By Oscar Nkala
Continued investment in law enforcement to combat African elephant poaching is unlikely to succeed in the absence of simultaneous actions to reduce global ivory demand and tackle local-level corruption and poverty in the range states, a recent report has revealed.
Entitled “African elephant poaching rates correlate with local poverty rates, national corruption and global ivory price”, the report was written by Severin Hauentestein, Mrigesh Kshatriya, Julia Blanc, Collin M Beale and Carsten F. Dormann.
Among several other partners, the research was supported by the University of Freiburg Department of Biometry and Environmental System Analysis, with the first summary version published in May 2019.
The study included a close examination of annual poaching rates in 53 African sites where poaching was found to be strongly related to factors of ivory demand in the main Chinese markets.
Variations in poaching rates between countries and between sites were strongly associated with indicators of local-level corruption and poverty.
According to the report, the adoption of community-based natural resources management programmes that tie wildlife conservation to direct material benefits for the local people can improve wildlife conservation status and reduce local poverty in the African elephant range states.
It noted that while supply-side management anti-poaching policies remain focused on increasing the effectiveness of law enforcement, (eg. more patrols by better resourced game rangers) the increase in global ivory commodity prices has inspired corruption and thriving illegal markets which undermined the gains made in law enforcement capability.
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“In practice, traditional law enforcement activities can reduce illegal activities.
“Unfortunately, as commodity prices rise, law enforcement becomes inadequate with numerous examples of thriving illegal markets persisting for natural (e.g. rhino horn, narcotics, arms, etc.) products despite high investment in law enforcement.
“Moreover, endemic corruption and limited capacity in many source countries means that, even if arrests are made in the field, prosecutions may fail or enforcement focuses only on the lowest tier of individuals involved in the trade.
“Effective law enforcement may only be possible if corruption levels are low, and law enforcement capacity high,” the report stated.
The researchers noted that most supply-side solutions to the African elephant poaching crisis are based on assumptions that poaching rates are higher in the poorest regions, where the financial temptations of illegal activities are relatively greater.
They noted this has raised interest in the crafting of community-based conservation programmes, which tie conservation improvements directly to local poverty alleviation initiatives, concluding there was evidence that this approach can reduce local poaching rates.
“Although it is plausible that elephant poaching cannot be halted without interventions aimed at multiple stages of the ivory trade, it is likely that elephant poaching responds more strongly to certain interventions than others,” the report said.
Poverty and corruption were found to be more strongly related to local and country-wide poaching rates than existing estimates of law enforcement adequacy.
“This is possibly due to difficulty in estimating law enforcement adequacy. However, we consider it likely that targeting poverty and corruption really are more effective options.
“Tackling corruption is difficult, but conservation has started working in this area.
“Tackling poverty is also notoriously difficult, but there has been a recent increase in attempts to link conservation to poverty alleviation,” the report said.
Generally lower elephant poaching rates were observed in areas with functional community-based natural resources management programmes. In such areas, even the multiple indicators of poverty were found to be significantly lower.
“Notable successes for elephant conservation include the example of Namibian conservancies where elephant poaching has been substantially reduced, although impacts on poverty are mixed.
“ But these good examples that should be read within a context of highly variable impacts on poaching in community-based natural resource management systems.
“Our results support both community-based conservation projects where they provide genuine poverty-alleviation and an increased involvement by conservation in more general poverty reduction schemes. However, as both corruption and poverty are recalcitrant problems, focusing conservation activity purely on reducing supply is unwise,” reads part of the report.
While acknowledging there has been a slight decline in poaching rates from a peak in 2011, the report said African elephants will be threatened with extinction for as long as there is no marked reduction in poaching rates.
Among other solutions to poaching, it recommended the adoption of interventions focused on reducing both the demand and the supply of ivory.
“As ivory prices rise, demand seems to change relatively little, but our results suggest supply changes strongly. Any reduction in demand may therefore markedly reduce elephant poaching rates,” the report said.
“While the observed changes (post-2011) in demand are consistent with the signals sent by Chinas elephant ivory trade ban and demand reduction campaigns by non-governmental organisations, falling demand might also be a result of a Chinese economic slowdown. “
The report concluded that although improving conventional law enforcement may reduce elephant poaching, reductions in poverty and corruption in communities adjacent to protected areas could have ‘a greater effect and obvious additional benefits’ for community-based wildlife conservation.
