LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) – The growing threat of poaching and habitat loss is increasingly threatening the elephant population in Africa, according to a report released Thursday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The African forest elephant is critically endangered and the African savanna elephant is endangered. The two species had previously been grouped together as a single species and were classified as vulnerable by the IUCN.
The number of African forest elephants has declined more than 86% over a 31-year period, while the savanna elephant population has declined more than 60% over a 50-year period, according to the IUCN, which estimates global extinction risks. to the animals of the world.
According to the IUCN, Africa currently has 415,000 elephants, the forest and savanna elephants added together.
The savannah elephants prefer more open plains and can be found in a variety of habitats in sub-Saharan Africa, with high concentrations in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The African forest elephants – smaller in size – usually occupy the tropical forests of West and Central Africa, with the largest remaining populations in Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.
In Gabon, the fight against elephant poaching is “more than just fighting for nature. It fights for the stability of our country, ”Lee White, Gabon’s minister of water and forest, told The Associated Press.
“We’ve seen countries like the Central African Republic where poachers became bandits, turned rebels and destabilized the whole country,” said White, who attributed most of the poaching and ivory trade to international cross-border syndicates.
“Eighty to 90% of our ivory goes to Nigeria and ends up in the financing of (the jihadist rebels) Boko Haram. So it is, in effect, a cross-border fight against organized crime and even against terrorism, ”he said.
The battle for Gabon’s forest elephants is a war, he said. “We’ve turned biologists into warriors,” said White. “We have transformed people who have signed up to watch elephants and work with wildlife and national parks into soldiers fighting for the elephants’ survival.”
Criminal networks working with corrupt officials are a major problem in Central and West Africa, Rudi van Aarde of the zoology department at the University of Pretoria. told The Associated Press.
“Most of the ivory that leaves this continent for Asia comes from Central and West Africa. The population suffers more from the illegal ivory trade rather than from environmental issues such as deforestation, ”said van Aarde.
Elephants in Sub-Saharan Africa were hit hard with a peak in poaching between 2008 and 2012. A worrying trend is that a significant portion of that poaching took place in East and South Africa, where an estimated 100,000 savanna elephants were killed in northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania. , during that period, he said.
“African elephants play a key role in ecosystems, economies and in our collective imaginations around the world,” said IUCN Director General Bruno Oberle, lamenting the reduced numbers of African elephants.
“The new IUCN Red List assessment of both African elephant species underscores the ongoing pressures facing the iconic animals,” said Oberle. “The results quantify the dramatic magnitude of the decline of these ecologically important animals.”
“With the continuing demand for ivory and increasing human pressure on the wild areas of Africa, … concern about African elephants is high, and the need to creatively conserve and manage these animals and their habitats is more acute. than ever, ”said Kathleen Gobush, lead assessor on the IUCN team compiling the list.
Magome reported in Johannesburg.