When Hannibal crossed the Alps to go to war in the 3rd century BC, he was assisted by domesticated African elephants. At that time, elephants were widespread from the Cape to Cairo, with numbers probably in the tens of millions. Today the elephant occupies less than one quarter of its former range, and there are now less than 610 000.

WHY HAVE ELEPHANT POPULATIONS DECLINED?

* Uncontrolled hunting for ivory.

* Habitat loss caused by rapidly growing human populations taking over the elephant's former range, deforestation, and desertification of the Sahel (the semi-arid African region between the Sahara desert and the savanna and forest in the south).

In southern Africa, hunting for ivory destroyed many elephant populations in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the killing spread to West and East Africa in the 19th and the early part of the 20th century. However, with the collapse in the demand for ivory following the First World War, and the introduction of wildlife conservation legislation, elephants staged a dramatic recovery. It was not to last. Large-scale killing began again in the early 1970s when the demand for ivory increased. An orgy of poaching started in Kenya, and spread rapidly west and south.

DID YOU KNOW?

* In 1976, Africa had 1 300 000 elephants, but in 1989 there were only 610 000.

* Uganda's elephant population dropped by 16 000 to only 1 600 in the 16 years preceding 1989, a fall accelerated by civil unrest.

* Tanzania's Selous Reserve had 109 000 elephants in 1977, and only 29 600 in 1989! In southern Africa, where protected areas are well funded and managed, elephant populations have increased, in contrast to those in the rest of Africa. Today, South Africa's 8 840 elephants, 7 470 of which are found in the Kruger National Park, are secure and well managed.

IVORY

Ivory, the "white gold" of the animal world, has been valued by man since the Stone Age for producing works of art, religious objects, and a range of articles from billiard balls to piano keys. Today, Japan is the largest user of worked ivory.

Ivory from different parts of Africa varies in hardness, translucency and chemical composition, a reflection of the food eaten and the geology and soil composition of the place where the elephants are living. These differences allow scientists to identify where a tusk came from in Africa, providing a powerful new tool for the control of the illegal trade in ivory.

A rapid rise in demand for ivory in the 1970s and 80s, drove the price from $60/kg in 1979 to $300 in 1989, stimulating a wave of killing, and an increase in the illegal trade in ivory. In a continent where 325 million people have an annual income of less than $100 per year, the temptation to poach was considerable. The real money, however, was made not by the poachers, but by the dealers and the middlemen who drove the trade from the security of urban environments, and deprived African governments of millions of dollars of what could have been legal revenue.

CLOSING THE LEGAL TRADE

In October 1989, delegates from around the world gathered in Switzerland at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES, to tackle wildlife trade problems. High on the agenda was the trade in ivory. After a heated debate, the majority of delegates voted to ban the trade, and the decision was effective as from 18 January 1990. As a result of the ban the international trade in ivory has collapsed. For example, retail sales in India are down by 85%, and two-thirds of the country's ivory craftsmen are out of work.

Has the ban in ivory trade per se put a stop to elephant poaching? There has undoubtedly been a significant decline in elephant poaching throughout the continent. The trade ban in 1990 was accompanied by a massive increase in funds for the protection of elephants in the field. The resulting vastly improved law enforcement effort was undoubtedly just as important in reducing the killing of elephants as was the closure of the trade.

THE FUTURE FOR ELEPHANTS

Outside of the few strictly protected areas, ivory could be the elephant's salvation, instead of its death warrant, if the profits from the strictly controlled legal sale of ivory were to go to local governments, and to people prepared to manage the herds for a sustainable harvest. Under the present ban, countries with elephant populations have little incentive to maintain their populations unless compensation is offered for lost export earning. As such compensation is unlikely, it makes good sense to give the resource a value and thereby give local communities an incentive to ensure that one of their major sources of income does not disappear.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

* Become informed about the issues involved in the elephant and ivory debate.

* Support a conservation organisation concerned with elephants.

TOPICS FOR DEBATE

* Should the sale of ivory be banned?

* Consider, amongst other things, the view held by countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda which do not have well protected herds of elephants: They feel that the continuation of the ivory trade will lead to a further decline of East Africa's elephants because of poaching. However, in southern Africa, where elephant numbers have increased as a result of good management, ivory could be sold to generate money for conservation.

FURTHER READING

IVORY : THE CASE AGAINST THE BAN. E.Barbier & T.Swanson in New Scientist, November 1990 : 52 - 54. National geographic. D.H Chadwick. Vol.179, no.5.pages 2-49, May 1991.

THE RHINO AND ELEPHANT JOURNAL. Produced by the Rhino and Elephant Foundation, address below.

ELEPHANTS, ECONOMICS AND IVORY. E.Barbier, J.Burgess, T.Swanson, D.Pearce. Earthscan Publications, 1990.

THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT - LAST DAYS OF EDEN. B. Norton. Swan Hill Press, Shropshire, U.K. 1991.

BATTLE FOR THE ELEPHANTS. I. Hamilton. Doubleday, U.K., 1992.

ENDANGERED SPECIES - ELEPHANTS. P. Johnson. The Apple Press, London, 1990.

ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ELEPHANTS. S. Eltringham (ed). Salamander Books, London, 1991.

CONTACT ORGANISATIONS

Rhino and Elephant Foundation. P.O. Box 381, Bedfordview, 2008. Tel. 011-8820606

Endangered Wildlife Trust. P.Bag X11, Parkview, 2122. Tel. 011-4861102

National Parks Board. P.O. Box 787, Pretoria, 0001. Tel. 012-3439770

WWF-SA. P.O. Box 456, Stellenbosch, 7600. Tel. 021-887 2801