African jumbos still in trouble: WWF

THE African elephant – Loxodonta africana to scientists – is the world’s largest terrestrial mammal but is still under threat, says the World Wildlife Fund.

While ivory poaching has declined since the 1989 global ivory ban, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said that it remains a widespread problem in West and Central Africa.
‘Large quantities of African ivory are still finding their way into illegal markets in Africa and beyond, in places such as Asia,’ stated WWF on its website.
The main threat facing the African elephant, according to WWF, is the reduction of habitat available to them in the face of an expanding human population.
Through its African Elephant Programme, WWF has identified five issues that need to be addressed in order to conserve the African elephant and to reduce factors that threaten them.
These are to slow down the loss of the African jumbos’ natural habitat, strengthening activities against poachers and the illegal ivory trade and reducing conflicts between humans and elephants. The other two are to determine the status of elephant populations through improved surveys and strengthening capacity of local wildlife authorities to conserve and manage elephant herds.
Namibia is one of the African elephant range countries, which also includes, Angola, Botswana, Chad, Gabon and Ghana. Elephants play an important role in the forest and savannah ecosystems in which they live. Many plant species depend on passing through an elephants digestive tract before germinating and it is calculated that at least a third of West African forest tree species rely on elephants in this way. Elephants treading on vegetation also affects the structure of habitats and influences bush fire patterns.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the African elephant as near threatened, while the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Flora and Fauna has placed it under its Appendix I and II.
CITES Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction, with trade related to these species only permitted in exceptional circumstance, while Appendix II encompasses species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled to avoid uses incompatible with their survival.
Well-known Namibian elephant and giraffe conservationist, Dr Keith Legget of the Namibian Elephant and Giraffe Trust, said elephants in West and central Africa continued to be in trouble and poaching there was mostly linked to political instability.
‘However, elephants are not endangered in southern Africa. They are in west and central Africa and just about anywhere north of the Zambezi River. They are in trouble,’ said Legget, whose organisation did a number of studies on the status of elephants and giraffes in northwestern Namibia.
He said elephant populations in politically stable countries, such as Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and to a lesser extent Zimbabwe, were doing well mainly due to the rule of law and the implementation of community-based natural resource management initiatives.
‘They have worked on most of the areas where they have been implemented. The local population who derives the greatest benefit from the resource will protect it as they have more to lose if the resource disappears,’ he said.
The 2007 African Elephant Status Report of the IUCN, states that southern Africa accounts for 39 per cent of the elephants’ total range area.
Central and eastern Africa follow with 29 per cent and 26 per cent respectively, while West Africa accounts for only five per cent.
absalom@namibian.com.na