Executive Briefing: African Elephants
by Phillip Hathaway
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CONTENTS 3
THE CRISIS
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THE NATURE OF ELEPHANTS
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MARKET DEMAND
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THE DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF THE DEMAND
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THE SUPPLIERS
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THE POACHERS AND TRAFFICKERS
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ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE
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UNPRECEDENTED HUMAN ENCROACHMENT
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NOBLE EFFORTS
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CONCLUSION
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COPYRIGHT © 2015 PHILLIP HATHAWAY NO PORTION OF THIS BRIEFING MAY BE PERFORMED, PUBLISHED, REPRODUCED, SOLD, OR DISTRIBUTED BY ANY MEANS, OR QUOTED OR PUBLISHED IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING ANY WEB SITE, WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF PHILLIP HATHAWAY
3 , PUBLISHED, REPRODUCED, SOLD, OR
The Crisis “Genocide” is the word Richard Ruggerio often uses to describe the crisis. Dr. Ruggiero is Chief of International Wildlife Conservation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. It is a genocide, indeed, when we consider that poachers have killed 100,000 African ele-phants from 2010 to 2012, according to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, with one in 12 elephants killed in 2011.1 The elephant population in Tanzania’s world famous Selous Reserve has plummeted by 67 per cent in just four years. 2 And, there were 1.2 million African elephants in 1980 but only 420,000 in 2012—a staggering loss of 780,000 elephants. 3 Are these inauspicious figures a harbinger of extinction? Some leading experts feel they are not. Others feel extinction is imminently near. This briefing was begun as an inquiry into the crisis faced by the African elephant, particularly the question of their extinction and will provide the reader with a fundamental under-
standing of the crisis. Yet, all of the data and statistics about the crisis, which we will consider in this briefing, would be out of context should we not first discuss the sublime personalities More than 100,000 elephants killed from 2010 to 2012. of those who are its victims. Doing so may help demonstrate the gravity of the crisis and the terrific loss it represents.
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The Nature of Elephants
BELOW: A baby affectionately nuzzles her mother. Female calves and their mothers never part throughout their lifetime.
such as where to find water, food and safety.
The bulls, by contrast, begin to roam freely after reaching the age of 12 or 15 years. Their tusks may grow to eight feet in length or longer, a pair weighing 400 pounds or more. They use them for a variety of needs from shaking food from a tree, helping a fallen friend to his or her feet and fighting. Fighting among themselves is not uncommon. Far from emotionless, Quintessentially noble, they they posses intelligent, distinct are willing to fight valiantly and varied personalities, fully for one another, as well. Bulls alive with feelings like are eminently protective of the cows and calves, at times our own. And so, with an array of subtleties and nuances unwilling to turn away from any challenger, not even their we tend to claim as uniquely human, elephants effortlessly singular predator— humans. The calves are share emotions such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, involuntarily affectionate, gentleness and self control as overflowing with hilarious an unconscious response. It is play and perfected innocence. Touching, caressing and even their nature. holding one another’s trucks in For instance, when a a gentle intertwining, as we cow gives birth to a female might hold hands, is a lifecalf, the two never part; doing giving need as they mature. so would be unthinkable And, as with a human baby, because their feelings for one even maternal and paternal another are far too tender. gesticulations are critical for Wherefore, grandmothers, their full development from mothers, daughters and infancy to adolescence and to granddaughters remain adulthood. To be sure, without inseparable for all their lives. these kindred interactions they And thus, a nurturing, are unable to easily survive. unquestioned matriarchy These tight knit prevails in which the eldest families may roam together cow teaches those who are over great distances without younger important lessons harming other animals as they It is unnecessary in this briefing to discuss our subject zoologically. It may be helpful, however, to discuss their nature in a rather unscientific manner so that the uninitiated reader, those who have not spent time around elephants, will begin to appreciate their majestic charm.
5 forage for their vegan diet of grass, roots, fruit and tree bark. They live in SubSaharan Africa, the rainforests of Central and West Africa and the Sahel Desert in Mali. 4 5 6
Market Demand Thailand, Viet Nam, the Phillippines, Indonesia, China, the Asian communities of the United States and others comprise the market. Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Chad, Cameroon, Tanzania and others are the suppliers. We will, however, focus principally upon the worst offenders: China and Chinese nationals migrating Tanzania. there to manage the China’s population is procurement and logistics of estimated at 1.3 billion, which their colossal exports. is approximately19 percent of In their Forbes article, the world’s people. Yet, they Siege of Africa, Bansal and only posses around 7 percent Suri claim that “The Chinese of the world’s arable land and ‘invasion’ of Africa is have few natural resources. 7 veritably the biggest state-run This imbalance, mixed with their dynamic manufacturing investment in the last decade. They are everywhere. Stateeconomy, creates an run Chinese firms are building unquenchable demand for bridges, roads, telecom imported oil, timber, cooper, networks, airports, and minerals and more. Much of these demands have been met generally boosting the infrastructure all around. In in Africa. Indeed, China has unmistakably colonized Africa return, they are getting access to natural resources.” Their with well over one million
6 $9-billion agreement in Congo is an example in which China has agreed to build roads, rail networks, hospitals and schools for the right to mine cobalt and copper. 8
“At a gallery in Guangzhou, Gary Zeng shows me a photo of a 26-layer ‘devil’s work’ ball on his iPhone. The 42-year-old Zeng has just bought two of these ivory balls from the Daxin Ivory Carving Factory, one for himself and one on behalf of an entrepreneur friend. He’s come to this retail store to see whether he got his money’s worth. I climb into his new Mercedes, drive to his doubleNonetheless, a significant portion of Chinese, gated community, and watch as he hands the less expensive living in China and abroad, ball to his three-year-old for feel that elephant tusks are National Geographic’s Brent nothing more than a commodity. 9 “In every shop Stirton to photograph. It will and factory I visit in China, a become a centerpiece in a new home Zeng is building, to substantial portion of the inventory consists of religious “hold the house against devils,” but for a moment the carvings, including many of $50,000 ball is simply a very the most valuable pieces. precious toy. I ask Zeng why Among the high-end buyers young entrepreneurs like him are military are buying ivory. ‘Value,’ he officers—surprisingly well replies. ‘And art.’ Do you paid in China—who give ivory to superior officers and think about the elephant? I10 companies that give carvings ask. ‘Not at all,’ he says.” to other businesses and This feeling, that ivory government regulators to is a commodity, is reinforced influence them. ‘We call it the by ancient culture, superstition back door,’ a representative of and ignorance among its the governments Chinese Arts people, many of whom and Crafts Association believe that elephant tusks are (CACA) explained. And so potent amulets and potions. ivory is used the way a bottle Even religion has such an This virtual Sino conquering of the African continent has, it seems, engendered feelings of entitlement, which in some cases has degraded to a rapacious quest to plunder. Of course, they must import natural resources to maintain their socio-economic status; yet, they do not need elephant tusks to do so.
BELOW: A Chinese police officer ensures ivory sales will go smoothly.
of Johnnie Walker Blue might once have been, except that if the gift works, then ivory blesses its giver as well as its recipient.
7 influence. “Buddhist monks perform a ceremony called kai guang, the opening of light, to consecrate religious icons. “Ivory is very precious,” Xue tells me, “so to be respectful of the Buddha one should use precious material. If not ivory then gold. But ivory is more precious.” 11 This ambivalence to the horrific suffering of elephants seems to contradict Buddhistic teachings of reverence for all living things, to which 18 percent of China’s population are adherents. 12 Ironically, many seem to be unaware that ivory, a euphemism for elephant tusks, in fact, comes from elephants. Some may also be unaware that elephants are brutally killed—often butchered alive—to obtain the tusks; and others, who know it comes from elephants, think elephants are unharmed when the tusks are taken, assuming it regrows after extraction.
incident that occurred in March of 2013 when the General Secretary of the Communist Party, President Xi Jinping, arrived in Tanzania on an official state visit. When he left, his presidential plane was loaded with elephant tusks. “The trip was Xi Jinping's first foreign tour as head of state. Traders told the group that similar ivory sales took place on an earlier trip by China's former President Hu Jintao.” 13 Consequently, (1) the The Environmental Chinese colonization of Investigative Agency Africa, providing ready access (EIA) surreptitiously gained to tusks, (2) the feeling of information from two tusk entitlement to take all that is traders about the presidential wanted from their African visit. The traders revealed to colonies and (3) the cultural EIA investigators that, “sales superstitions and ignorance of boomed when a large hundreds of millions of entourage arrived during a Chinese, drives this systemic visit to Tanzania by the industrialized acquisition. Chinese president, Xi Jinping Vividly illustrating the in March of 2013. The large Chinese problem is an Chinese government and
ABOVE: Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete.
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business delegation on the visit used the opportunity to procure such a large amount of ivory that local prices increased. The two traders claimed that a fortnight before the state visit, Chinese buyers began purchasing thousands of kilos of ivory later sent to China in diplomatic bags on the presidential plane.” One trader said that the local price doubled to $700 (US) per kilo during the presidential visit. 14 Since China’s “paramount” leader, as he is called, brazenly used the people’s presidential plane to smuggle elephant tusks, which is an egregious crime in
China, Tanzania and a violation of international law, then all Chinese nationals are essentially given implicit permission to follow his example.
Rice, Director of the EIA, Tanzania’s elephant population was estimated to be 142,788 in 2006. Yet, Rice says that, “In 2009 it was estimated that the elephant population in Tanzania decreased to about 109,051.” Rice reports that even in Tanzania’s Selous ecosystem, which is a World Heritage Site, the “elephant population fell by 66% in just over four years from 38,975 in 2009 to 13,084 in 2013, the lowest ever recorded since 1976. In the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem, also in Tanzania, a population decline of 37% has been recorded from 31,625 in 2009 to 20,900 in 2013.” 15 Of course, we must remember that 65% of all Africans elephants have been lost since 1980. It is little wonder that Richard Riggerio refers to the elephant’s plight as “genocide.”
Devastation of the ecosystem: Furthermore, subtracting forest elephants The Devastating Effects from the ecological equation harms the astonishing local of the Demand diversity of flora, a significant carbon-sequestering region of The devastation of elephants: the Earth. For, gardening is a Let’s take a closer by product of the forest look at how this plunderous elephant’s life-style. They are, demand from China has possibly, one of the world’s devastated one elephant range most prolific natural country alone—Tanzania. gardeners. According to Mary
9 As they roam through the forests, creating trails that other animals depend upon, they eat and deposit a plethora of seeds over hundreds of acres. New trees and plants that keep the forest healthy and contribute to fresh air, spring up from their numerous dung piles. Their movements within the forest also maintain salt-rich forest clearings, critical feeding areas for many animals, including gorillas.
tragedy, indeed, when cows are killed for, in such cases, nursing calves often endure a lingering death of starvation. Those younger elephants who survive an attack in which their parents are killed, nonetheless, suffer debilitating trauma. For, without patriarchal, matriarchal examples from which they learn essential survival habits, adolescents flounder and infants have little chance at all. As we But there has been a recall our discussion of the cataclysmic disappearance of Nature of Elephants, it is no forest elephants, from 322,000 surprise that many calves, and in 2002 to only 80,000 in probably adults, die from a 2013, a 76% decline. This broken heart. mass murder affects their behavior, of course. Devastation of the They now avoid roads not protected by rangers. Once wide-ranging, and free, many families are isolated, afraid to venture into their former domains. As a result, they are no longer prodigious gardeners. And so, the forests and all who live within them suffers.
economy: Tourism provided one in twenty jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2011, contributing over $100 billion in 2014. And, The World Bank predicts that tourism will directly employ 6.7 million people in this region by 2021.
They are also blocked from vital food, mineral and water resources necessary to maintain their health. Now, they must spend more time seeking food; and perhaps, there is little or no time for play, leisure or tender affections amongst their tight knit tribal clans. 16
As many as 38 million tourists visiting Sub-Saharan Africa each year make this possible. And, seeing exotic animals in the wild is of keen interest to most of them, particularly the iconic elephant. This is why their loss has a tremendous impact
It is a heartrending
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on Africa’s economy.
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The Suppliers Tom Bawden, of UK based The Independent, reports disturbing news about the suppliers in his February 5, 2015 article titled, Corrupt officials and Chinese gangs destroy Tanzania’s elephant population. Bawden says, “Chinese criminal gangs are conspiring with corrupt Tanzanian officials to traffic vast quantities of ivory, according to an alarming investigation, which finds that the trading is so pervasive it even involves high-level diplomatic visits.”
“Wildlife and tourism in Africa are interdependent,” says Jena Gardner, cofounder of the Bodhi Tree Foundation, Bawden claims that which seeks to unite tourism professionals to save African “Tanzania has lost half of its elephants in the past five years wildlife. and two-thirds since 2006, With no wildlife to mostly to poaching. This has view, travelers will almost left the country with an certainly disappear and elephant population of just subsequently, safari lodges 50,500, making it by far the and African tour operators world’s biggest victim in the will probably disappear, too. ivory trade. At the other end Millions of people employed of the trade chain, China is the directly or indirectly in biggest consumer as the tourism may lose their jobs . rapidly growing middle-class Local communities, many of population seeks ivory as a which depend upon on status symbol.” 20 revenue from safari lodges, On March 22, 2014, will presumably become Martin Fletcher of The Mail impoverished and, thus, on Sunday, another UK based protection for the remaining wildlife will likely vanish, as newspaper, reported his well, followed by the wildlife, findings after an investigation into the Tanzanian tusk trade. itself. 19 “This is the world’s largest
11 ivory stockpile. More than 34,000 tusks weighing roughly 125 tons are stored in the warehouse behind the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in Dar es Salaam [Tanzania]. They would be worth about £150 million on China’s black market.” At today’s currency rate, this equals $228 million.
Chama Cha Mapinduzi, are in power, few arrests will be made for trafficking; and, of those few arrested, probably none will be convicted.
Poachers and Traffickers
Fletcher reports that, “The country is easily the world’s biggest exporter of this illicit ‘white gold.’” One might question if Tanzanian president, Jakaya Kikwete is in the export business. Shortly after assuming his presidential duties in 2005, the Selous Game Reserve alone had approximately 70,000 elephants. Now that number is about 13,000. The Mail on Sunday asked “how the Prince of Wales and Prime Minister could shake the hand of Jakaya Kikwete, the Tanzanian leader who has presided over such a slaughter.” It was also reported that, “Many politicians, officials and wellconnected businessmen were active accomplices in the illegal ivory trade, and that there was corruption from top to bottom.” 21 It is no surprise, then, that as long as President Kikwete and his ruling party,
Poachers are the hunter-killers and are most commonly local residents who use weapons which vary from rocket launched grenades, machine guns, spears and poison. 22 Yet, some are equipped with even more sophisticated equipment and use helicopters to surprise a family of elephants with intense spotlights while the herds are sleeping at night. Assaults increase during a full moon providing poachers with increased visual abilities. While the elephants are dying in agony from multiple gun shot wounds, it is regretable to report that the poachers mercilessly hack off their faces with axes in order to extract a few more inches of tusk. 23 Even the calves are sometimes killed, if they have tusks. 24 The calves who survive often cry while touching their mother with their trunk and eventually die from shock, starvation or
BELOW: Jakaya Kikwete, the President of Tanzania. Is he taking money from traffickers?
12 grenades, they dispatched the elephants with a military precision reminiscent of a 2006 butchering outside Chad’s Zakouma National Park. And then some stopped to pray to Allah. They killed more than 300.” 26 27
ABOVE: Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army and vicious killer of hundreds, perhaps, thousands of elephants.
attack from predators. The precious few who are rescued are often inconsolable, unable to eat or sleep and die from the trauma of losing their families. 25
Forest elephants, rather than savanna elephants, are especially prized for the unique quality of their tusks. One of the largest studies ever conducted in the central African forests revealed that 62 percent of the forest elephants have been killed." 28 As we have seen, these figures have been validated by the most recent study which indicates that forest elephant populations plummeted shockingly from 2002 to 2013 by 76%. 29
The poachers are usually paid around $45 per pound and are disconnected from the organized National Geographic reported that one of the largest syndications that receive as much as $1,000 per pound at elephant slaughters occurred final destination markets. A during January 2012 in joint UN and INTERPOL Cameroon in which, “a hundred raiders on horseback study conducted in 2013 concluded that revenues from charged out of Chad into elephant tusks brought almost Cameroon's Bouba Ndjidah $200 million to these crime National Park, slaughtering hundreds of elephants—entire syndicates and this fantastic families—in one of the worst profiteering is sometimes intertwined with terrorism and concentrated killings since a geo-political destabilization. 30 global ivory trade ban was adopted in 1989. Carrying “The Lord’s AK-47s and rocket-propelled Resistance Army—a vicious
13 guerilla group led by the infamous Joseph Kony —appears to be the biggest offender and the poaching has helped to breathe new life into the militant group. ‘Ivory has injected new blood into the LRA, which was nearly on its last legs in 2014,’ Sasha Lezhnev, Associate Director of Policy at the Enough Project, which recently released a report regarding poaching, told FoxNews.com. ‘The LRA is one of the groups chiefly responsible for the poaching, along with Congolese army commanders and South Sudanese poachers.’
groups such as Al Shabaab and the LRA may be using proceeds from poaching to help fund their operations. These transnational criminal organizations manipulate fragile regions by enabling corruption through the use of vast sums to bribe park rangers and government officials, effectively undermining rule of law and stability. But it doesn’t stop there. Trafficking elephant tusks in the local range countries creates a rippling effect, destabilizing international regions, as well. It’s a global problem requiring a global solution.
“The LRA was [more than] decimated in 2012 -
We have a good idea of where the tusks are 13—the number of its fighters originating, their distribution channels and destination. was one-tenth that from a decade before—so it needed a “DNA tests on large ivory seizures over the last five new lifeline. Ivory trafficked years have shown the vast through Sudanese-held majority is sourced from two territory, as well as gold and areas: Tanzania's Selous diamonds, has provided that lifeline and is a chief source of Reserve and Central Africa's Congo Basin rainforest. financing for the LRA.” 31 Almost all of it ends up in GPSE has received large, consolidated stockpiles reports from extremely at the ports of Mombasa reliable sources, which have [Kenya], Dar es Salaam and requested anonymity, Zanzibar [both Tanzanian confirming the involvement of cities].” 32 Al Shabaab and the LRA. They also confirm the above findings that poaching is funding armed conflict, terrorism, and transnational organized crime. Militant
BELOW: Another photograph of one of the most cruel-hearted poachers, Joseph Kony.
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Adding Fuel to the Fire Even amidst the ongoing genocide, hunters are granted permission by range states and various governments around the world to kill elephants. “And the figures obtained by International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) indicate that more elephants are legally killed by US hunters than are poached in some African countries.” 33 ABOVE: A baby elephants gleefully plays with a soccer ball.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service allows hunters to kill two elephants per year and import parts of their bodies as so called “trophies”. 34 Of course, under these guidelines, hunters could kill many elephants for it is only the importation of body parts that is regulated. And, John Jackson III, Chairman and President of Conversation Force, a Louisiana-based hunting advocacy group, says, “About one thousand hunters received a permit to kill elephants [annually].” 35 Again, there is no limit on the number of elephants killed, only the number of importations into the US. So, how would these numbers increase should we include results of hunters from other countries? It is easy to see how “sport”
hunting does, indeed, kill more elephants than poachers in some range states as the IFAW suggests. But mindful of the disturbing facts we have considered thus far in our inquiry, we must ask why anyone would wish to exacerbate the genocide by hunting down and killing more of its victims. Are some of these hunters merely, “spiteful, as if for some strange reason they couldn’t stand to see a wild thing so natural, so unafraid, and apparently so happy?” 36 Hunters argue that culling is needed to prevent overpopulation. This is presently a nonsensical argument since deaths outnumber births. Yet, even in conditions in which populations were growing, culling has become an antiquated method of population control, which deprives the world of one of it’s most regal creations. Jon Herskovitz discusses a much more intelligent approach. “Kwa Zulu-Natal province, in the southeast, is looking to expand a project running for more than a decade where elephants populations have been controlled by injecting cows with a vaccine that triggers an immune system response to block sperm reception.
15 Testing of the vaccine, administered by dart and requiring an annual booster, has been conducted at 14 small reserves. Studies have shown it is reversible, nearly 100 percent effective and has no adverse impact on elephant health or behavior.” 37 Hunting also posses an ecological conundrum. “Scientists from the Universities of Stirling, Oxford, Queensland and the Wildlife Conservation Society warn that current hunting trends in Central African forests could result in complete ecological collapse. The authors maintain that the current rate of unsustainable hunting of forest elephants, gorillas and other seeddispersing species threatens the ability of forest ecosystems to regenerate, and that landscape-wide hunting management plans are needed to avoid an environmental catastrophe.” 38 Nevertheless, without considering the ecological impact, hunters argue that an elephant’s body can feed a village. And so, about one million metric tons of bush meat is eaten each year, the equivalent of 9 billion quarter pounders. Much of this is elephant meat supplied by hunters. The affinity for elephant meat has been generational in may cases.
Thus, Africa’s natural heritage is being slaughtered and eaten. 39 This cavalier attitude is illustrated by a recent article in The Atlantic, in which it is reported that a Zimbabwean game farm owner “has pledged two elephants, two buffalo, two sable antelopes and five impalas for a giant barbeque at [President of Zimbabwean] Robert Mugabe’s birthday party this weekend [February 15, 2015] . . . ” 40 Once again, we have another head of state flagrantly eating elephant bushmeat, implicitly giving many others license to do the same. Hunting and killing an elephant is easier than maintaining a cattle herd. Yet, this leads to a cycle of hunger, malnutrition, disease and desperation. In many cases no refrigeration exists and, therefore, much of the meat rots before it can be safely eaten. Even after consuming the meat that remains edible, they are still deprived of essential vitamin and minerals. To break this cycle, hungry villagers must learn to plant crops to satisfy their nourishment. Crops could also be traded or sold at market for other needs. Should hunters wish to help such villagers, they could invest a fraction of what they spend on hunting to
BELOW: Robert Mugabe, the notorious president of Zimbabwe who dined on two elephants who were killed and butchered for his birthday.
16 wildlife force says, “I assure my people of South Sudan: let us not look at oil only. Well maintained wildlife has the potential to generate enough revenue for the State, County and Payam.” 41
Images courtesy and copyright of the David Wildlife Trust
ABOVE: A baby affectionately nuzzles her mother unaware of the danger nearby.
provide agrarian lessens for them. Another common argument of hunters is that hunting spurs the economy. This is debatable. For in the long term, the absence of elephants brings fewer tourists, which sends local economies in a down spiral from which it is difficult to recover. Then locals are tempted from desperation to poach. So, it is by far, more economically beneficial to never hunt elephants for this imperils the livelihood of locals. Simply stated: killing elephants kills the economy. Whereas, photo tours, sight seeing tours and other types of touring boosts the economy in the short and long term. Jimmy Marle, a member of the Sudanese regional
John Jackson, III says his hunting organization, “funnels benefits to local people in programs in which they participate as decisionmakers. In those cases, the tourist safari hunters donate sums to Conservation Force and we put it to work for the community.” Jackson claims to have built 58 schools and 12 medical facilities in Tanzania. But Peter LaFontaine of IFAW disagrees. “We found that only about three percent of the hunting revenue actually goes to local community development,” IFAW’s LaFontaine says. And “almost none of the money spent on expeditions accrues to local communities. Instead, it remains with the (mostly foreign) tour outfitters and travel companies, in urban centers, central government agencies and, often, bribes for officials.” LaFontaine argues that ecotourism, like photographic wildlife safaris, is more practical —and lucrative—than sport hunts. In Botswana, for example,
17 “ecotourism is 12 percent of GDP. It’s astonishing. Nowhere does sport hunting account for a significant amount of GDP, and only a very small fraction of total tourism revenues.” 42 Hunters continue the debate by referring to crops or villages destroyed by elephants. In many cases, locals have taken over a herd’s grazing land so it is only natural that herd members wish to continue roaming and eating where they have done so for many generations. Should elephants be blamed for such human intrusions? Yet many are killed for this reason. Rather than killing them, villagers and farmers can repel elephants by spraying then with cayenne pepper, a harmless, natural repellent. Many other simple remedies are available, as well. 43 Virtually all hunters claim that killing elephants is a sport. A sport, however, typically demands eye-hand coordination, peripheral vision, stamina, speed, agility, mental fortitude and—a worthy opponent; yet killing an elephant requires none of these. Neither dexterity nor keen marksmanship is needed. For, there is none, if any, athleticism required to ride in a range vehicle, walk only a
few yards in some cases and shoot a large, nearby target. What victory is won? What emotional gratification is derived from destroying an opponent who possess no ability to win? Finally, we ask a question which may be the strongest of all arguments against killing elephants for sport; it was posed by an old farmer in a colloquialism which, it is hoped, accentuates its meaning, “Who give you rights to go ’round takin’ such beauty an’ joy out of the world?” 44
Unprecedented Human Encroachment The answer to the question asked by the sage
BELOW: The mother lies dead after being killed by a poacher who shot her the day after the photo on the previous page was taken. Her baby grieves holding what remains of her tusk. Images courtesy and copyright of the David Wildlife Trust
18 sharp contrast to European women who average 1.6 children and North American women who average 1.9 children. 48 So, for all these reasons, Sub-Saharan Africans would probably answer the question posed by the wise old farmer by replying, “We’re hungry.”
ABOVE: A woman in Sub-Saharan Africa who, like the average women there, has five children.
farmer is fatuously obvious to conservationists. Yet, it is most likely a debate point without merit to those Africans who lack literate cognitive skills, of whom there are many. Literacy is only 63% in sub-Saharan Africa. 45 Of the 10 countries with the lowest recorded adult literacy rates throughout the world, 9 are in Africa. 46 And, “With 30% of its population suffering from chronic hunger and malnutrition, Africa has the highest percentage of undernourished people in the world. 47
This is a superficially logical answer yet also representational of their unwillingness to satisfy their hunger with long term agricultural planning. As we have suggested, it is much easier to kill a national treasure than tend crops. Such recalcitrance will not change, we fear, as SubSaharan Africa’s population exponentially geometricizes over the next few decades.
“A new report predicts that sub-Saharan Africa will record the world's largest population growth between now and 2050. According to the Population Reference Bureau, the world's poorest It seems they would be region will more than double keen to practice birth control. in population, from 1.1 billion But, the Population Reference to 2.4 billion. Bureau reports that women in “‘Africa's population Sub-Saharan Africa currently explosion has the potential to average 5.2 children during zoom past current estimates’, their lifetime. In some African said Carl Haub, a senior countries, such as Niger, the demographer at the Population birth rate is as high as 7.6 Reference Bureau, a children per woman. This is in
19 Washington-based non-profit group.
only slightly more comforting. Yet, are they also including an “‘Sub-Saharan Africa invalid component to their equation—declining birth has, without a doubt, the rates which have not greatest population growth occurred—as Carl Haub potential of any region,’ said Haub. ‘The projection today is suggested? “Sub-Sahara Africa that it will increase by about has the highest youngest two and a half times. But the population in the world. Over important thing to remember 44% of the population is is that even that projection under 15 years old. A younger assumes that the birth ate in population creates different sub-Saharan Africa will problems to an ageing one as decrease. And in many of those countries today, it [has] the population is growing. A rapidly increasing [younger] not.’” 49 Consequently, the population could exceed their population puts an increased demand on facilities and projection of 2.4 billion by resources such as food, 2050. housing, schools and “Cairo, Kinshasa and 52 Lagos are the only megacities hospitals.” in Africa in 2014, but three “Africa accounted for more are expected to emerge only 9 per cent of the world’s by 2030, as Dar es Salaam population in 1950, but by the (Tanzania), Johannesburg end of this century about 40 (South Africa), and Luanda per cent of all humans (and (Angola) are each projected to nearly half of all children) surpass the 10 million mark. will be African, heralding one The number of large cities with populations between 5 and 10 million in Africa is also expected to increase, from three in 2014 to twelve in 2030.” 50 Another report predicts that, “in 2010, over 800 million people lived in sub-Saharan Africa and the numbers are projected to increase to 1.2 billion in 2025 and nearly 2 billion in 2050.” 51
These projections are
BELOW: A little boy sits among filth in one the slums so common in Sub-Saharan Africa.
20 industrialization and the growth of large cities impede birth rates. Higher living standards which, in turn, create more wants and greater expenses from raising children also curtails births. Increased literacy and higher learning does so, as well. 55 Yet, a huge population does not automatically cause any of these; nor does a city—necessarily. The word city implies a degree of functional organization, which may be too lacking in some ABOVE: of the fastest and most radical Sub-Saharan cases to reduce births. For, although big cities demographic changes in What priority will be given history . . . While every other exist presently in the Subelephants when the hungry, Saharan, we have seen that often illiterate population who continent is seeing a slower 30% of its population, rise in births, or even a lives in these slums doubles? decline, UNICEF projects that nonetheless, suffers from 1.8 billion babies will be born malnutrition. Clean water became less available to 63 in Africa over the next 35 million people or 24% of the years, and the total African population from 1990 to 2011. population will nearly 56 And, 37% of the population quadruple to about 4.2 billion is illiterate, which implies that by the end of the century.” 53 the reading 63% may not Researchers at the posses the higher cognitive University of Washington skills to adequately address report that these dire findings the approaching misery. are due to, “an average birth How will these figures rate of 5.2 children per change amidst this eruption of African woman and generous humanity? If such misery exits aid handouts from developed there now, what will happen countries, which some when there is twice as much researchers argue have hunger, disease and artificially sustained rapid ignorance? growth rates which would War has been a naturally be kept in check by societal staple of Africa for diseases and famine.” 54 centuries and there are several Typically, waging there presently. Will
21 war simply intensify and be waged on a grander scale? Will these overburdened countries fight for water and arable land? In the thick of this survival strapped chaos, what priority will be relegated to elephants by semi-literate, hungry, bushmeat-eaters as their hordes spread to the ranges? And so, more fuel is poured upon the genocidal fire, already industrialized by China, the population of which will also explode.
Noble Efforts In the game of chess, to interpose is to place a pawn or piece between an attacked king and the attacking piece. An ineffective interposition, or useless interpose, ultimately wastes a player’s turn and one or more of his pieces, as well. Ultimately, it does nothing to protect the king. Similarly, placing a plan between elephants and traffickers that does not work is an ineffective interposition. With appropriate humility, some examples of these noble efforts have been included to illustrate what has been tried unsuccessfully. By doing so, we do not focus on
the negative; neither in any way are we ridiculing those who have genuinely tried to help. Rather, we genuinely grateful for these efforts and are merely eliminating options as a chess player might eliminate ineffective moves.
• Increasing Status From Threatened to Endangered - While this change needs to be made, it will, of course, have no effect on trafficking, poaching or hunting for bushmeat; and, according to Janine Van Norman, Chief of the Branch of Foreign Species of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, it will only impose prohibitive restrictions on “sport” hunting but not stop it.
BELOW: Has the war against poachers and traffickers been similar to what is known in chess as a series of useless interposes?
22 • Interception at Trafficking Routes - Since we can identify the origins, distribution channels and ports through DNA sampling, it seems that the solution is interception at these routes. Yet, the many avenues of exit from range countries and their porous borders make this logistically impractical.
ABOVE: Chinese president Xi Jinping loaded his president plane with elephant tusks after an official state visit to Tanzania thereby giving implicit permission for all Chinese nationals to follow his example.
• Law Enforcement Another seemingly obvious solution is enforcement of local laws. Yet, as we have seen, the ruling party in Tanzania, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi seems to give sub rosa approval to trafficking. We have also seen how the Secretary General of the Communist Party, President Xi Jinping, has given tacit approval of trafficking to Chinese nationals by “loading” the people’s presidential plane with elephant tusks in a March 2013 state visit to Tanzania. Even our greatly respected rangers, the noblesse oblique of all conservationists, have been hampered, not from lack of bravery or abilities, but singularly because they have been routinely ill-equipped and micro managed by governments that are often corrupt. • Providing rangers
with better support and equipment - once again, this is a mute point for they are often micro managed by politicians who collude with traffickers.
• Removal of Tusks This has been attempted unsuccessfully. Poachers kill them even for the little portion of remaining tusk that surgical removal leaves in place. This is a quantitatively, logistically impractical solution. It is also painful and cruel. They need their tusk for defense, helping family members who may have fallen and many other uses. • Replacing Poaching with Tourism - This has been considered since it would increase local revenue; yet, traffickers would still seek tusks and poachers would still be out to make easy money. • Cutting Off Foreign Aid - This would motivate the local citizenry to poach out of desperation. • Sending in Tactically Sophisticated Para Military Teams - A group of prior military civilians attempted to protect the elephants in Tanzania. These men were former members of elite special forces units. Yet, the Tanzanian government placed
23 so many restrictions upon them that they were unable to use tactics needed to engage poachers. • Awareness Campaigns - These are excellent for activism, of course, and, in general, are to be applauded. Many have became involved in the crusade to save elephants because of them. Here are recent results from awareness campaigns in China: “There was a 51.5 percent increase in those who believed that elephant poaching is a problem: 70.6 percent in 2014 compared to just 46.6 percent in 2012. “The surveys found a 44.8 percent increase in those who believed that elephants were poached for their tusks: 47.8 percent of respondents in 2014 compared to only 33 percent in 2012. Residents believing tusks are obtained only from natural elephant mortality fell from 33.8 percent in 2012 to just 10.5 percent in 2014. “95 percent of residents agree that the ‘Chinese government should impose a ban on the ivory trade to help stop the poaching of elephants in Africa.’” 57 Perhaps, this is the threshold of change.
However, can we attribute these propitious figures solely to awareness campaigns? Don’t they also represent independent reports made by the media, word of mouth, organized protests and other means of awareness? So we must ask, how effectively do awareness campaigns from the West influence a 5,000 year-old oriental culture embraced by billions of people of the East? Moreover, what do these figures truly represent? For, the specter of death still rises with the Sun on 30,000 to 50,000 elephants each year. Once again, those who orchestrate these campaigns are doing a noble deed. Yet, we ask with sincere respect, what is their value when measured on the ground, through the eyes of the elephants?
BELOW: CITES Secretary General John E. Scanlon shakes hands with Chinese Vice Prime Minister Wang Yang.
24 • The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Karl Amman, a wild life film maker asks, “Is it more about a lot of international travel attending back-slapping conferences and meetings with five-star hotel accommodation and lots of
measured increase in elephant poaching to fuel the ivory trade.” 59
CITES’s 1997 approval to sell elephant tusks was meant to undermine the market by lowering the price, thereby, reducing profits and creating a disincentive for trafficking. But it had the reverse effect. Southeast Asia, perhaps purposefully, ABOVE: misconstrued this as an shopping, than it is about A CITES promotional poster implicit invitation to buy and curtailing the illegal trade in celebrating its 40 year sell. Yet, what causes wildlife?” He continues by anniversary, during which incredulous dismay among time 65% of African elephants describing CITES as a "toothless tiger which will not conservationists is that, after have disappeared. this plan proved to be bite." 58 resounding failure in 1997, We do not necessarily CITES implemented it again agree. Yet, at the same time, in 20008. we must ask why CITES “CITES is sticking failed to stop the genocide and band-aids on with one hand control trafficking. We feel that CITES may provide what and fueling poaching with the other. Its failure to combat the could be useful, conceivably fundamental driver of the even essential, data. killing amounts to gross Nonetheless, the genocide appears to continue unabated, international negligence,” says Dr Rosalind Reeve of David which has led to frustration Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. and anger among wildlife conservationists. “We’re disappointed by the lack of urgency from Realists within the governments to speed up the conservationist community sanctions process against may, “have expected a countries that have failed to commitment from CITES to act for years to curb the illegal categorically state that their ivory trading mechanism has ivory trade in their countries, while the slaughter of been a shambolic failure, thousands of elephants noting that since the two continues in Africa,” said CITES approved so called one-off sales of ivory in 1997 Carlos Drews, head of World Wildlife Fund’s CITES and 2008 there has been a
25 delegation. Steve Itela, director of Youth for Conservation says, “Evidence is irrefutable that China bears the main responsibility for the elephant poaching crisis yet it continues to hide behind a facade of denial . . . China could end the killing by immediately closing its domestic ivory markets and severely punishing citizens engaged in illegal ivory trade. But it chooses ivory trinkets for a luxury market over live elephants.” Is CITES indulging China? The director of Robin des Bois, Charlotte Nithart, adds: “Any further discussion of legalizing ivory trade is a recipe for extinction . . . Just as the legal trade in cigarettes, medicines, and weapons has not stopped them being smuggled, the legal trade in ivory has not stopped the slaughter of elephants and smuggling of their ivory.” “Any discussions on legalizing trade in wildlife products be it ivory, rhino horns, or tiger parts is stimulating demand,” explains Mary Rice, Executive Director of EIA. "Such rhetoric must cease immediately if we are to reverse the trend toward extinction of these and other species.” 60 "CITES has a tendency
to be swayed by proposals suggesting that large species such as elephants can be exploited sustainably and the profits set aside to provide funds for future conservation when there is no evidence that these have ever worked other than superficially in the short term," said Andrew Dobson, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University. "In contrast, there is evidence that shows how rapidly these schemes lead to loss of the resource species and only short-term profitability to the few individuals who ran the scheme." 61
Conclusion Elephants, and conservationists alike, have been
26
“A fair measurement of success must be seen from the vantage point of elephants.”
adding to this ongoing massacre, exceeding kills by poachers in some range states. As we have demonstrated, hunting elephants is, on every level, throughly detrimental; and, culling has been antiquated by easier, more proficient population control technologies. Bushmeat hunting is another problem. Approximately one million metric tons of bush meat is eaten each year, the equivalent of 9 billion quarter pounders. Some of this is elephant meat. Thus, poachers and hunters have become iconoclasts of overwhelmed by a Africa’s living symbol. juggernaut of death and Both types of hunting destruction that is systemic, diminishes the value of industrialized and fed by elephants, sending a damning insect-like greed. message to those who might The precipitous drop as easily be influenced to from 1.2 million African protect them. Together, the elephants in 1980 to only unrelenting onslaught of 420,000 in 2012—a loss of poaching and hunting 780,000 elephants or 65%—is damages local economies that especially troubling; for, this largely depend upon tourists may be the dramatic who wish to see elephants in manifestation of an the wild. In turn, locals poach incomplete continuum, the from desperation and the cycle end of which could be spirals downward. extinction. Traffickers are From the best, up-tosignificantly enabled by (1) date estimates, it appears that the Chinese colonization of poachers may be presently Africa, providing ready access killing as many as 50,000 to tusks, (2) the feeling of elephants each year, although entitlement to take all that is we may rest assured that the wanted from their African number is consistently 30,000. colonies and (3) the cultural “Sport” hunters are superstitions and ignorance of
27 hundreds of millions of Chinese and Southeast Asians. Masters of stealth, traffickers and are, in many cases, protected by criminals politicians who are often their partners and, in other cases, they are protected by state government. When rarely prosecuted they are seldom convicted. Organized poachers, such as Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, appear to carry out their wanton slaughter of entire herds without fear of the law. Therefore, it must be submitted, with appropriate humility, that no prevailing guard stands between the African elephant and these predators. Shipments of elephant tusks flow to China with almost unbroken sequence in spite of the best strategic formulas of conservationists and law enforcement officials. Even tactical maneuvers by rangers are hampered by local criminal politicians and it is not uncommon for some rangers to receive payoffs from them. From the ominous discoveries of this inquiry, it seems quite feasible that the African elephant could become extinct within 15 years, if we use the conservative estimate of 30,000 being killed annually
and assume no change in this current trend: (420k total African elephants)
á (30k killed each year) = 14 years Reducing the demand from Southeast Asia will require the oceanic change of a gargantuan, ancient culture and years to implement. During this interval, we may presume that traffickers will send poachers to new territories such as Botswana, which has been relatively safe thus far. However, being about the size of France, its borders will be challenging to protect. Yet, elephants simultaneously face attack
BELOW: This tiny newborn baby elephant is shy but that doesn’t stop her overflowing affection.
28 from another front: The geometric multiplication of human births in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is predicted that the populace will equal 1.25 billion in 2025, nearly 2 billion in 2050 and 4 billion by 2100. We can expect that this exponential explosion will bring unprecedented encroachment as additional people venture toward elephant ranges, robbing them of their homes. And so, a confluence of two deadly rivers converge upon elephants: industrialized trafficking and unparalleled human encroachment. Should the tide of trafficking be turned back and controlled, human encroachment may present an equaling insidious threat. In the face of this two pronged advance, individuals, nations and NGOs have, in many cases it seems, abdicated their responsibilities to CITES with a false sense of security. CITES has been operational since 1975 and has 180 member nations. Why, therefore, has it not marshaled a coalescence of authority from among them to stop the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of elephants since 1975? So, while it seems entirely feasible that the African elephant will become
extinct within 15 years from trafficking, it is probable they will become extinct from a deadly combination: (1) trafficking, (2) hunting, (3) human encroachment and (4) lack of leadership from conservationists. Perhaps the later of these, it is humbly suggested, is the most tragic. Finally, a fair measurement of success must be seen from the vantage point of elephants. Therefore, to succeed we must agree that nothing has yet succeeded. Meaningful progression requires that we start from this ice cold fact.
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36