In the last century, rampant ivory poaching and habitat loss caused African elephant numbers to drop from over ten million animals in 1900 to fewer than 500,000 by the late 1980’s. Uncontrolled hunting for ivory and meat, and loss of habitat continue to threaten the African elephant today.
People often rely on wild animals as a source of meat (commonly referred to as ‘bushmeat’). As populations increase, the demand for bushmeat within Africa is skyrocketing. To make matters worse, people from urban centers and from other continents are increasingly looking to Africa’s forests as sources of wild products. This uncontrolled hunting is stripping Africa’s wilderness areas of elephants and other coveted game animals.
In addition to the ivory and bushmeat trades, the loss of natural elephant habitat and the resulting conflict between elephants and humans threaten elephant survival throughout Africa. As human populations grow and expand into remote areas, natural habitat is cleared and destroyed to make way for agriculture. Elephant populations are compressed into smaller ranges with limited food and water supplies. Hungry elephants may wander into villages and damage crops. People often kill elephants in an attempt to stop the crop raids and people are also sometimes killed trying to fend off elephants.
The specific threats to elephants vary in severity from region to region. Central Africa has been plagued by political instability and civil war which have led to an increased flow of guns into the region and unabated flow of ivory out. Economic hardship has driven people to use these weapons to kill elephants for food and for ivory.
By contrast, in well protected areas of Southern Africa, elephant numbers have stabilized or even increased. In some parks, elephants suffer from crowding due to loss of habitat and blockage of migration routes.
In East Africa, elephant populations have decreased by 65 percent due to poaching and land conversion. Where elephants persist, conflict with humans is on the rise.
Elephants are herbivores, capable of eating both grass and woody vegetation, and formerly occurred in a range of habitats throughout Africa, including tropical rainforests, montane forests, semi-arid savannas, and arid deserts. Their ever-growing tusks, modified incisors, are made of ivory, which is coveted by many cultures for decorative purposes.
Elephants live in family units dominated by female matriarchs, and have complex social networks. They communicate using ultralow frequency sound, mostly below the range of human hearing.
The African elephant was first listed in CITES Appendix III in 1976 and moved to Appendix II the following year. In 1978, the species was listed as Threatened under the ESA. In 1990, after nearly a decade during which African elephant populations dropped by almost 50%, the species was moved to Appendix I of CITES. In 1997, some recovering populations were moved back to Appendix II with strict limitations on trade in ivory.
African Elephant and CoP15
At the 15th Conference of the Parties (CoP15), there are two proposals to transfer African elephants from Appendix I to Appendix II:
• Transfer the population of the United Republic of Tanzania from Appendix I to Appendix II with an annotation
http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/15/prop/E-15-Prop-04.pdf
• Transfer the population of the United Republic of Tanzania from Appendix I to Appendix II for the exclusive purposes of allowing trade in certain specimens
http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/15/prop/E-15-Prop-05.pdf
There is one proposal, to include an annotation on all African elephants that would not allow further trade in elephant specimens or further proposals to downlist elephants for a prescribed period of time:
• Amend annotation on African elephants [
There are other agenda items related to elephant trade in genera:
• Revision of Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev. Cop14), Trade in Elephant Specimens
http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/15/doc/E15-18A07.pdf
