Decades of poaching, shrinking habitats, ivory thieves, spear attacks and terrible droughts have destroyed the majestic elephants on the African continent, according to a report published Thursday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warning that a species was found in rainforests. was a step away from extinction.
In an update of its “red list” of endangered species, the IUCN emphasized the broad deterioration of the situation of elephants in most of Africa. Forest elephants on the continent have been hit particularly hard, it is said.
The number of African forest elephants has fallen by more than 86% over a 31-year period, now considered “critically endangered”, just a step away from extinction, while the population of savannah elephants has fallen by more than 60% over the age of 50, which assesses the global extinction risks for the world’s animals.
Africa currently has 415,000 elephants, counting forest and savannah elephants together, according to the IUCN.
“Today’s new evaluations of the IUCN Red List of Both African Elephant Species underscore the persistent pressure that these iconic animals face,” IUCN Chief Bruno Oberle said in a statement.
Just half a century ago, about 1.5 million elephants roamed Africa, but in the latest large-scale assessment of the population in 2016, there were only about 415,000 left.
“These are really sharp declines,” said Benson Okita-Ouma of Save the Elephants and co-chair of the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group.
While the next full assessment of the number of African elephant populations is not expected until 2022 or 2023, he told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the declines already seen should really sound “alarm bells”.
Elephants will not disappear from Africa overnight, he said, but stressed that “what this assessment gives us is an early warning that if we do not turn things around, it is likely that (see) these animals will become extinct.”
“It’s an alarm clock to the whole world that we are going down a steep terrain when it comes to … the vitality of these elephants,” said Okita-Ouma.
Experts had agreed that it was better to treat African forests and savannah elephants as separate species after new research on the genetics of elephant populations, the IUCN said.
The savannah elephants prefer more open plains and are found in different habitats across sub-Saharan Africa, with Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe in high concentrations.
The African forest elephants, smaller in size, mostly occupy the tropical forests of West and Central Africa, with the largest remaining populations found in Gabon and the Republic of Congo.
Both elephant species had seen particularly sharp declines since 2008, as poaching for ivory exploded. The problem reached its peak in 2011, but continues to threaten the population, the IUCN said.
Even more alarming, according to Okita-Ouma, is the ever-increasing destruction of elephant habitats due to the increasing land use for agriculture and other activities.
“If we do not plan our land use properly, move forward, as much as we stop poaching and we stop the illegal killing of these animals, there will still be other forms of indirect killing as a result of poor land use planning,” he said.
In Gabon, the fight against elephant hunting is “more than just fighting for nature. It is fighting for the stability of our country,” Lee White, Gabon’s Minister of Water and Forestry, told the Associated Press (AP).
“We have seen countries like the Central African Republic, where poachers became bandits, became rebels and destabilized the whole country,” White said, attributing the bulk of poaching and ivory trade to international cross-border syndicates.
A group of forest elephants roam at Langoue Bai in Ivindo National Park, near Makokou, Gabon, April 26, 2019. (AFP Photo)
“Eighty to 90% of our ivory goes to Nigeria and ends up funding (the extremist group) Boko Haram. So it is very much a cross-border fight against organized crime and even against terrorism,” he said. The fight to protect Gabon’s forest elephants is a war, he said.
“We’ve turned biologists into warriors,” White said. “We have transformed people who volunteered to watch elephants and work with nature and national parks into soldiers who have gone to war to survive the elephants.”
Despite the overall declining trend, Thursday’s report highlighted the positive impact that conservation efforts may have. Some forest elephant populations have stabilized in well-managed conservation areas in Gabon and the Republic of Congo.
At the same time, the number of savannah elephants has been stable or increasing for decades in the Kavango-Zambezi cross-border conservation area, which stretches across the borders of five southern African countries.
A savannah elephant eats bushes in Kruger National Park, South Africa, March 4, 2020. (AP Photo)
“Several African countries have led the way in recent years, proving that we can reverse elephant falls, and we must work together to ensure that their example can be followed,” Oberle said.
Okita-Ouma said the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on conservation efforts, as many countries had seen tourism revenues used to fund safeguards evaporate.
At the same time, he said that the dramatic decline in human activity in many areas had enabled elephants to “recolonize” areas they had previously been driven from.
“During the locks, we have seen animals moving everywhere, and that is a positive side for the animals.”
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