Since the Proboscidea originated 60 million years ago, the order has included some 10 families, 45 genera and 185 species and subspecies, in a spectacular diversity of forms. The African (Loxodonta africana and Loxodonta cyclotis) and Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) existing today are the sole remnants of that remarkable evolutionary radiation. Representing a tiny fraction of their former numbers, the living elephants survive in only small pockets of the land they once roamed. In many areas elephant populations have already gone extinct or are highly endangered.

Over centuries legal and illegal hunting ("poaching") for the commercial ivory trade and, in Asia, the capture of elephants for human use, have been largely responsible for the elephant's demise. The number of wild Asian elephants now comprise less than a tenth of all remaining elephants, and continue to decline in shrinking habitat. In Africa, elephants once inhabited the entire continent, from the Mediterranean down to its southern tip, but the ivory trade coupled with human expansion caused a continental decline in their numbers. By circa 1600 North Africa was devoid of elephants. In modern Africa, poaching for ivory has been fuelled by poverty, political instability and civil unrest coupled with the easy availability of arms. In recent history, between 1979 and 1989, Africa's elephants underwent a dramatic and devastating decline, falling from approximately 1.3 million individuals to an estimated 609,000. Human greed and rising prices of ivory were responsible for the appalling slaughter.

Landmark decision 1989 - elephants saved

A landmark 1989 decision banned the international trade in elephant products, placing the African elephant alongside the highly endangered Asian elephant on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). For close to a decade following the ban, the African elephant retained its overall Appendix I status; poaching for ivory in most African elephant range states remained at relatively low levels and many populations began a slow recovery.

Ivory crisis - elephants going extinct?

In 1997, however, the Convention voted to allow three African countries - Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe - to down-list their countries' elephant populations to Appendix II and permitted a one-time sale from existing legal raw ivory stocks. Then, in 2000, CITES voted to allow South Africa to down-list her elephant population to Appendix II. The resulting "split-listing" (Appendix I, banning trade, and Appendix II, allowing limited trade) and partial reopening of trade has been associated with a renewed spike in the seizures of illegal ivory.

Elephants are being killed again, ivory is on the move, and some elephant populations are in free-fall decline once more. Estimates are that as many as 38,000 elephants were poached in 2006 alone (Scientific American, July 2009 (2.59 MB), a number representing 8% of Africa' remaining elephants killed in one year. This figure far exeeds the elephants annual reproductive rate and even exceeds the poaching rate that existed in the late 1980s, before the ban took effect. Some scientists believe that if the poaching and trade are not brought under control most populations of elephants could face extinction by 2020.

Trade in ivory leads to enormous losses

The killing of elephants for their ivory is the cause of enormous losses in numbers as well as suffering to individuals. The deaths of individuals causes the fragmentation of families and destroys the very fabric of elephant society. Among Asian elephants where females are tuskless and only a small percentage of males have tusks, even subadult and juvenile tuskers are targeted, causing highly skewed sex ratios, as well as trauma and disruption to elephant families.

The tusks of male African elephants average seven times the weight of the tusks of females, and poaching is focused on males and old females. Large males are the primary breeders and the loss of older females impoverishes the social and ecological knowledge of remaining family members, reducing individual survival. In populations with the heaviest levels of poaching, elephant groups may be composed of traumatized orphans bunched together in leaderless groups.

The big battle at CITES in March 2010

The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties was held in Doha from 13-25 March 2010. ElephantVoices attended as part of the Kenya Elephant Forum team supporting the African Elephant Coalition. The day before the vote, ElephantVoices' Joyce Poole joined Iain Douglas-Hamilton and Sam Wasser to give a presentation on the illegal trade and its impact on elephant populations. Some 350 CITES participants squeezed into the meeting room with tens more having to be turned away at the door for lack of space. The presentation generated heated debate from the proponents of trade and many delegates commented that the data presented regarding the scale of the problem was an eye opener. It is probably fair to state that the presentation had a significant impact on what transpired the following day when the proposals from Tanzania and Zambia requesting down-listing from Appendix I to Appendix II and sale of their stockpiles were rejected.

The nine-year moratorium on trade (effective from November 2008) remains still in place though the Secretariat was reluctant to clarify whether the moratorium applies to all range states or only to those who traded in 2008. Our interpretation and that of the African Elephant Coalition is that there is a resting period on all stockpile sales until 2017. But the amibiguity caused by the Secretariat may lead to battles ahead. Whatever transpires, there will be no let up on poaching. Until the demand in Asia and elsewhere can be stemmed, poaching will have a life of its own. Several large seizures took place in the month following the meeting - and those confiscated are just the tip of the tusk of the illegal trade.

Some good sources of more information: Some ivory trade fact sheets developed for CoP15, an Opinion Piece in Science 12th March 2010; Elephants, Ivory, and Trade (395.07 kB), selected media links (kept up-to-date) related to ivory trade and poaching.

ElephantVoices standpoint is that all elephants should be on Appendix I of CITES and that commercial trade in ivory should not be allowed.