IUCN Red List deals fresh blow to ivory trade push

ELEPHANTS on the African rangeland have been placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species due to poaching for ivory and loss of habitat, the global conservation body says.

Before the latest assessments by the IUCN, African elephants were treated as a single species, listed as vulnerable with very stringent regulations prohibiting trade in registered ivory from Zimbabwe and most other SADC countries which still have reasonable populations.

The red listing of the elephants will now even make it harder for Zimbabwe and other Southern African nations including Botswana, Namibia and Zambia, which for years have been battling the global wildlife trade regulator to grant them rights to sell ivory acquired through natural deaths, confiscations and culling.

At the last Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) conference, member states failed to agree on proposals to reopen trade in registered raw ivory.

The vote loss at the conference meant most SADC countries remained stuck with hundreds of tonnes of unsold ivory.

Had controlled trade been permitted, the countries could have generated revenue that could support animal welfare and protection.

“Africa’s elephants play key roles in ecosystems, economies and in our collective imagination all over the world. Today’s new IUCN Red List assessments of both African elephant species underline the persistent pressures faced by these iconic animals,” said Dr Bruno Oberle, IUCN director general.

“We must urgently put an end to poaching and ensure that sufficient suitable habitat for both forest and savanna elephants is conserved.

“Several African countries have led the way in recent years, proving that we can reverse elephant declines, and we must work together to ensure their example can be followed.”

Under the new assessment, the savanna elephant was “endangered” and the much smaller, lighter forest elephant was “critically endangered” — placing it under risk of extinction in the wild.

In the past, the IUCN treated both elephants together which it considered as “vulnerable” but opted to separate them following genetic evidence that they are different species.

WWF conservationists said this means that both of these species are now recognised as moving to a more threatened status.

“The African forest elephant is now listed as Critically Endangered, and the African savannah elephant as Endangered. Following this reclassification, WWF and Wildlife Conservation Society are both calling for continued and renewed vigilance, enforcement, anti-poaching, anti-trafficking, and habitat protection efforts for all elephants in Africa - and particularly for the critically endangered forest elephant,” the WWF said.

The WWF further noted that in some parts of Africa the crash in tourist presence due to the COVID-19 pandemic has presented a new threat of increased poaching because of the reduced income to maintain law enforcement efforts.

“Besides the threat of international trade in ivory, an emerging threat for forest elephants is the decline in fruit production in the forest in Central Africa leading to a 11 percent decline in elephants’ body condition between 2008 and 2018.

The global conservation body said that the populations of Africa’s savanna elephants found in a variety of habitats had decreased by at least 60 percent over the last 50 years while the number of forest elephants found mostly in Central Africa had fallen by 86 percent over 31 years.

It estimates that around 415,000 remain for both types of elephants.

The red listing deals a heavy blow to

Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia which still hold healthy elephant populations especially in the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, a region of Southern Africa where the international borders of five countries converge.

Zimbabwe and most other SADC countries have not benefited substantially from the wildlife resource due to Cites ban on ivory trade.

The countries are sitting on tonnes of ivory which they cannot dispose of owing to a Cites ban.

Southern Africa is home to half of Africa’s elephants and Zimbabwe’s population of more than 84 000 against a carrying capacity of 40 000, is only second to that of Botswana in the world.