With a declining demand for ivory, elephant poaching has fallen in Africa, says report

Elephant poaching in Africa has long posed a threat to these majestic creatures, but now, some good news has emerged in relation to this deeply unsavoury practice.

According to a report today in Nature Communications, deaths from poaching in Africa have dropped significantly from 2011, when 10% of all elephants fell victim to poaching. That number has now fallen to about 4%, according to an analysis of annual surveillance data, and appears to have largely resulted from a declining demand for ivory in China, which has banned the trade in 2017. The analysis was based on elephant carcasses found at 53 sites in parks that were examined by rangers working with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Urgent measures were needed in the fight against poaching because the continental population of savanna elephants had dropped by almost a third to an estimated 352,000 in 2014. Government action in some African countries, especially in East Africa, also helped to reduce instances of poaching. Researchers also found other factors that influenced the decline in poaching included the amount of corruption in a country, the poverty rate in villages near elephant populations, and adequate law enforcement, as reported by rangers in the wildlife parks.

However, the news was not as positive in Botswana, which has the largest elephant population in Africa. It recently announced the lifting of its 2014 ban on elephant hunting. Its government indicated that a review had found that “the number and high levels of human-elephant conflict and the consequent impact on livelihoods was increasing.” The decision has angered conservationists, amid the announcement that hunting would be re-started in an “orderly and ethical manner.”

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