Sobering figures

IT’S BEEN clear for some time that the African elephant population is plummeting, and the world’s appetite for their tusks is almost certainly why. However, governments in Africa and elsewhere have not done enough to shut down the demand for and supply of ivory.

At the weekend, the International Union for Conservation of Nature once again reminded us how serious the situation is.

The Switzerland-based IUCN, the most authoritative source on wild fauna populations, released its African Elephant Status Report at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to Cites, the UN conference on the global wildlife being held in Joburg.

Based on population estimates from a range of sources, Africa’s elephant population has seen a decline of more than 110 000 in the past 10 years.

Conservationists have been worried about the situation for years, and earlier this month before the start of the Cites gathering, the world got a preview of how bad the problem really is, with the release of comprehensive, reliable numbers across a wide range of African countries. The Great Elephant Census surveyed 18 countries by plane and helicopter, finding that the continent has only some 352 000 savanna elephants left, lower than previous estimates indicated.

Because records are spotty and imperfect, it can be hard to precisely define long-term trends.

So the researchers determined carcass ratios – a measure of dead animals to live ones, indicating the trajectory of a given population – in the zones they surveyed. Overall, the ratios pointed towards steep decline. The story is not uniform across Africa. Some countries have stable or even rising elephant populations, in part reflecting successful anti-poaching efforts.

But those positive findings were massively outweighed by big declines in places including Mozambique and Tanzania, underscoring that inadequate efforts in just a few countries can have disastrous ecological consequences.

African nations, meanwhile, must police their protected areas more aggressively – otherwise, they may soon find they have traded in their natural heritage for a quick, illegal buck.