ELEPHANTS & IVORY

© IFAW/D. Willetts/Tsavo East National Park, Kenya
In Kenya, where there has been a dramatic
decrease in elephant habitat over the past
Century, the Kenya Wildlife Service’s 2012
strategy aims to increase current elephant
range by at least 30% by 2020. The strategy
involves identifying and prioritizing areas for
extending elephant distribution and obtaining
landowners support and participation in the
identified areas. Fences will remain necessary to
separate elephants from human activities such
as intensive agriculture, and to deter further
human encroachment – including poaching – into
elephant habitats, including the highland forest
regions of Mt Kenya, and the Aberdares and Mau
Forest areas. Nonetheless, Kenyan authorities
and conservationists also recognize the need
for connectivity to allow ecological processes
to regulate elephant population densities.
Accordingly, they have designed corridors between
Aberdares and Mt Kenya, and one end of Mt Kenya
that adjoins conservancies may be left unfenced
to facilitate elephant movements. It remains for
conservation biologists to investigate the long-
term viability of such “fenced metapopulations”,
connected by narrow corridors, in a manner
similar to the ongoing research in southern Africa.
In order to combat the continued killing of
elephants by poachers, society would unilaterally
close all markets for elephant products, and ban
all international trade in elephant products. 182
When such suggestions are made in elephant
conservation circles, they are often met
with skepticism or downright rejection. Yet,
closing markets and imposing trade bans are
commonplace when dealing with a number of
other species. The U.S. government, for example,
banned trade in marine mammal products in
1972. The European Union banned the trade in
whitecoated harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus)
pups and bluebacked hooded seal (Cystophora
cristata) pups in 1983; they made that ban
indefinite in 1989. The International Whaling
Commission has had a moratorium on commercial
whaling since 1986/87. In 2010, the EU banned
trade in all seal products and, a year later, Russia,
Belarus and Kazakhstan banned trade in harp seal
products. Given these precedents, and considering
current circumstances, an ivory-trade ban doesn’t
seem all that radical. Yet, ironically, not one of
the above jurisdictions has imposed a permanent
ban on the elephant ivory trade. Which begs the
question: Why?
Of course, even if ivory markets were banned
everywhere tomorrow, poaching and illegal trade
would undoubtedly continue, at least in the short
term. Once markets have become established they
are extremely difficult to close down, 183 but that
should not deter efforts to reduce poaching levels
as quickly as possible.
The international community must support and
enhance the efforts of some national governments,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Interpol, 184
among others, to gain an upper hand on poachers
and, more importantly, on the international wildlife
crime syndicates that drive poaching and illegal
international trade today. To do that will require
much tougher legislation, both nationally and
internationally, with severe penalties imposed on
anyone and everyone found in violation of the law.
It will also require a crack down on the corrupt
governments, government officials, and foreign
nationals who currently help to facilitate illegal
activities. It will require enhanced enforcement,
both in range states where elephants are killed and
in the international community where illegal trade
continues to flourish.
And last, but certainly not least, the global
conservation community would have to embark on
massive public education programs to reduce the
burgeoning demand for ivory.
DEALING WITH UNCERTAINTY
Just about everything associated with elephants is
uncertain, not just their future. As we have noted,
we are uncertain about how many species currently
survive. We really don’t know much about their
current distribution in large parts of their presumed
range. We don’t know how many elephants remain
alive today – the most recent data are at least five
years old and, even back then, only about half
of their presumed range in Africa was actually
surveyed. We know that many elephants are
poached each year but we don’t know how many.
After ten years of monitoring (2002-2011), MIKE
can only account for fewer than 9000 poached
elephants in all of Africa. 185 Of course, MIKE only
monitors sites that account for about 16 per cent of
elephant range in Africa, and its data are uncertain
because they are often collected by governments
and their employees, and not by independent
observers or scientists. 186
Similarly, we know that elephant tusks and
carved ivory are frequently seized in illegal
international trade, but we don’t have any idea
what these artifacts represent, including the
number of dead elephants involved. The artifacts
could come from poached animals or from animals
that died of natural causes. If they originated
illegally from various ivory stockpiles, 187 they could
represent poached animals, animals that died
during culling operations, or of natural causes.
In no case can we be sure when the elephants
actually died. This year? Last year? Or sometime
in the more distant past.
It appears that the demand for elephant ivory,
especially in China, has risen and continues to rise
since that country and Japan received 108 tonnes
of ivory through the most recent “one-off” sale
authorized by CITES in 2008. But the extent of
the current demand and its potential for growth
remains unknown and, likely, unknowable.
In addition to the scientific uncertainty
associated with the available data, elephants,
particularly in Africa, have to contend with the
uncertainties associated with civil unrest and
military conflicts. They also have to contend with
the new environmental uncertainties associated
with global warming.
If ever there were a compelling case for
implementing a precautionary approach to protect
and conserve a unique and threatened group of
animals, it would surely include elephants.
LAST WORDS
By now, it should be abundantly clear that it is
only through moral judgment and political choice
that we can take the steps necessary to safeguard
the future, 188 and that includes the future of the
environment, the economy, and human society.
Likewise, it is only through moral judgment
and political choice that we can take the steps
necessary to safeguard the future of elephants.
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