Africa has struggled with many issues from poverty to war. But, many forget the problem that is surrounds its wildlife. Something that is overlooked in the eyes of humans who are not directly impacted by it; the decline in African elephant population. It is often forgotten about because wildlife falls victim to selfish human acts. They are unable to protect themselves from poachers killing them for their tusks and humans who destroy their habitat to expand property. Elephant’s need a voice; if people do not do something soon, African elephants will be a species of the past.

A recent survey conducted by Elephants Without Borders was the largest ever landmark survey for elephants. The survey funded by Microsoft founder, Paul G. Allen, is known as the Great Elephant Census. This census covered 18 counties in Africa where elephants are found. It has been estimated that the population has decreased over 144,000 elephants. This is a 30 percent decrease in less than a decade. Chad led the countries in the steepest decline of African elephants. At the Binder-Léré Faunal Reserve, scientists have recorded a 44 percent decline in African elephant populations in just four years. They also estimate that there are now less than 800 elephants left in Chad. From the Great Elephant Census, findings helped scientist estimate that there are about 352,271 wild elephants left in Africa. To put this into comparison, a study done in 1969 conducted by Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants, estimated that there were 1.3 million elephants in Africa (Steyn). Other reports show that, “at current estimates (17,000 – 22,000 elephants killed illegally per year), one-fifth of Africa’s elephants will be lost in the coming decade” (Phillips 40-41). These disturbing findings have caught the eyes of many around the world. Over the past decade, more people and countries have tried to solve the issue revolving around a decrease in the African elephant population. But what is the right way to go about solving this crisis? Some methods are found to work better than others.

Before various methods are explained, it should be noted why there is a rapid decline in elephant populations in Africa. The two main reasons are illegal poaching for ivory and loss of habitat for elephants. Both reasons revolve around selfish human acts.

Before plastic, ivory was used to make various items including piano keys, chopsticks and billiard’s balls. Today, ivory is used for mainly two things: medicine and art. Though there is no proof that ivory has any medicinal value, many people, typically in Asian countries, believe that it can help health problems like tumors and ulcers (Wei). This creates a demand for ivory in China. The majority of the demand for ivory comes from art. People who own art that is made from ivory are seen to be powerful and wealthy. It is a form of superiority in many east Asian countries (Schwartz). These are the main issues revolving around the demand of ivory. It is important to address and put a stop to the demand of ivory.

Why do Africans supply ivory to consumers even though they realize it kills elephants? The answer is money. As most people know, Africa is home to some of the poorest people on earth. When the demand for ivory is so high, people are willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for even the smallest amounts of raw ivory. “It [ivory] has immense value in Asia, a continent of growing wealth, of up to US $1 million per tusk” (Phillips 39). For this reason alone, many Africans are willing to risk their lives as well as the African elephant species in order to make this amount of money. But, the money that these poachers are making is not only going towards food. Much of this money is used by rebel groups to fund ongoing wars in Africa. This frenzy is very similar to the issue of blood diamonds in Africa. Groups like the L.R.A. will poach and kill elephants, selling their tusks on the black market to fund their terrorism. But, they are not the only groups that are killing elephants:

Park officials, scientists and the Congolese authorities now believe that the Ugandan military — one of the Pentagon’s closest partners in Africa — killed the 22 elephants from a helicopter and spirited away more than a million dollars’ worth of ivory (Gettleman).

This goes to show how desperate many people are in Africa and how there will be a constant rate of supply if people look the other way and do not put an end to these problems.

There are many different ways that people are approaching the African elephant crisis. Banning ivory trade has been a start, but in order for the African elephant population to regrow, humans must do more. Protecting wildlife through different methods and public outreach have also been in the conversation.

Many countries outside of Africa have taken a stance on the issue. “Stockpiles of ivory have existed ever since CITES began regulating the trade and recently some countries have been destroying them as a demonstration to African countries that poaching elephants for their ivory will not be accepted” (Phillips 40). This is an important step in the fight to end ivory trade since the worldwide ban of ivory trade in 1990 (Phillips 39).

Citizens of countries in Africa who are greatly affected by this crisis have also helped create awareness on the subject. A Walk for Elephants march occurred in Tanzania’s largest city of Dar Es Salam. It was organized by the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania and the Tanzania-China Friendship Promotion Association. This march was made to create awareness to the Elephant poaching situation in Africa that is killing thousands of elephants. China is the leading consumer of illegal ivory sales. This is why the Chinese government and nationals are trying to create awareness and stop illegal ivory trade. This walk was created after the announcement that the Chinese government will place a ban on ivory trade in China. Efforts to stop the ivory trade have grown over the past few years and is starting to be noticed around the world (Tremblay).

The African Wildlife Foundation has also taken a similar approach on a larger scale. This foundation was started by a wealthy judge and hunter named Russell E. Train in 1961. The goal was originally make sure that European conservationists would not be replaced by unqualified African park rangers during the period where many African countries were gaining their independence (African Wildlife Foundation). In the recent years, however, the African Wildlife Foundation has focused on protecting wildlife habitats in order to save nature from the growing demand of human wants. This includes land used for growing human populations and ivory used for art and medicine in Asia. The African Wildlife Foundation has created various educational commercials in order to get the message across to the world, especially in Asia. They have partnered with a non-government organization called WildAid to address these key issues with public service announcements. Many of these public service announcements have been hosted by famous Chinese personalities like Yao Ming and Li Bingbing in order to connect with the majority of the Chinese population (Schwartz).

Former United States President Barrack Obama has also addressed this issue during the United States and Africa Leaders’ Summit in 2014. Though the summit focused on more of a political agenda including trade, infrastructure, and investing; Obama stated that the issue of poaching for ivory and the wildlife trafficking in general should be a main priority (Schwartz). In response to the ongoing crisis, Former President Obama also issued an executive order in July of 2013 in order to battle this crisis. “The Executive Order establishes a Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking charged with developing and implementing a National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking” (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 11).

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has also introduced a plan that may be key to helping save the elephants from poaching in Africa. The plan introduced by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service will focus on three main priorities:

“Strengthening the enforcement of laws that protect wildlife” (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 11).

“Reducing demand for illegal wildlife and wildlife products” (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 11).

“Working in partnership with governments, local communities, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and others to enhance global commitment to combat wildlife trafficking” (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 11). 

By prioritizing these three acts, African elephants should recover from their population decrease and regrow to the population they once were. 

 “In order to stop this killing, the world community must work together to stop the flow of illegal ivory and to provide ivory producing nations the resources they need to effectively arrest, imprison or kill the heavily armed and organized poachers” (John Fleming, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1). Their plan is to find poachers and ultimately cut the supply for ivory. They will do this by locating where the elephants are being poached using a unique DNA tracking method constructed by Dr. Samuel Wasser.

Dr. Samuel Wasser of the University of Washington, who performs the DNA testing on seized ivory, we now know that the poachers are killing over 75 percent of all elephants in about three locations in Africa. According to Dr. Wasser, the same locations keep recurring over and over again as the places of origin of major ivory seizures, suggesting that the number of major hot spots may be far more limited than previously thought (John Fleming, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1).

By using the DNA method, this will help officials locate the areas in which elephants are being poached. Which, in return, will help locate the poachers and help law enforcement put an end to the majority of the supply of ivory.

Since this discovery of using DNA to locate where the ivory originates from, INTERPOL has been able to make large seizes across the world. In 2002, INTERPOL, Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF), and Zambia and Malawi Wildlife Authorities had seized the largest amount of ivory at once since 1989-1990, when the worldwide ivory ban was imposed. INTERPOL was able to seize 6.5 tons of ivory in Singapore. Three years later, six more tons were seized in the Philippines (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 124). From this, scientists can keep tracking where the ivory comes from and can track where they go. This could potentially end the majority of supply of illegally retrieved ivory.

The Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources, also known as CAMPFIRE, addresses the third priority. They are working with local communities to make sure that in areas where elephants and African locals live, locals will work hard to make sure elephants are protected. The overlap between humans and elephants can cause great damage to human communities. Things like depletion of water, destruction of crops, property, and water infrastructure may cause African locals to not protect elephants from poaching. The Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources’ plan is to give an incentive to locals to protect the elephants. “The strongest and most efficient way to combat illegal trafficking of wildlife and wildlife products in communal areas is to provide local communities with the incentive to participate in the war against poaching” (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 19). CAMPFIRE believes that if elephants do not have value for the locals, they will have no incentive to take care of them, which will allow poachers to kill for ivory with no local to stop them. 

This incentive, however, is to keep elephants alive for trophy hunting. Sport hunting brings a large amount of income for African citizens as well as CAMPFIRE. “The CAMPFIRE program heavily relies on elephant trophy hunting for sustainable wildlife conservation” (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 19). They use revenues from hunter expenses like hunting lease fees, trophy fees, and daily rates to help fund wildlife conservation, saving African elephants. 

Some conservationists and many wildlife rights activists criticize this method because it supports the killing of elephants; something that this program is supposed to stop. In an article titled, “Hunters Say Trophy Hunting Helps Animals. Here's Why They're Wrong,” a critic addresses concerns about how sport hunting does not help anyone. The writer claims that, “The overwhelming majority of hunting fees ends up lining the pockets of middlemen, large companies and local governments” (Schelling). The critic also claims that sport hunting elephants will not allow for the elephant to have offspring. “The loss of any animal also means the loss of any offspring they could have parented, a knock to conservation that goes far beyond taking just one animal out of the population” (Schelling).

Both of these claims are false. The overwhelming majority of hunting fees do not go to middlemen or large companies. In Zambia, over 55% goes to local communities to sustain themselves so that they can protect wildlife; 4% is guaranteed to the CAMPFIRE Association; and 26% of revenue is given to the land owners in order to preserve wildlife (fifty-eight of the sixty districts participate in CAMPFIRE). This leaves 15% going to the land owners to cover their costs. Sport hunting is also where CAMPFIRE receives the majority of their funding. “Ninety percent of CAMPFIRE revenue comes from sport hunting, 70 percent of which is from elephant hunting” (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 14). The critics second point is also a misconception of sport hunting in Africa. Elephants that are killed are for sport hunting are past their age of mating. “It's considered unethical, for example, to hunt a young bull elephant who can probably still mate. And it is illegal to kill young females who might be nursing a baby” (Kriel and Melvin). This means that hunters will not shoot the elephants that mate because guides will not allow the hunting of elephants that are of the ages to mate. Thus, Schelling’s argument is invalid.

African elephants play an important role in Africa’s ecosystem. Without elephants, tourism, habitats, and other species would diminish. At the growing rate of decline, elephants are heading for extinction. “It seems highly likely that it will disappear in the same way that the mammoth, its close relative, did approximately 5000 years ago” (Phillips 40). Global citizens, leaders, and countries need to take action to make sure that African elephants will not be an animal of the past. These gentle giants need a voice and need to be protected against a loss of habitat and poachers who kill them for their ivory.
