the suspects are sometimes released and they go back to what they have been doing – poaching," said Omoli.

Officials say that if South Sudan's variety of wildlife, including elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, white-eared kobs, gazelles, tiang, antelopes, reedbucks and lions, were sustainably managed, tourism for the country's wildlife could contribute up to 10% of GDP in 10 years' time.

"We need proper planning and policies. We should identify what natural resources we have and prepare good policies guiding how they should be used for a long time, to benefit current and future generations. There should be a national plan to do that," Leben Nelson Moro, a professor of development studies at Juba University, told IPS.

Ministry of wildlife conservation and tourism officials are working with WCS to develop a legal framework that will govern the way wildlife offences or violations are dealt with. The law will also guide the development of tourism.

But there will also have to be an education campaign for local people, as there is limited awareness in South Sudan on the importance of wildlife conservation.

At a local restaurant in Juba, 55-year-old Zachariai Lomude told IPS: "I love bush meat and have eaten it since I was a child. I will continue to eat it as long as I am alive, regardless of whether killing wild animals is allowed or not."