Elephant Management and Poaching in African Countries

[Lisbeth]

New report highlights continued threat to African elephants from poaching

BY CITES - 10 MAY 2019 - PRESS RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE

Geneva, 10 May 2019 – An updated assessment by the CITES programme Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) has confirmed that poaching continues to threaten the long-term survival of the African elephant.

MIKE evaluates relative levels of illegal killing based on the Proportion of Illegally Killed Elephants (PIKE). This is calculated as the number of illegally killed elephants found, divided by the total number of elephant carcasses encountered by patrols or other means, aggregated by year for each site. PIKE levels above 0.5 means that more elephant deaths reported were due to illegal killing than other types of death.

The evidence reveals that the Proportion of Illegally Killed Elephants (PIKE) peaked in 2011 at 0.77, when an alarming 10% of African elephants were poached. It then steadily declined through 2017 to 0.53 and remained relatively unchanged in 2018.

Such high PIKE levels are of concern because even in well-established and protected elephant populations, the annual losses due to illegal killing and other mortalities would not be compensated by birth rates. Many African elephant populations are small and fragmented and not well-protected, making them even more vulnerable to poaching. As PIKE levels remain above 0.5 in Africa, the number of African elephants in some countries continues to decline.

African elephant populations have fallen from an estimated 12 million a century ago to some 400,000, according to the most recent estimations contained in the 2016 IUCN/SSC African Elephant Status Report.

“Illegal killing of African elephants for ivory remains a significant threat to elephant populations in most of the range States. At the same time, the human population of Africa has grown tenfold, from 125 million to 1,225 million, creating competition for land with elephants.” said CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero. “We must continue to reduce poaching and illegal trade in ivory and find solutions to ensure the coexistence of elephants with local people. This means strengthening law enforcement, reducing demand for illegally sourced ivory and securing the livelihoods of people living with elephants. The international community should further expand its work with the African range States to find solutions that work both for the elephants and for local communities.”

International trade in elephant ivory has been banned by CITES since 1990. Opinions differ between countries about whether this ban should continue or not. African countries where elephant populations are sufficiently healthy and sustainable argue that they should be permitted to resume the ivory trade, among other things, to generate funds for the conservation of elephants. The African elephant and the debate over the ivory trade will be a major item on the agenda of the next triennial CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP18), originally planned for May in Colombo, Sri Lanka, but to be rescheduled for a later date.

The MIKE findings

The MIKE programme has been established under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The 183 Parties to CITES will review MIKE’s findings at CoP18.

MIKE operates in a large sample of designated sites spread across the range of African elephants, Loxodonta africana, and Asian elephants, Elephas maximus, in 30 countries in Africa and 13 countries in Asia. MIKE data is collected in designated MIKE sites by law enforcement and ranger patrols in the field. When an elephant carcass is found, site personnel try to establish the cause of death and other details, such as sex and age of the animal, status of ivory, and stage of decomposition of the carcass. These data are submitted to the CITES MIKE programme for analysis.

A database of more than 19,100 carcass records has been assembled to date (2003 – 2018) for MIKE sites in Africa. A data set that consists of 3,377 records of elephant carcasses found between 2003 and the end of 2017 in 12 range States in Asia has also been compiled. These datasets provide the most substantial information base available for the statistical analysis of the levels of illegal killing of elephants.

In 2018, 53MIKE sites reported data to the MIKE Central Coordination Unit. All the MIKE sites in Eastern and Southern Africa submitted reports, while 12 of the 16 sites in Central Africa and 15 of the 18 sites in West Africa submitted reports. In 2018, the total carcass records received were 1,235, of which 520 were recorded as illegally killed.



Figure 1. A) PIKE trend in Africa with 90% confidence intervals, based on 19,139 reports of elephant carcasses (illegally killed or otherwise) reported for the period 2003-2018. B) The total number of carcasses reported by year, irrespective of cause of death (solid line); and total number of carcasses of elephants illegally killed reported by year (dash line).

To better understand these trends, MIKE uses statistical models to identify potential drivers of illegal killing intensity. Specifically, strong correlation was found between ivory prices and the annual variation in PIKE, while site-level variation was correlated with poverty density (number of poor people/km2) and estimated adequacy of law enforcement. Strong evidence that PIKE decreases with decreasing levels of national corruption was also found.

As in all previous MIKE analyses, governance (as represented by the Corruption Perception Index) continues to emerge as an important national-level predictor of elephant illegal killing. The consequences of bad governance are likely to manifest themselves throughout the ivory supply chain, facilitating the movement of illegal ivory from the site all the way to the point of export. As pointed out in the previous reports, governance is highly correlated with levels of human development, making the effects of each difficult to tease apart. It is likely that there is a two-way causal relationship between governance and human development, whereby limitations in one appear to preclude improvements in the other.

The MIKE trend analysis also provides insight into current elephant illegal killing levels in each African sub-region:

- Eastern Africa. The subregional PIKE estimate increased from 0.23 in 2017 to 0.32 in 2018, although the 2018 value is still within the bounds of error for 2017 and is very similar to the 2016 figure. The dip in PIKE in 2017 is attributed to the 2016 (November) – 2017 drought in Kenya, which affected the Tsavo Conservation Area and Samburu-Laikipia MIKE sites. Depending on the severity, drought can increase the number of deaths due to natural causes, thereby reducing PIKE despite there being no change in underlying illegal killing rates.

- Southern Africa. PIKE increased from 2016 to 2017 and remained relatively unchanged in 2018. The increase in PIKE from 2016 to 2017 was largely due to a rise in PIKE values at several sites in the region, such as Chobe National Park (Botswana), Kruger National Park (South Africa), South Luangwa National Park (Zambia), and Niassa Game Reserve (Mozambique). The PIKE estimate for the subregion in 2018 remains unchanged due to the high PIKE values in Niassa Game Reserve (Mozambique) and South Luangwa National Park (Zambia). Conversely, Etosha National Park (Namibia) reported 20 carcasses in 2018, none of which were illegally killed.

- Central Africa. PIKE levels remain concerningly high, with an average PIKE estimate of 0.73 over the last three years. The MIKE site in the subregion with a particularly high level of PIKE and more than 20 carcasses reported in 2018 is Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park (Congo), with a PIKE of 0.95, while Minkébé National Park (Gabon) and Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) reported 16 and 12 illegally killed carcasses respectively, and no natural mortality carcasses. By contrast, two sites reported 20 or more carcasses per year in both 2017 and 2018 and had a reduced PIKE in 2018: Lopé National Park (Gabon) from 0.20 to 0.11 and Garamba National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) from 0.72 to 0.30.

- West Africa. The PIKE estimate decreased from 0.75 in 2017 to 0.46 in 2018, although the 2017 and 2018 confidence intervals still overlap. About 70% of all the carcasses in the subregion (58 carcasses reported in the subregion) were reported from Pendjari National Park and Biosphere Reserve (Benin) in 2018, compared to 29% of the 40 carcasses reported in the subregion in 2017. This high contribution to the total number of carcasses from a single site, and the PIKE level of 0.25 for the site in 2018, may be responsible for the subregional trend, given that the PIKE for this site reduced from 0.42 in 2017 to 0.25 in 2018.

However, it is particularly hard to make reliable inferences based on the year-to-year trend in this sub-region due to the low level of reporting from several sites. Various factors may impact the ability of the sites to report as well as the quality of the data; including the level of monitoring and protection of populations at the various sites. In addition, the populations are small, fragmented and isolated. Compared to the other subregions, West Africa has the total lowest number of carcasses reported – 797 over 16 years. Nonetheless, it is possible to say that the PIKE value of 0.46 in 2018 is significantly lower than the PIKE values being reported in 2014-2016, which averaged 0.91. The MIKE programme will undertake targeted actions to improve the understanding of the situation relating to MIKE implementation in West Africa.

The current MIKE report and its 2018 addendum are posted as official CoP18 documents on the CITES website.

For more information, please contact Michael Williams at michael.williams@un.org or Liu Yuan at yuan.liu@un.org.

Read original Press Release:
https://www.cites.org/eng/news/new-repo ... g_10052019

[Richprins]

Zimbabwe sells 100 elephants to China, Dubai

Thursday 16 May 2019 - 5:35am

HARARE - Zimbabwe has sold nearly 100 elephants to China and Dubai for a total price of $2.7-million over six years, the country’s wildlife agency said on Wednesday, citing overpopulation.

Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesman Tinashe Farawo told AFP Zimbabwe's elephants were overcrowding national parks, encroaching into human settlements, destroying crops and posing a risk to human life.

"We have 84,000 elephants against a carrying capacity of 50,000," he said, justifying the sales.

"We believe in sustainable use of resources, so we sell a few elephants to take care of the rest.


Farawo said 200 people have died in "human-and-animal conflict" in the past five years, "and at least 7,000 hectares of crop have been destroyed by elephants".

The animals' natural habitat has been depleted by climate change, he added, while recurrent droughts have added to strain on the overburdened national parks, forcing the pachyderms to seek food and water further afield.

Farawo said money from the legal sales was allocated to anti-poaching projects, conservation work, research and welfare.

According to the Zimbabwe Chronicle newspaper, 93 elephants were safely airlifted to parks in China and four to Dubai between 2012 and 2018, They were sold in a price range of between $13,500 and $41,500 each.

Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have called for a global ban on elephant ivory trade to be relaxed due to the growing number of elephants in some regions.

But over the past decade, the population of elephants across Africa has fallen by about 111,000 to 415,000, largely due to poaching for ivory, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Source
AFP

https://www.enca.com/business/zimbabwe- ... e=newsroom

[Lisbeth]

Rescued baby elephant stabilised, awaits permits for transfer to care centre

Posted on 13 May, 2019 by News Desk in Animal Encounters, News, Wildlife and the News Desk post series.



A three-month-old baby elephant has been rescued after being found wandering on its own in the Maputo Special Reserve, Mozambique. The tiny baby has been stabilised and now awaits the necessary permits for transfer to a specialised care facility in South Africa, for eventual release back into the wild.

This amazing rescue story is thanks to the co-operation from a range of people and organisations listed at the end of this article, but the survival of the frail elephant is now in the hands of the authorities, who need to issue the necessary paperwork. Drs. Carlos Lopes Pereira (ANAC) and Michelle Henley (Elephants Alive) are in conversation with the Department of Environmental Affairs in South Africa to secure the import permits.

Three-month-old elephant calf drinking, rescued in Maputo Special Reserve, Mozambique
Image: Supplied

First to the scene were members of the Muvucuza Community in Maputo Special Reserve, who alerted rangers to the baby elephant that was wandering around alone. These community members need to be given special mention and thanks, because without this intervention the baby elephant would surely have perished.

A team quickly responded, led by Mozambique’s National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC), Saving the Survivors, Dyck Advisory Group and Peace Parks Foundation (PPF).


Image: Supplied

The calf was found to be extremely weak and hungry, and it is estimated that it had been alone for about three days. Veterinarian Dr. João Almeida from Saving the Survivors said that the situation was touch-and-go for several hours. Specialised fresh milk had to be flown in from South Africa, although fluids were immediately administered intravenously.

The baby elephant has now slowly gained its strength and hopes for its survival are now high. The baby elephant is currently receiving plenty of fluids, and bottle feedings every two hours. She has started passing faeces and is sleeping regularly – these are all good signs.


Image: Supplied

A PPF technical advisor working in Maputo Special Reserve has advised that elephants seldom abandon their young, and speculated that the baby may have been sick for some time. He added that working together to protect the wildlife in this reserve is critical to conserving its biodiversity.

Maputo Special Reserve is fast-becoming one of Mozambique’s top tourist destinations, which will greatly improve livelihood opportunities for the local community.


Image: Supplied

The rescue operation was made possible with support provided to ANAC by Dyck Advisory Group, Blue Sky Society, Elephants Alive, Elephant Coast Company, Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre, Saving the Survivors and Peace Parks Foundation.


Image: Supplied


Three-month-old elephant calf resting, rescued in Maputo Special Reserve, Mozambique
Image: Supplied

[Lisbeth]

It looks younger than three month

I wonder why they need a permit to transfer the elephant If they do the paperwork on Africa time the baby will be dead before being transferred.

[Flutterby]

Poor baby.

[Richprins]

It is a restricted species, so paperwork required!

[Lisbeth]

Elephants pay the price for politics

BY PETER FABRICIUS, ISS CONSULTANT - 16 MAY 2019 - ISS TODAY


Photo credit: ISS Today

Are Southern African governments allowing resentment against perceived Western finger-wagging to cloud their judgement?

If Botswana’s elephants could sniff the political atmosphere in the country, they would be getting skittish about the threat posed to them by the bitter duel between President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his predecessor Ian Khama. And not only in Botswana, but across Southern Africa.

Khama was an enthusiastic conservationist. In 2014 he became the only Southern African leader to introduce a complete ban on elephant trophy hunting. He was also the only regional leader to support the ban on ivory trade imposed by CITES, the global Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. East African nations, especially Kenya, back the ban and have publicly burnt stockpiles to help stigmatise hunting.

Khama was a regional maverick on this, as on many other things. Masisi conversely is a regional conformist. He has rescinded the ‘shoot to kill’ policy instituted by Khama that empowered game rangers to deal with wildlife poachers. Now he’s advocating for a lifting of the elephant hunting ban and joining leaders of other Southern African elephant range states – Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe – urging CITES to scrap the global ivory trade ban.

Botswana’s shift under Masisi appears to have given the campaign new impetus to allow Southern African states to sell off their large ivory stockpiles. This became apparent at a summit Masisi hosted last week in Kasane on the banks of the Chobe River.

The presidents of Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe and Angola’s environment minister and many conservationists attended. The government representatives were there as member states to discuss the running of the immense 500 000km2 Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area which straddles all five countries.

But Masisi and his peers clearly used the five-day conference, titled ‘Towards a Common Vision in Managing Southern Africa’s Elephant’, to drum up support for Botswana’s plan to rescind its hunting ban and lobby for scrapping the ivory trading ban. South Africa shares their views.

Botswana has the world’s largest population of elephants, totalling 131 626 last year, though this number is disputed. Politicians arguing for lifting the bans put the number much higher. There are an estimated 293 000 elephants in Southern Africa, and 415 000 in Africa.

Masisi said Botswana’s high elephant population had increased the conflicts between them and people, mainly because of the growing demand for agricultural and residential lands. He argued for a relaxation of the CITES ban on ivory trading so that Southern African states could sell off their vast stockpiles to finance nature conservation and protect citizens from destruction to crops, property and even lives caused by elephants.

Botswana also believes that lifting its ban on hunting would help defuse tensions between pachyderms and humans by allowing it to cull some elephants living close to people. Khama says this approach would harm the tourism industry – Botswana’s second largest source of revenue. He says Masisi is just currying favour with the electorate whom he will meet for the first time in October, in an election expected to be extremely close-fought, especially as Khama has backed his opposition.

The tone of the Kasane summit was characterised by acrimonious and anti-Western rhetoric from some leaders. ‘I listened this morning to all the experts lecturing us, and I wanted to ask where they come from,’ said Namibian President Hage Geingob. ‘If they are from Europe or the US, I wanted to ask them how they destroyed all their elephants, but come to lecture us.’

This sort of anachronistic and weak argument isn’t helpful in resolving the plight of the world’s largest land animal, which is steadily losing ground in the battle for survival. Globally its population has shrunk dramatically. Even in its stronghold Botswana, some experts say their numbers have begun declining recently, although again, local politicians dispute that.

Other proponents of hunting and ivory trading blame the decline on the hunting and trading ban. They say if legal hunting and trading were permitted, the profits could have funded a stronger fight against illegal hunting and trading. They also say flooding the market with legal ivory would lower the price and make the product less attractive to traffickers. In any case, they argue, evidence suggests that total bans on hunting and trading aren’t protecting the elephants.

Although experts are divided, most disagree with the likes of Masisi and Geingob. Richard Chelin, researcher at the Institute for Security Studies’ ENACT project on organised crime, says legal hunting and trading creates more opportunities for traffickers to launder illicit ivory through the legal market. This will remain a danger as long as CITES and governments don’t have effective ways to distinguish legal from illegal ivory ­– a problem shared by other sought-after products like gold and other precious minerals.

Chelin says an argument can be made for legalising trophy hunting, as this would boost hunting tourist revenues – but this has elsewhere served as a conduit for illegal traffickers who use ‘pseudo-hunters’ as fronts to conceal their illegal businesses. And as Khama has argued, legalising trophy hunting could disadvantage tourist revenue as it would probably repel significant numbers of wildlife-loving tourists.

The argument that legalised ivory sales would push down the price and discourage poaching has also been contested. A 2018 article in The Conversation points out that ‘ivory markets are concentrated and controlled by organised criminal syndicates that can manipulate the price. They are not competitive’. It says there’s no evidence that funds raised by Southern African states that were granted exemptions from the ban on a one-off basis translated into improved food security, education or well-being for people.

The authors say elephant range countries like Botswana should focus their developmental efforts in other areas, such as reforming trade and agricultural policies, rather than trying to benefit local communities with the proceeds of ivory sales and hunting.

Clearly the debate is contentious and difficult. But the tone of the Kasane summit suggested that governments of elephant range countries in Southern Africa were allowing the perennial politics of resentment against perceived Western finger-wagging to cloud their judgements.

This debate deserves objective and unemotional treatment if the elephants and all the spiritual and economic benefits they bring, to this region and the world, are not to be sacrificed on the altar of politics, whether global or local.

Read original article:
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/elephan ... r-politics

[Lisbeth]

Poaching slows but Africa's elephants still face extinction

2019-05-29 12:39 | AFP

The illegal slaughter of African elephants to feed Asia's demand for ivory has decreased by more than half in eight years, but the majestic mammals are still threatened with extinction, researchers warned Tuesday.

In 2011, poachers killed some 40 000 tuskers - about ten percent of the continent's population, according to figures from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), based in Geneva.

Last year the kill rate was about 4%, or 15 000 animals, according to new research published in Nature Communications.

"We are seeing a downturn in poaching, but it is still above what we think is sustainable," co-author Colin Beale, a conservation biologist at the University of York, told AFP.

https://youtu.be/yavigFIzwgQ
Botswana's elephant hunting dilemma
What will be the impact on communities and the economy if the ban on hunting elephants is lifted?

On current trends, the African elephant is in danger of being "virtually wiped out", surviving only in small, heavily protected pockets, he said.

A century ago up to 12 million of the world's heaviest land animal roamed the continent.

Today, they number about 500 000, if forest elephants - a sub-species - are included.

Despite a 1990 ban on international trade in ivory, demand in Southeast Asia and especially China has overwhelmed the capacity of local and global authorities to curb the carnage.

"Currently, poaching is worst in west and central Africa," said Beale.

"I worry most for the future of forest elephants."

Smaller, more solitary than their cousins on the savannah, forest tuskers in the Congo Basin are estimated to have declined by 65% over the last 15 years alone.

The countries in which poachers have been brought most to heel are Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

Indeed, Botswana's elephant population has increased nearly ten-fold since 1970, according to co-author Julian Blanc, a researcher in the Wildlife Management Unit of the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi.

Habitat loss

"Due to good management, the country was largely unaffected by poaching in the 1980s, as well as the current episode that began in the mid-2000s," he told AFP.

But the researchers emphasised that law enforcement alone cannot solve the problem.

"We need to reduce the demand in Asia and improve the livelihoods of people who are living with elephants in Africa," said Beale.

To better understand the complex link between ivory and poaching, the researchers looked at data from a CITES programme that records the sighting of elephant carcasses by park rangers across 53 protected sites in Africa.

Changes in the level of illegal killing tracked closely to fluctuating prices in Asia for ivory.

The prevalence of poaching also matched key indicators of corruption and poverty, which varied sharply across regions.

Ultimately, however, the biggest threat to Loxodonta africana may not be human greed but our ever-expanding footprint.

"Habitat destruction and fragmentation caused by humans may be the more serious threat to elephant survival in the long term," said Blanc.

West Africa - which today has, by far, the smallest elephant population - is also the region in which the most habitat has been lost to agriculture and urbanisation, he pointed out.

It is unclear whether a 2017 ban on the sale of ivory in China has dampened demand or simply shifted the once-legal trade underground, the researchers said.

"We have no good evidence yet that the ban and associated demand reduction campaigns are working," said Beale. "So I have concerns that the current decline may be temporary."

An investigation by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC found that even though legally licensed stores it had visited in 2017 no longer sold ivory the following year, the total amount of illegal ivory pieces found had actually increased.

L. africana is listed as "vulnerable" on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of endangered species.

[Lisbeth]

Niassa Reserve celebrates one year without a single elephant poached – Mozambique

28 May 2019



The announcement on Monday of events celebrating Mozambique’s National Administration of Conservation Areas’ eighth birthday on Saturday, June 1, formed the backdrop for the revelation that Niassa Special Reserve, the country’s largest, is also celebrating a milestone – a year without a single elephant dying at the hand of poachers.

The ANAC noted in the statement a “significant reduction in elephant poaching in the country, especially in the Niassa National Reserve, which has completed one year without elephants being slaughtered by poachers”.

The ANAC celebrations come at a time when the institution is focussing on “improving management capacity, combating poaching, promoting self-sustainability in the management of conservation areas, and sharing economic benefits with local communities”.

The celebrations will take place at the Maputo Ponta do Ouro Special Marine Reserve, where the organisation will host gatherings of elementary school students for rides and lectures on wildlife.

“ANAC hopes these celebrations will increase the level of awareness of society in general, and of the communities who live in and around conservation areas in particular, of the importance of protecting biodiversity,” it announced.

ANAC figures indicate that, since 2009, the country has lost at least 10,000 elephants. In the Niassa Reserve, the country’s largest protected area, the total number of elephants fell from 12,000 to 4,400 in the three years between 2011 and 2014.

More recent reports indicate that, between 2011 and 2014, Niassa National Reserve lost almost 60% of the elephant population. In a countrywide basis, the loss was of 48%, risking the country being banned from international trade in animal products, due to lack of clarity in wildlife management.

A team of the Police Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR) was deployed to the Niassa Reserve to support public prosecutors in combating wildlife poaching, at the request of the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (MITADER) to the President of the Republic.

After visiting Niassa Reserve in November 2018, President Nyusi supported the presence of the UIR special forces for a further year, within which they should play a role training the rangers of the Reserve to continue the protection of elephants.

The Special forces (UIR) work hand to hand with the rangers in various locations and have created a very strong alliance to combat poaching.

The ANAC manages seven Mozambican parks, an equal number of reserves, and four cross-border joint management areas, which together account for 5,500 plant species, 220 mammal species and 690 bird species.

[Flutterby]