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African Elephant
Threats
Historically, three major factors have led to the decline of the African elephants: poaching, human elephant conflict and changes in land-use. Elephants are still poached for ivory and meat in many parts of their range. Remaining elephant habitat is increasingly encroached upon by human settlement and agriculture causing high levels of human elephant conflict.
Habitat loss and conflict
Most elephant range still extends outside protected areas. The rapid growth of human populations and the extension of agriculture into rangelands and forests create large areas that are now permanently off-limits for elephants.
Due to poaching, elephants are nervous and run when humans are scented.
© Martin HARVEY / WWF-Canon
As habitats contract and human populations expand, people and elephants are increasingly coming into contact with each other. Where farms border elephant habitat or cross elephant migration corridors, damage to crops and villages can become commonplace, providing a source of conflict which the elephants invariably lose.
Inevitably, loss of life sometimes occurs on both sides, as people get trampled while trying to protect their livelihood and elephants get shot by game guards. It is predicted that as human populations continue to grow throughout the elephants' range, habitat loss and degradation will continue to threaten their survival.
Illegal hunting and trade
In the early 1970s, demand for ivory soared and the amount of ivory leaving Africa rose to levels not seen since the start of the century. Most of the ivory leaving Africa was taken illegally and over 80% of all raw ivory traded came from poached elephants.
Sized elephant tusks in the East of Cameroon.
© WWF CARPO/Peter Ngea
This illegal trade was largely responsible for reducing the African elephant population to its current level. The poaching was generally well-organized and difficult to control because of the availability of automatic weapons.
Although international trade in ivory is illegal (except under specific circumstances tightly controlled by CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), there are still some thriving but unmonitored domestic ivory markets in a number of states, some of which have few elephants of their own remaining.
The ivory ban
When the ivory ban came into force in 1990, some countries in Africa experienced a steep decline in illegal killing, especially where elephants were adequately protected. However, in countries where wildlife management authorities are chronically under-funded, poaching still appears to be a chronic, significant problem.
Declining law enforcement budgets and continuing poaching pressure for bush meat have also kept illegal killing of elephants widespread in many regions.
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