tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/poaching-4923/articlesPoaching – The Conversation2024-03-21T14:35:28Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2238782024-03-21T14:35:28Z2024-03-21T14:35:28ZPangolins in Africa: expert unpacks why millions have been traded illegally and what can be done about it<p>Pangolins are fascinating creatures known for their unique appearance and distinctive scales. They are mammals belonging to the order Pholidota and are <a href="https://www.savepangolins.org/what-is-a-pangolin">native to Africa and Asia</a>. Due to their primary diet of ants and termites, pangolins are often referred to as “scaly anteaters”.</p>
<p>The African pangolin species are dispersed throughout southern, western, central and east Africa. </p>
<p>Pangolins face rapid declines across Asia and Africa, with all eight species classified as <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/pangolins#:%7E:text=There%20are%20eight%20species%20of,bellied%E2%80%94are%20listed%20as%20vulnerable.">vulnerable, endangered</a>, or critically endangered. They are <a href="https://www.savepangolins.org/threats">threatened</a> by poaching and habitat loss, driven by the demand for their meat and scales.</p>
<p>Pangolins are the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-02-17-operation-pangolin-launches-save-world-s-most-trafficked-wild-mammal">most trafficked wild mammal in the world</a>. <a href="https://davidshepherd.org/species/pangolins/trade-statement/">Their meat is considered a delicacy</a> in Asia while their scales are also used in traditional medicines, fetching huge sums on the black market. As many as <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-02-17-operation-pangolin-launches-save-world-s-most-trafficked-wild-mammal">8.5 million pangolins</a> are estimated to have been removed from the wild in west and central Africa for the illegal trade between 2014 and 2021. </p>
<p>The trade route analysis of pangolin trafficking <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665910720300876">points to</a> Lagos as the main connection point both domestically and worldwide, including south-east Asian countries. Malaysia, Laos and Singapore also serve as key transit countries for pangolin-scale shipments from Nigeria.</p>
<p>China and Vietnam are the main <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665910720300876">destinations for these illegal shipments</a>.</p>
<p>I am a zoologist who’s passionate about the environment and biodiversity conservation. I am also the founder and chair of Pangolin Conservation Guild Nigeria. In my view, effective protection, law enforcement and changes in consumer behaviour are necessary to address the complex drivers of poaching and trafficking.</p>
<h2>What makes pangolins special</h2>
<p>Pangolins are interesting for a number of reasons. </p>
<p><strong>Scales:</strong> Unlike any other mammals, they are covered with keratin scales. This adaptation is a defence against predators. The scales, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/pangolins">made of the same material as human fingernails</a>, provide armour-like protection as they curl into a ball when threatened, shielding their vulnerable underbelly. The scales can account for up to <a href="https://www.awf.org/blog/5-things-you-didn%E2%80%99t-know-about-pangolin">20% of a pangolin’s total body weight</a>. A pangolin’s scales are a reminder of the incredible diversity of adaptations in the natural world. </p>
<p><strong>Habitats:</strong> Pangolins, as a group, are also adaptable to different environmental conditions. Their habitats include tropical forests, dry woodlands and savannahs. Some pangolin species, like the white-bellied, are adept climbers and spend much of their time in the canopy, foraging for insects among the branches. These arboreal habits provide them with both food and shelter, as well as protection from ground-dwelling predators. Other pangolin species, such as the ground pangolins, live on the forest floor or in grasslands. They may dig burrows underground where they retreat for rest and safety, particularly during the heat of the day or to escape potential threats.</p>
<p><strong>Defence:</strong> The name “pangolin” <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/fascinating-facts/pangolins">originates</a> from the Malay word <em>pengguling</em>, which translates to “rolling up”. They tuck in their head and limbs and curl into a tight ball when faced with danger, wrapping their body in a protective layer of overlapping scales. This has helped pangolins survive predators such as big cats, hyenas and humans. </p>
<p><strong>Diet:</strong> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9686612/#:%7E:text=The%20food%20of%20pangolins%20in,feeding%20%5B15%2C16%5D.">Pangolins primarily feed on ants and termites</a>, making them essential players in controlling insect populations within their ecosystems. They find the insects using their keen sense of smell and their tongues – which are often longer than their bodies. These long tongues are coated with sticky saliva, allowing them to probe deep into ant and termite nests to extract their prey. Their strong claws are also well-suited for tearing open insect nests and breaking through hard soil to uncover hidden prey. Pangolins’ diets play a crucial role in maintaining the health and stability of their environments.</p>
<h2>Pangolins in Africa</h2>
<p>In west and central Africa, the giant pangolin is distributed in a variety of habitats, including primary and secondary forests, swamp forests and wooded savannahs. Temminck’s pangolin (<em>Smutsia temminckii</em>) is the <a href="https://africanpangolin.org/discover/temmincks-ground-pangolin/#:%7E:text=Smutsia%20temminckii,to%20date%20weighing%2019%20kg">most widely distributed African pangolin</a>, occurring mainly in southern and east Africa. The <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128155073000083">black-bellied pangolin</a> (<em>Phataginus tetradactyla</em>) is an arboreal pangolin species, and occurs in west and central Africa. The <a href="https://pangolinsg.org/portfolio/white-bellied-pangolin/#:%7E:text=Distribution,%3B%20Togo%3B%20Uganda%3B%20Zambia">white-bellied pangolin</a> (<em>Phataginus tricuspis</em>) is the most frequently encountered pangolin in Africa. The white-bellied pangolin is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S277281372200018X?via%3Dihub">found in north-central and south-western Nigeria</a>.</p>
<p>In Nigeria, pangolins are found in various habitats, including <a href="https://www.savepangolins.org/what-is-a-pangolin">forests, savannahs and grasslands</a>. Their distribution and abundance in Nigeria are uncertain, highlighting the need for further research and conservation efforts.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/400-000-african-pangolins-are-hunted-for-meat-every-year-why-its-time-to-act-111540">400,000 African pangolins are hunted for meat every year -- why it's time to act</a>
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<p>Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, serves as a hub for the illegal trade of pangolins. It is a transit route to Cameroon and is involved in shipments of pangolins from sub-Saharan Africa to Asia. Cameroon is at <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/04/peace-poaching-and-pangolins-central-africa">the centre of wildlife trafficking in central Africa</a>. It is both a source country of animal products as well as a transit route for contraband from neighbouring Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.</p>
<p>In 2022, Nigerian customs officials <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67134651">seized</a> 1,613 tonnes of pangolin scales and arrested 14 people. In October 2023, Nigeria <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/nigeria-destroys-seized-pangolin-parts-deter-wildlife-trafficking-2023-10-17/">burned</a> four tonnes of seized pangolin scales, valued at US$1.4 million. Officials said this was the first time they had publicly destroyed seized wildlife products to discourage illegal trafficking. </p>
<h2>Why pangolin conservation is important</h2>
<p>Pangolin conservation is crucial for several reasons. </p>
<p>Firstly, pangolins play a vital role in ecosystems by controlling insect populations, particularly ants and termites, which helps maintain ecological balance. </p>
<p>They also contribute to soil health through their digging behaviour, which aerates the soil and promotes nutrient cycling.</p>
<p>Moreover, pangolins are indicators of ecosystem health. Their presence or absence can reflect the overall well-being of their habitats. Protecting pangolins helps safeguard biodiversity and the integrity of their ecosystems.</p>
<p>They also have cultural and economic value in many regions, contributing to ecotourism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223878/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olajumoke Morenikeji is affiliated with the Pangolin Conservation Guild Nigeria, which she founded. The organisation educates and creates awareness on pangolin conservation, conducts scientific research, collaborates with relevant organisations, advises policymakers, and facilitates pangolin rescue, rehabilitation and release into protected forest areas. I also chair the West Africa region International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) Pangolin Specialist Group.</span></em></p>Pangolins are among the most trafficked and poached mammals in the world.Olajumoke Morenikeji, Professor Department of Zoology, University of IbadanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2139322023-09-22T14:58:11Z2023-09-22T14:58:11ZFarmed rhinos will soon ‘rewild’ the African savanna<p>With all the terrible news on climate change, it’s easy to lose track of what’s happening with particular species. So, in case you missed it, <a href="https://rhinos.org/about-rhinos/state-of-the-rhino/">a new report</a> has bad news for Earth’s five surviving species of rhino. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/threats/poaching-rhino-horn/">Poaching for rhino horn</a> continues to threaten populations of rhino in Africa, and the two smallest and most endangered species of rhino – the Sumatran rhino and the Javan rhino – tread ever closer to being unable to <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/amid-government-inaction-indonesias-rhinos-head-toward-extinction-analysis/">sustain themselves in the wild</a>, due to habitat loss and low population sizes.</p>
<p>While we should never become desensitised to wildlife crime, environmental destruction and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08qym98">species extinctions</a>, there is also some remarkable news. Conservation charity <a href="https://www.africanparks.org/">African Parks</a> recently bought the largest private collection of rhino in the world: the <a href="https://platinumrhino.co.za/">Platinum Rhino</a> farm at Klerksdorp, near Johannesburg in South Africa, previously owned by South African businessman John Hume.</p>
<p>African Parks plans to release the total Platinum Rhino ranch population, currently 2,000 rhino (amounting to roughly 15% of the global white rhino population), into the wild across Africa <a href="https://www.africanparks.org/campaign/rewilding-2000-rhino">over the next ten years</a>. That is good news. As an ecologist, I don’t see the point in conserving a wild species to keep in captivity. Wildlife belongs in the wild.</p>
<p>Hume’s plan to buy up and breed farmed rhino might have allowed him to sell horns for a profit once legal international trade was permitted. But that <a href="https://rhinos.org/blog/cites-and-the-rhino-horn-trade/">didn’t happen</a>.</p>
<p>The international ban on trading rhino horn, enacted by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), has held firm, despite <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDmTaKxAv6Y">lobbying by Hume</a> and others. These critics were joined by some conservationists who believe that the best or only way to save rhino is by legalising the trade in their horns. The logic here is that legalisation would flood the market with legal rhino horn, devaluing illegal horns and slashing the profits of poachers and wildlife traffickers. With that, the incentive to kill rhino would shrink.</p>
<p>Hume continued to expand his private rhino farm and used his increasing rhino population as leverage in his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0iTH9N12o0">calls for legalisation</a>. But with the ban on international trade <a href="https://cites.org/eng/prog/terrestrial_fauna/Rhinoceroces">intact</a>, Hume seems to have ran out of patience. The Platinum Rhino collection was put up for online auction in April 2023 at a starting price of <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-09-12-conserving-and-rewilding-john-humes-rhinos-may-cost-r1bn-or-more/">US$10 million</a> (£8.1 million). It <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-05-08-john-humes-platinum-rhino-project-has-no-viable-business-model-that-bodes-ill-for-big-critter-conservation">failed to attract bids</a>. </p>
<p>That may reflect the problem that rhino face: if people can’t make money out of rhino, nobody is going to want to pay to look after them. But it also highlights a problem driven by farming wildlife for profit, otherwise known as game ranching: if the profits fall, what happens to the animals?</p>
<h2>Into the wild</h2>
<p>After its failure to sell at auction, the largest private collection of rhino in the world was bought by <a href="https://www.africanparks.org/campaign/rewilding-2000-rhino">African Parks</a>. But the charity’s plan to rewild these rhino will not be easy.</p>
<p>A number of years ago I was involved in what was, at the time, the largest private <a href="https://www.jasongilchrist.co.uk/photo_galleries_538019.html">translocation of rhino</a>. The team I worked with moved tens of rhino; the African Parks mission is a lot bigger.</p>
<p>African Parks manages an area of 20 million hectares spread across 22 national parks and protected areas over 12 countries. They will contain suitable savanna grassland for releasing the rhino and the charity has already reintroduced rhino to parks in Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi.</p>
<p>Conservation scientists recently said there is “a clear need to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1617138123000535?via%3Dihub">scale up rewilding initiatives</a>”. It doesn’t get much bigger than reintroducing thousands of rhino across Africa. Rhino can play a <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/why-are-rhinos-important-for-ecosystems/">key role</a> in restoring the ecosystems into which they are placed, greatly influencing a network of species around them and healing ecological wounds incurred via people. </p>
<p>This is the nature of <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-brief/benefits-and-risks-rewilding">rewilding</a>: restoring the linkages that make up ecosystems. Restored megafauna (large herbivorous mammals, in this case) can also help address climate change by enhancing how much habitats <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01631-6">naturally store carbon</a>, through dispersing seeds and enriching the soil.</p>
<p>Restoring megafauna is tricky, and in a recent scientific paper conservationists argued for changes in policy to support it. They suggest “a transition from farming to wildlife ranching, combined with ambitious <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1617138123000535?via%3Dihub">breeding programs for keystone megafauna</a>”. The Platinum Rhino population may well turn out to be a flagship in showing that such an approach is achievable.</p>
<p>Where will the rhino go? Will they be released into areas where rhino are locally extinct, or supplement existing populations? Can they be used to fulfil the role vacated by the functionally extinct <a href="https://rhinos.org/tough-issues/northern-white-rhino/">northern white rhino (subspecies)</a>?</p>
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<p>Time will tell. In the meantime, the farmed rhino need to be prepared to cope with the stress of translocation and release, and for a wild life. They need to be toughened, to find and process food from the natural environments in which they will be placed. They will need to tolerate the challenges of their new environments, such as disease, parasites and predators. </p>
<p>The most dangerous predator of rhino remains <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/poaching-stats/">the human species</a>. The conundrum of how to stop or even simply reduce the loss of free-living rhino to poachers remains. The soon-to-be-released rhino will have to deal with this – with traditional anti-poaching conservation support. Alongside that, <a href="https://natureneedsmore.org/the-facts-about-rhino-horn-demand-reduction-campaigns/">demand reduction</a> efforts must continue in order to bring down the desire for rhino horn.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Gilchrist does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What would you do with 2,000 farmed rhinos? An African charity wants them to help their wild cousins.Jason Gilchrist, Lecturer in the School of Applied Sciences, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2058602023-05-30T11:17:11Z2023-05-30T11:17:11ZHalf of Africa’s white rhino population is in private hands – it’s time for a new conservation approach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527956/original/file-20230524-18-lohud9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A white rhino in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Enrico Di Minin</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Southern white rhinos are widely known as a <a href="https://rhinos.org/blog/facing-down-a-crisis-how-we-almost-lost-the-white-rhino/">conservation success story</a>. Their population grew from fewer than 100 individuals in the 1920s <a href="https://rhinos.org/blog/facing-down-a-crisis-how-we-almost-lost-the-white-rhino/">to 20,000</a> in 2012, mostly in South Africa. </p>
<p>This success was partially due to the inclusion of the private sector, which started in the 1960s when white rhinos were moved from their last remaining population in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and placed in other state reserves as well as on private land. In 1991 the <a href="https://lawfulliving.co.za/book/text/agriculture--game-theft.html">Game Theft Act</a> formalised conditions for private rhino ownership and use. Poaching pressure was low at the time, and the demand for rhinos by ecotourists and trophy hunters gave private landowners incentives to grow their rhino populations. </p>
<p>Based on publicly available data, <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.2593">our recent paper</a> shows that, today, private landholders conserve over half of South Africa’s white rhinos. Communities conserve a further 1% of the white rhinos. This trend is not unique to South Africa. More than 75% of Zimbabwe’s and Namibia’s white rhinos are on private lands. Although outside their natural range, in east Africa 72% of Kenya’s white rhino populations are conserved by private landowners.</p>
<p>In South Africa, the increasing contribution of private rhino custodians over the past few decades is partly due to their success and partly due to shrinking rhino populations in <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-02-14-saving-private-rhino-non-government-owners-of-the-animals-succeed-in-stemming-poaching-carnage/">key state parks</a>. Poaching is largely to blame for shrinking populations. A decade ago, the 2-million-hectare Kruger National Park held over half of the world’s 20,000 white rhinos. Today the park has just over 2,000 of the <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/kruger-rhino-poaching-update-75-population-reduction-in-10-years/">remaining 16,000 white rhinos</a>. Kruger lost 6% of its population to poaching in <a href="https://sajs.co.za/article/view/11300">2020 alone</a>. Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park has suffered <a href="https://mg.co.za/environment/2023-02-08-rhino-poaching-declines-in-kruger-but-poachers-are-on-the-rampage-in-kzn/">similar declines</a>.</p>
<p>Private ranches in South Africa, meanwhile, lost <a href="https://sajs.co.za/article/view/11300">just 0.5%</a> of their rhinos to poaching in 2020. This is likely because smaller private properties are easier to secure and because private ranchers spend more per rhino on security – <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fee.2593#page=4">R28,600 (US$2200)</a> per rhino in 2017, <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fee.2593#page=4">compared with an estimated R8,600 (US$520)</a> per rhino spent by South African National Parks.</p>
<p>This high spend on security may have reduced poaching risk, but it has also reduced the <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12741">benefits accrued</a> from owning rhinos. Even for rhino owners who are not financially motivated, the growing costs of protecting rhinos from poaching are difficult to sustain. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.2593">paper</a>, we outline potential policy pathways to support rhino conservation beyond state parks. Additional revenue streams are needed to give private and community rhino custodians the incentive. These could include tapping into markets beyond ecotourism and trophy hunting, such as carbon and biodiversity credits. Incentives could also include private sector funding through impact investments, and government funding through tax incentives. New community custodians are likely to require state support, at least initially.</p>
<p>As large grazers, rhinos play <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/why-are-rhinos-important-for-ecosystems/">an important role</a> in their ecosystem. Their decline is evoking <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719305099">strong sentimental reactions</a> from people around the world. This raises the question: to what extent should the costs of protecting globally valued rhinos be carried by their local custodians?</p>
<h2>The cost is too high</h2>
<p>In 2018 we <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12741">estimated</a> that 28% of private rhino owners in South Africa were disinvesting, while 57% were continuing as usual and 15% were investing in more rhinos. </p>
<p>At that time rhino breeder John Hume was one of the flagship investors. He and some other private rhino owners had been investing in rhinos in the hope that rhino horn trade would be legalised, which would make the cost-benefit ratio of owning rhinos <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12412">considerably more favourable</a>. </p>
<p>But in April 2023, Hume held an online auction to sell the 2,000 white rhinos he owned – representing about 13% of the continental population. <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-05-01-shaky-future-for-2000-rhinos-after-mega-breeders-auction-fails-to-attract-bidders/">He said</a> he could no longer afford his costly rhino breeding operation. The auction failed to attract any bidders. </p>
<p>There are three possible outcomes for Hume’s rhinos. One, a buyer could take over the operation. Two, the animals could be relocated to parks in South Africa or other <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/4185/45813880#geographic-range">countries in sub-Saharan Africa</a>. Or they might be relocated abroad, beyond their historical range (for instance to Asia or Australia).</p>
<p>The first outcome would be the simplest. But it doesn’t solve the problem that rhinos are increasingly expensive to support. </p>
<p>The second option is attractive because it would boost population numbers in parks that have lost their populations. However, the “space” for rhinos in many of these parks likely signals their failure at protecting their rhinos in the first place. Rewilding would require a new strategy for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320721004705">protecting them</a>.</p>
<p>Moving rhinos beyond their historical range has been considered before. A multi-million-dollar <a href="https://theaustralianrhinoproject.org/index.php/about">proposal</a> to move rhinos to Australia (where they do not naturally occur) received support but also <a href="https://theecologist.org/2017/may/02/rhinos-should-be-conserved-africa-not-moved-australia">criticism</a>. Almost 1,000 white rhinos are already in captivity around the world and such projects arguably divert funds and expertise away from conservation efforts in the countries where rhinos naturally occur.</p>
<p>It’s important to consider how to support private rhino custodianship so that we don’t end up with more rhinos for sale that <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-01-16-private-and-communal-lands-conserve-half-of-africas-rhinos-and-call-for-adaptive-policies/">no one wants to buy</a>.</p>
<h2>Innovative solutions, partnerships</h2>
<p>A diversity of models and a <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2021-08-05-saving-private-rhino-we-must-reimagine-the-future-of-species-conservation-in-south-africa/">common vision</a> is needed to conserve thriving populations of rhinos across state, private and community land. </p>
<p>Rhinos should not unjustly burden those who serve as their custodians. Income from ecotourism and trophy hunting is insufficient under current poaching conditions and costs. How can the cost-benefit ratio of conserving rhinos be shifted?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Several rhinos are seen at a distance against the backdrop of grassland and a mountain" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527955/original/file-20230524-7504-w56bss.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">White rhinos on a large private game reserve in South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hayley Clements</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Legalising international horn trade would certainly shift the ratio, but there is <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/will-legal-international-rhino-horn-trade-save-wild-rhino-populations/">strong pushback</a>. At best horn trade is a medium-term solution since international policy moves slowly.</p>
<p>Additional, nearer-term options include <a href="https://conservationnamibia.com/articles/cnam2020-wildlife-credits.php">rhino credits</a> and <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/03/23/wildlife-conservation-bond-boosts-south-africa-s-efforts-to-protect-black-rhinos-and-support-local-communities">impact bonds</a> – large-scale philanthropy that pays for conservation success. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.oneearth.org/how-restoring-key-wildlife-species-can-be-a-game-changing-climate-solution/">growing evidence</a> that wildlife populations can increase soil carbon – possibly enabling wildlife ranches to tap into carbon credit markets. The government can also recognise and support the role of rhino custodians through <a href="https://www.birdlife.org.za/what-we-do/important-bird-and-biodiversity-areas/what-we-do-ibas/fiscal-benefits-project/">tax incentives</a>. South Africa is a pioneer in biodiversity stewardship tax incentives, though they are currently only available to landowners who formally declare their land as protected. </p>
<p>Time is <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/the-state-of-africas-rhino/">running out for rhinos</a>: more inclusive, equitable and innovative solutions are needed to support their conservation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205860/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hayley Clements receives funding from a Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Research Grant and Kone Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Balfour is a freelance ecologist and a member of the IUCN SSC African Rhino Specialist Group and Chairs the SADC Rhino Management Group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Enrico Di Minin receives funding from the European Research Council – EU's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement 802933).</span></em></p>To what extent should the costs of protecting globally valued rhinos be carried by their local custodians?Hayley Clements, Researcher, Stellenbosch UniversityDave Balfour, Freelance conservation ecologist, Nelson Mandela UniversityEnrico Di Minin, Associate Professor in Conservation Geography, University of HelsinkiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973492023-01-11T11:41:24Z2023-01-11T11:41:24ZElephant poaching rates vary across Africa: 19 years of data from 64 sites suggest why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503583/original/file-20230109-13-53i5vz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s a grim and all too common sight for rangers at some of Africa’s nature reserves: the bullet-riddled carcass of an elephant, its tusks removed by poachers. African elephant populations have <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/2354/#table-2">fallen by about 30% since 2006</a>. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1403984111">Poaching</a> has driven the decline.</p>
<p>Some reserves, like Garamba in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Selous in Tanzania, have lost hundreds of elephants to poachers over the last decade. But others, like Etosha National Park in Namibia, have been targeted far less. What might explain this difference?</p>
<p>That’s what we set out to explore in our <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.2270">new paper</a>. We investigated why poaching rates vary so widely across Africa and what this might reveal about what drives, motivates and facilitates poaching. To do this, we used a statistical model to relate poaching levels from 64 African sites to various socio-economic factors. These included a country’s quality of governance and the level of human development in the area surrounding a park.</p>
<p>Our findings suggest that poaching rates are lower where there is strong national governance and where local levels of human development – especially wealth and health – are relatively high. Strong site-level law enforcement and reduced global ivory prices also keep poaching levels down.</p>
<p>Understanding these dynamics is crucial. The illegal wildlife trade is <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-environ-101718-033253">one of the highest value illicit trade sectors globally</a>, worth several billion dollars each year. It poses a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystems, which are <a href="https://www.unep.org/un-biodiversity-conference-cop-15">the bedrock of human well-being</a>. And elephants are more than just a culturally significant icon. They are “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0395-6">ecosystem engineers</a>” that can boost forest carbon stocks and <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.1557">diversify habitats</a> through their feeding. Their presence in national parks and reserves also has economic benefits, bringing in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13379">valuable tourism revenues</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/115/458/1/2195193">deaths of both poachers and rangers</a> in the continent’s violent biodiversity “war” also underscores our findings: when elephants lose, we all lose.</p>
<h2>Data collection</h2>
<p>We developed a statistical model using 19 years of data on 10,286 poached elephants at 64 sites in 30 African countries. These data were collected, mostly by wildlife rangers, as part of the global programme for <a href="https://citesmike.org/">Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE)</a>, administered by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503770/original/file-20230110-5012-50s7kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rangers are the real champions of this research, working under difficult conditions to protect elephants and other biodiversity. Photo: Tim Kuiper.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We then linked the poaching data to key socio-economic data related to areas around the parks, individual countries and global markets.</p>
<p>Poaching of high-value species like elephants and rhinos is driven primarily by <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/59/1/24/4967883">sophisticated criminal syndicates</a>. So we used criminology theory and evidence from the scientific literature to generate hypotheses about factors that might drive, facilitate or motivate the decisions of these syndicates and the local hunters they recruited. We then identified datasets representing these factors, such as the <a href="https://ucdp.uu.se/">Uppsala Armed Conflict Dataset</a> and the Global Data Lab’s <a href="https://globaldatalab.org/shdi/">Subnational Human Development index</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/statistical-models-and-ranger-insights-help-identify-patterns-in-elephant-poaching-137834">Statistical models and ranger insights help identify patterns in elephant poaching</a>
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<p>Our tailored statistical model allows us to test for the effect of one hypothesised driver of poaching while accounting for the others. It also means we can look at local, national, regional and global factors together.</p>
<h2>Key findings</h2>
<p>Parks with higher levels of human development (based on health and wealth metrics from household surveys) and stronger law enforcement suffered less poaching. Poaching was also lower in countries where there was strong national governance quality. We measured this using the <a href="https://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/">World Bank’s governance indicators</a>. </p>
<p>Socio-economic and political drivers were far more common than ecological ones. A park’s accessibility and size, the density of its vegetation and its elephant population did not affect its poaching levels. </p>
<p>The strong associations we found between poaching and factors like corruption and human development do not necessarily imply that these factors directly cause poaching. Correlation does not imply causation. Deeper research at particular sites will reveal what underlying processes are at play, and offer a better understanding of cause and effect. </p>
<p>But we do have some suggestions about what might lie behind the associations we found. These are rooted in <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12622">previous studies</a>.</p>
<h2>Solutions transcend biodiversity</h2>
<p>Why, for instance, would higher levels of local human well-being in an area be associated with lower poaching?</p>
<p>One explanation could be that, in areas of economic deprivation and in the absence of alternatives, local residents might participate in poaching to meet their basic needs or earn extra income.</p>
<p>Another interpretation might be that criminal ivory syndicates seeking to recruit local hunters target areas of lower human well-being because they can operate more effectively there.</p>
<p>A number of biodiversity conservation actors, like government wildlife departments or environmental NGOs, have already recognised the value in focusing on improving human well-being around parks and reserves. A stellar example is <a href="https://communityconservationnamibia.com/">Namibia’s conservancy model</a>. It achieves effective conservation through local communities governing and benefiting from wildlife. </p>
<p>Our study highlights that site-based conservation action alone cannot control illegal killing. A lot of what drives and facilitates elephant poaching is beyond conservationists’ remit or control.</p>
<p>Conservationists can’t be expected to solve local human development issues or hold governments accountable on their own. Wider societal action to address poverty is required. This could include empowering women, increasing access to basic education, and promoting resilience to climate change. Such action is valuable in its own right, but will likely deliver benefits for elephants too. </p>
<p>Finally, the positive relationship that we found between poaching and ivory prices suggests that tackling demand for illegal wildlife in end-markets is a key part of the puzzle.</p>
<p>We suggest that tackling elephant poaching, and indeed the broader illegal wildlife trade, requires dealing with the wider systemic challenges of human development, corruption and consumer demand. It is not enough to just focus on actions traditionally defined as “wildlife conservation”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197349/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Kuiper receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation and the University of Cape Town Research Council. This work arises from a consultancy from the UN CITES Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants programme, to E.J. Milner-Gulland and Tim Kuiper (CITES project S-598), which was funded by the European Union. The consultancy brief was to identify and analyse covariates of illegal killing across MIKE sites, and a peer-reviewed paper was one of the planned outputs</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>This work arises from a consultancy from the UN CITES Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants programme, to E.J. Milner-Gulland and Tim Kuiper (CITES project S-598), which was funded by the European Union. The consultancy brief was to identify and analyse covariates of illegal killing across MIKE sites, and a peer-reviewed paper was one of the planned outputs. Potentially relevant group memberships: I am currently a Trustee of WWF-UK and a member of the IUCN-SSC Sustainable Use and Livelihoods specialist group.</span></em></p>The findings suggest that poaching rates are lower where there is strong national governance and levels of local human development are higher.Timothy Kuiper, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Cape TownEleanor Jane Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1952742022-12-05T12:26:28Z2022-12-05T12:26:28ZHow pastoral farming can help to avoid a biodiversity crisis<p>The world is losing its biodiversity. An estimated <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">41,000 animal species</a> are now threatened with extinction. World leaders will convene at the <a href="https://www.unep.org/events/conference/un-biodiversity-conference-cop-15">UN COP15 biodiversity conference</a> in Montreal this month to <a href="https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/abb5/591f/2e46096d3f0330b08ce87a45/wg2020-03-03-en.pdf">discuss ways</a> of reversing this decline. </p>
<p>Participants are expected to adopt a <a href="https://www.cbd.int/conferences/post2020">global framework</a> that sets out measures to safeguard biodiversity. One <a href="https://www.iucn.org/our-work/protected-areas-and-land-use">approach</a> is to conserve 30% of the world’s land and sea area through protected areas and other conservation measures in areas of limited human activity. Some campaigners are <a href="https://www.campaignfornature.org/Background">calling</a> for this target to be met by the end of the decade.</p>
<p>But much of the land set aside for protection is occupied by indigenous people who may be excluded or displaced. Mobile pastoral farmers are one such group. <a href="https://www.tni.org/en/publication/livestock-climate-and-the-politics-of-resources">Millions</a> of pastoralists graze livestock across a <a href="https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cb5855en">variety of environments</a> worldwide.</p>
<p>Case studies from around the world indicate that including pastoral communities in <a href="https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(22)00093-8">conservation initiatives</a> can help to address the tensions that emerge around protected areas, while improving biodiversity.</p>
<h2>The importance of pastoralism</h2>
<p>The mobile grazing of livestock can be <a href="https://pastres.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/en-infosheet-3of6.pdf">essential</a> for maintaining the biodiversity of rangelands. Migrating livestock disperse seeds over large distances and fertilise soils with their dung and urine, encouraging plant growth. Light grazing and trampling of soil and grass can also allow areas of the ecosystem to regenerate following periods of intensive use.</p>
<p>Pastoralism can also support the survival of many important animal species. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/indias-missing-wolves/article65421926.ece">Indian wolves</a> are dependent on large spaces to roam. But in recent years their number has declined, leaving just over 3,000 in India’s grasslands. However, the sheep and goats that are grazed by pastoralist communities in these grasslands are prey for the Indian wolf.</p>
<p>Livestock carcasses also provide a food source for endangered <a href="https://digital.csic.es/handle/10261/147055">European vulture species</a>.</p>
<h2>Supporting conservation</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://pastres.org/biodiversity/">Pastres research programme</a>, which I co-lead, explores how livestock herders are able to produce food on lands that some people dismiss as marginal, including savannahs, mountains and deserts. Taking care of the land is an essential part of their livelihoods. Pastres also highlights the intimate knowledge pastoralists have of the ecosystems in which they live. </p>
<p>Research shows how pastoralists can be partners in <a href="https://pastres.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/en-infosheet-6of6.pdf">biodiversity conservation</a> efforts.</p>
<p>For example, wildlife poaching has become a major <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/species/202103/african-elephant-species-now-endangered-and-critically-endangered-iucn-red-list">challenge for conservation</a> in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The standard response has been to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.01.013">militarise conservation</a> by arming rangers, and excluding people from wildlife areas.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/embracing-uncertainty-what-kenyan-herders-can-teach-us-about-living-in-a-volatile-world-174075">Embracing uncertainty: what Kenyan herders can teach us about living in a volatile world</a>
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<p>Yet pastoralists can reduce the incidence of wildlife poaching by acting as rangers. A <a href="https://pastres.org/2021/08/27/bring-back-the-herder-conservationists/">scheme</a> has been proposed in Kenya where pastoralists alert the authorities to commercialised poaching and protect water sources for joint use by wildlife and livestock. </p>
<p>Mobile pastoralism has long been an important component of ecological health in Spanish grasslands. The movement of livestock along rural routes called <a href="https://tuhat.helsinki.fi/ws/files/134650388/Manzano_Casas_2010_Pastoralism_Practical_Action_.pdf">drove roads</a> allow <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1890/1540-9295%282006%29004%5B0244%3AELSDVS%5D2.0.CO%3B2">seeds</a> to be dispersed over large distances in the fleeces and hooves of sheep. This enhances biodiversity and the connections between ecologically important areas.</p>
<p>In the same way, <a href="https://www.sadc.int/document/sadc-tfca-brochure">transfrontier parks</a> – which are ecologically protected areas that span across country boundaries – allow for flexible use of grazing landscapes through movement. In southern Africa, the removal of fences allows both livestock and wildlife such as elephants and wildebeest to migrate across large areas and diverse environments.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two wildebeest running through a savannah landscape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497985/original/file-20221129-24-fpmruo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497985/original/file-20221129-24-fpmruo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497985/original/file-20221129-24-fpmruo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497985/original/file-20221129-24-fpmruo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497985/original/file-20221129-24-fpmruo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497985/original/file-20221129-24-fpmruo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497985/original/file-20221129-24-fpmruo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Two wildebeest in Kgalagadi transfrontier park, South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-blue-wildebeest-running-pursuit-kgalagadi-2229055423">PACO COMO/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Poorly managed rangelands where pastoral populations have been declining are also prone to dangerous wildfires. One <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/1/21">study</a> showed how pastoral farming declined in areas of Greece that were subject to wildfires between 1961 and 2017. Less livestock grazing has resulted in more dry biomass to fuel <a href="https://pastres.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/en-infosheet-4of6.pdf">wildfires</a>. In some areas, forest plantations have replaced pastoral grazing, further raising the vulnerability of these areas to fires.</p>
<h2>Exclusionary conservation</h2>
<p>The ecology of pastoral lands has long been <a href="https://pastres.org/2019/04/26/challenging-desertification-myths/">misunderstood</a>. <a href="https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wcc.790">Global assessments</a> of the impact of livestock production often paint all livestock systems as the enemy of nature. The failure to differentiate between these systems has resulted in policymakers accusing pastoralists of contributing to <a href="https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/20.500.12413/17608/IDS_Working_Paper_577.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y">environmental degradation</a>.</p>
<p>Conservation interventions have been used as an excuse to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/apr/22/tanzania-maasai-appeal-to-west-stop-evictions-due-to-conservation-plans">evict pastoralists</a> from their lands. Rangelands have been <a href="https://eu.boell.org/en/2021/09/07/pastoralism-india-rangeland-not-wasteland">squeezed</a> to make way for other projects as part of a wider pattern of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2012.671770">“green grabbing”</a> in recent years. Pastoral rangelands have been repurposed for environmental investments including forestry projects, carbon offsetting schemes, biofuel production and ecotourism.</p>
<p>But rangelands are often unsuitable for the <a href="https://tokaipark.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Bond-WJ-et-al-2019-%E2%80%93-The-Trouble-with-Trees-Afforestation-Plans-for-Africa.pdf">tree-planting schemes</a> proposed by those who advocate for the <a href="https://pastres.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/en-infosheet-5of6.pdf">rewilding</a> of pastoral areas. Pastoral practices challenge the conservation idea that the best kind of ecosystem is wild and heavily protected. As <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/34991">“open ecosystems”</a>, the natural state of rangelands is not closed canopy forests but a mix of grass and trees maintained by fire and grazing.</p>
<p>Such conservation schemes can also <a href="https://pastres.org/2022/03/18/how-sedentist-approaches-to-land-and-conservation-threaten-pastoralists/">undermine the mobile use</a> of rangelands, an approach that has helped pastoralists preserve these environments for centuries.</p>
<p>Through their flexibility, mobility and adaptability, pastoralists can operate successfully as part of nature. Research has shown how pastoralists can manage resources in ways that will benefit biodiversity conservation. It is these <a href="https://pastres.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/en-infosheet-1of6.pdf">lessons</a> that must be central to the discussion at COP15.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Scoones receives funding from the European Research Council through an Advanced Grant (74032). </span></em></p>Pastoral communities should be included in conservation initiatives – but the ecology of pastoral lands has long been misunderstood.Ian Scoones, Professorial Fellow, Institute of Development StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1917882022-10-16T07:50:46Z2022-10-16T07:50:46ZElephant conservation may be undermined by Twitter users who overlook main threats<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487801/original/file-20221003-16-3yodbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elephants crossing a road in Botswana</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">poco_bw / Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-1.RLTS.T181007989A204404464.en">African forest elephant</a> (<em>Loxodonta cyclotis</em>), the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-2.RLTS.T181008073A204401095.en">African savanna elephant</a> (<em>Loxodonta africana</em>) and the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T7140A45818198.en">Asian elephant</a> (<em>Elephas maximus</em>) are all highly threatened species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has identified <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/species-survival-commission/202108/shrinking-spaces-worlds-largest-land-animal">poaching, habitat loss, and human-elephant conflict</a> as threats common to the species. </p>
<p>Addressing threats to elephants requires public and political will to take action. As elephant conservation relies on international funders, elephant conservation requires support from people within elephant-range countries along with people around the world. For example, from 2010 to 2017, international donors provided US$500 million towards <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/541157a">anti-poaching programmes across Africa</a>.</p>
<p>What the public believes to be the primary threats to elephants has an impact on how conservation issues are prioritised and funded. But public views are informed by the media’s coverage of conservation threats. </p>
<p>Social media’s reach has helped to bring attention to elephant conservation globally. But if attention on social media is not aligned with the primary threats to elephants, public support – and therefore political will and funding – may be misdirected towards issues and campaigns that don’t benefit wild elephants. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.12785">new study</a>, we analysed tweets about elephants posted during 2019 to understand whether the most pressing threats – as identified by International Union for Conservation of Nature – received the most attention. </p>
<p>We found that attention on Twitter did not align with the most pressing threats. Habitat loss and human-elephant conflict received relatively little attention. </p>
<p>The study also highlighted a difference between people who lived in countries that had elephant populations, and those that didn’t. Conflict between elephants and humans was an important issue for people living in countries with elephants. But it got little attention from people who didn’t live in areas that had elephants. </p>
<p>Habitat loss received little attention from all Twitter users (less than 1% of all tweets about elephants).</p>
<p>Our findings are concerning as the lack of attention for habitat loss and human-elephant conflict may result in these issues being perceived as less important and, therefore, less likely to receive funding and attention from policy-makers.</p>
<h2>Elephants and people</h2>
<p>Human-elephant conflict is a complex problem which often pits local people’s livelihoods and safety against the conservation of elephants. Unfortunately, on social media, there is a misperception that elephants live in wild places without people, and that conflict occurs only because people have encroached on elephant habitat. </p>
<p>In reality, elephants are not confined to protected areas but live in shared landscapes, where there are no fences to separate people and elephants. Research suggests that up to <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/species-survival-commission/202108/shrinking-spaces-worlds-largest-land-animal">70% of African forest elephants</a> live outside protected areas. </p>
<p>Living with elephants comes at a high cost to local communities. For example, Botswana is home to the largest elephant population in Africa. With nearly <a href="https://elephantswithoutborders.org/projects/elephant-research/">130,000 elephants</a>, which spend much of their time outside protected areas, there is frequent conflict with people. From 2009 to 2019, <a href="https://www.africaportal.org/documents/21369/BIDPA_Policy-Brief-No.16-A4.pdf">elephants killed 67 people</a> in Botswana, more than any other wild animal.</p>
<p>In Asia and Africa, farmers may lose <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.07.014">10%–15% of their crops</a> to elephants. </p>
<p>Communities living with elephants make great sacrifices for conservation. These sacrifices are rarely acknowledged on social media. </p>
<h2>Blame and resentment</h2>
<p>Using Twitter’s <a href="https://developer.twitter.com/en/products/twitter-api/academic-research">Academic Research product track</a>, we downloaded all tweets posted to Twitter in 2019 that contained the word “elephant”. Then we read a sample of these tweets and recorded the users’ country and whether the tweet discussed one of the primary threats to wild elephants. </p>
<p>We found that tweets directly related to the threats to wild elephants accounted for only 21% of all tweets. Poaching was the most frequently discussed threat (13%), followed by human-elephant conflict (7%) and habitat loss (less than 1%). </p>
<p>Only 27% of the tweets were from people who lived in countries that had elephant populations. This meant that discussions about human-elephant conflict – and other issues most important to elephant-range countries – were often overshadowed by predominantly western Twitter users. </p>
<p>When human-elephant conflict was discussed, it was typically in response to elephants being killed. International media coverage of human-wildlife conflict often portrays local <a href="https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00005_1">communities as uncaring</a> and blames them for conflict. For example, one tweet said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If humans don’t want elephants around their land, then they shouldn’t move their farm right in the middle of the elephant’s habitat. The elephants were there first. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>We found that many Twitter users from countries home to elephants took issue with the attention the death of elephants received compared with the limited attention given to the impacts of elephants on local communities. </p>
<p>In line with a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2019.1604719">previous study</a>, many African social media users criticised western users for putting the lives of wildlife ahead of African people. For example, one tweet from Botswana said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People get killed by elephants here every day. Breadwinners, parents leaving behind children … Batswana lives in rural areas don’t matter?</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>Addressing human-elephant conflict will become an even more pressing issue in the coming years and decades. This is because habitat loss is expected to accelerate due to climate change, forcing people and elephants into <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/08/15/1117076598/drought-is-driving-elephants-closer-to-people-the-consequences-can-be-deadly">increasing conflict over limited resources</a>. </p>
<p>If people care about elephants and want to see them protected in the wild, they need to care about – and advocate for – the communities that live alongside elephants. </p>
<p>Without support from local communities, the conservation of elephants won’t be possible. More inclusive conservation projects, which provide benefits for protecting wildlife and community rights to manage their wildlife, have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00538">increased support for conservation</a>. In contrast, a lack of acknowledgement of the costs of living with elephants, and misperceptions over who is to blame for conflict, threaten to undermine conservation efforts. </p>
<p>Conservationists – and social media users more broadly – need to challenge negative portrayals of local communities, increase awareness of the realities of living with elephants, and acknowledge communities’ rights to manage their wildlife sustainably.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191788/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niall Hammond receives a PhD scholarship from Griffith University which covered the costs of conducting the research in this article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Dickman receives her salary from the Recanati-Kaplan Foundation and Panthera, and consultancy funds from the Darwin Expert Committee, the Arabian Leopard Fund and Jamma International. She is the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and joint CEO of Lion Landscapes, which both receive funding from a wide range of funders.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Duan Biggs is the Olajos Goslow Chair of Environmental Science and Policy at Northern Arizona University. He is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, the Species Survival Commission, and the Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy. </span></em></p>A study of tweets posted in 2019 found that tweets about elephant conservation didn’t align with the actual greatest threats to the animals, creating the risk that funding could be misdirected.Niall Hammond, PhD Candidate in Conservation Science, Griffith UniversityAmy Dickman, Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of OxfordDuan Biggs, Olajos Goslow Chair, Northern Arizona UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1866032022-09-23T15:49:40Z2022-09-23T15:49:40ZHow money and technology are militarising the fight against the illegal wildlife trade<p>Thousands of animals and plants are bought and sold each year <a href="https://ipbes.net/media_release/Sustainable_Use_Assessment_Published">globally</a> as food, medicine, clothing and furniture – even in the form of <a href="https://wildlifejustice.org/identifying-ebony-species-music-instruments-distinguish-illegally-traded-legally-traded-wood/">musical instruments</a>. Wildlife, it seems, is big business.</p>
<p>The illegal wildlife trade, which has an estimated value of at least <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/report/rise-environmental-crime-growing-threat-natural-resources-peace-development-and">US$7 billion</a> (£5.9 billion) and potentially as much as US$23 billion, is driving some of the most well known species on Earth – especially rhinos, elephants, tigers, lions and, more recently, pangolins – towards extinction.</p>
<p>Since 2008, law enforcement has played a considerably bigger role in tackling the illegal wildlife trade, thanks to the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X2030084X">support</a> of governments, private donors, conservation charities and businesses. The result is that counter-insurgency techniques, such as developing informant networks and contracting private security firms to train rangers in anti-poaching operations with military-grade weapons, have proliferated.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, many conservationists are turning to drones and other technologies to monitor species and enforce protective measures. This in turn creates new business for tech companies keen to build a green reputation. </p>
<p>Countries must find a way to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. But, as a researcher of the international politics of conservation, I believe that techniques and technologies more regularly deployed by law enforcement and security firms are not the answer.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two wildlife rangers in military-style uniforms holding rifles." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480597/original/file-20220823-17-bzckmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480597/original/file-20220823-17-bzckmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480597/original/file-20220823-17-bzckmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480597/original/file-20220823-17-bzckmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480597/original/file-20220823-17-bzckmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480597/original/file-20220823-17-bzckmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480597/original/file-20220823-17-bzckmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rangers in Kruger Park, South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kruger-park-south-africa-10-may-1988516507">WildSnap/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The funding problem</h2>
<p>Between 2002 and 2018, the US Fish and Wildlife Service gave US$301 million to 4,142 conservation projects <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X2030084X">across 106 countries</a>. Over the course of those 16 years, an increasing portion was allocated to tackling the illegal wildlife trade, as part of a shift from strict species protection and projects to improve livelihoods.</p>
<p>In 2014, the US Congress allocated US$45 million in its foreign assistance biodiversity budget to tackle wildlife trafficking, increasing to US$55 million in 2015, US$80 million in 2016 and almost US$91 million in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X2030084X">2017, 2018 and 2019</a>. Similarly, the UK government’s illegal wildlife trade challenge fund allocated over <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/glep/article-abstract/22/2/23/108648/Crime-Security-and-Illegal-Wildlife-Trade?redirectedFrom=fulltext">£23 million to 75 projects</a> between 2013 and 2019. </p>
<p>The fund had three themes: developing sustainable livelihoods that could replace poaching (six funded projects), strengthening law enforcement and the role of the criminal justice system (62 funded projects) and reducing demand for wildlife products (seven funded projects).</p>
<p>The role of philanthropists in conservation funding is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2011.01749.x">growing</a>. Examples include Howard Graham Buffet’s <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/03/howard-g-buffett-puts-24m-toward-saving-rhinos/">US$23 million donation</a> in 2014 to help Kruger National park in South Africa tackle rhino poaching. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos established his <a href="https://www.bezosearthfund.org/">US$10 billion Earth fund</a> in 2021 to disburse grants to conservation initiatives, among other environmental causes. </p>
<p>This money can help conservationists respond quickly to emergency situations. Philanthropists tend to come from a business culture in which it’s normal to set goals and expect rapid, clear and trackable results in return for donations, which can be beneficial for planning effective action. </p>
<p>But some conservationists I interviewed while researching my book, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300230185/security-and-conservation/">Security and Conservation</a>, said that it can result in unwelcome pressure on the people doing conservation work, such as rangers. They talked of expectations to increase the number of seizures of trafficked goods, obtain more arrests and generally pursue more aggressive anti-poaching efforts to secure quick results. </p>
<h2>Technology and security</h2>
<p>Conservation groups and tech companies have presented a range of technologies as cost-effective ways of cracking down on wildlife trafficking. These often involve forms of surveillance borrowed from the security sector, from drones and satellite monitoring of wildlife to artificial intelligence increasing the capacity of camera traps to identify potential poachers. Apps for the general public to report suspected illegal activity have even been developed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A herd of zebra running together on a dusty landscape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480594/original/file-20220823-22-f5kybf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3144%2C2358&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480594/original/file-20220823-22-f5kybf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480594/original/file-20220823-22-f5kybf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480594/original/file-20220823-22-f5kybf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480594/original/file-20220823-22-f5kybf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480594/original/file-20220823-22-f5kybf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480594/original/file-20220823-22-f5kybf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Surveillance technology has increasingly used in conservation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/zebras-arusha-tanzania-22072017-1037443297">Jost Jelovcan/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Google’s global impact awards had a fund of US$23 million to help “non-profit tech innovators” (as Google called them) develop technological solutions for a range of global challenges, including conservation. In 2012, it granted more than US$5 million to the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/videos/google-global-impact-awards">wildlife crime technology project</a>, which has pioneered <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/07/wwf-wildlife-drones-illegal-trade">aerial detection of poaching in Kenya</a> and DNA sequencing to determine the origin of illegal wildlife products. </p>
<p>These techniques are not necessarily problematic. But the lure of technology can overshadow the <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198850243.001.0001/oso-9780198850243-chapter-12">vital work</a> of addressing the underlying drivers of poaching and trafficking, such as poverty and inequality.</p>
<p>Though the trade is by definition illegal, addressing it as a purely criminal matter ignores the fact that people are drawn into poaching for a range of reasons. The <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011392116673210">colonial-era dispossession</a> of people from places now designated as national parks has left an enduring legacy. A lack of economic alternatives in such places make poaching one of the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0011392116673210">few viable sources of income</a>. </p>
<p>Global inequality is also a significant factor. Wildlife is often (but not exclusively) taken from poorer areas to serve demand in wealthier communities, with <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674260276">rosewood trafficked from Madagascar to China</a> and <a href="https://www.traffic.org/publications/reports/understanding-the-global-caviar-market/">illegal caviar</a> sourced from the Caspian sea serving luxury markets in London and Paris, among others. </p>
<p>Financial support from governments and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2011.01749.x">philanthropic foundations</a> has been an important factor in conservation, especially in the last 20 years. But faith in finding technological solutions to a problem that’s treated as a security issue makes it harder to develop and support the alternatives that could be more effective, including <a href="https://www.peoplenotpoaching.org/">sustainable livelihoods</a> for would-be poachers and reducing demand in wealthier countries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186603/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosaleen Duffy receives funding from the European Research Council and the UK Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>Money pouring into conservation has funded drones and military-style training for rangers.Rosaleen Duffy, Professor of International Politics, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1782332022-03-06T08:20:53Z2022-03-06T08:20:53ZA first for large African mammals: DNA used to count Gabon’s endangered forest elephants<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449452/original/file-20220302-27-1czm437.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">African forest elephants.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GUDKOV ANDREY/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Across the African continent the populations of both species of African elephants – forest and savanna – have been declining due to habitat loss, poaching and human-wildlife conflict. </p>
<p>Forest elephants <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/181007989/204404464">are listed</a> by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as “Critically Endangered” – a category for species that have declined over 80% within three generations. And it has <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/181008073/204401095">listed savanna elephants</a> as “Endangered” – indicating a decline of over 50% within three generations.</p>
<p>But there <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308648066_African_Elephant_Status_Report_2016_an_update_from_the_African_Elephant_Database">remains some areas</a> where there is both high quality habitat and stable elephant populations. These <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/2354/">include</a> Gabon, the northern Republic of Congo, northern Botswana, northern Tanzania and northern Kenya. </p>
<p>Gabon holds <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0059469">roughly half of all forest elephants</a>, which occur across almost the entire country’s area (about 250,000km2). It is the principal stronghold of a species <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.1993.0042">that once numbered in the millions</a>.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-decisions-by-global-conservation-group-bolster-efforts-to-save-africas-elephants-158157">New decisions by global conservation group bolster efforts to save Africa's elephants</a>
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<p>Securing this stronghold is vitally important to the species’ future. Given <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0192777">the slow rate</a> of forest elephant reproduction recruitment species recovery in more depleted areas will be slow.</p>
<p>To ensure good decision-making for wildlife conservation, it’s important to know how many elephants there are. Researchers, practitioners and policy-makers all need data they can trust when designing new protected areas, managing existing ones, and creating national and international conservation laws and strategies.</p>
<p>We set out to answer the question: How many forest elephants are in Gabon right now? </p>
<p>Elephant surveys within Gabon since 2004 have covered just under a quarter of the nation’s elephant habitat, but over the last decade (since 2011) only 14% of the habitat has been surveyed. </p>
<p>Thanks to a collaborative approach between the <a href="https://www.wcs.org/">Wildlife Conservation Society</a>, the Gabonese National Parks Agency and <a href="https://vulcan.com/">Vulcan Inc</a> (a philanthropic foundation), we were able to plan and implement our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989421004443">nationwide, systematic population survey of forest elephants in Gabon</a> using DNA from fresh elephant dung. </p>
<p>This was the first national DNA-based assessment of any free-ranging large mammal in Africa.</p>
<h2>Counting elephants</h2>
<p>Our first aim was to collect as many dung samples as possible. We then assigned each dungpile to an individual elephant using DNA analysis. </p>
<p>Our survey covered 18 plots, each at about 2,000km2 in size, which were spaced across the entire country. We looked for fresh elephant dung within each of sites, walking for about three weeks per site – a total of almost 8,300 km, a distance which is the equivalent of Canada to Gabon! </p>
<p>We collected samples from just over 4,000 fresh dungpiles, which after DNA analysis, were found to have been deposited by almost 1,760 individuals (of which almost 70% were from females). </p>
<p>Our results estimated that there are 95,110 forest elephants in Gabon. Our population estimation method depends on a proportion of individual elephants being “captured” more than once, a method formally known as <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10336-010-0583-z">spatially explicit capture-recapture</a>. We also estimated that they lived at an average population density of 0.38 per km2, or roughly one elephant per square mile.</p>
<p>Elephant densities were highest in relatively flat areas with a high proportion of reasonably intact lowland tropical forests. They were not found in high densities near the national border. </p>
<p>Interestingly, human presence and activity did not appear to be strong predictors of elephant density. By contrast, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0059469">elsewhere in Central Africa</a> elephants avoid roads, villages, and populated areas. This is probably because Gabon has lower levels of elephant poaching than other countries. Gabon also has one of the lowest human population densities in Africa and <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?locations=GA">over 90% of the population live in towns and cities</a>. In the very lightly populated rural regions, there may be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989421004443">roughly one elephant for every twenty inhabitants</a>. </p>
<h2>Human-elephant conflict</h2>
<p>As key species in their ecosystem, forest elephants provide unique ecological services related to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-7429.2009.00512.x">seed dispersal</a>, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecog.01641">trampling</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecog.03309">nutrient cycling</a>. This is why they are called “ecosystem engineers” and “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1146609X11000154">mega-gardeners</a>”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0395-6">More recent work</a> has shown the link between elephants and carbon sequestration. This is because tree species whose seeds are dispersed by elephants tend to be much larger, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep13156">with higher wood density</a> <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12914">and higher carbon content</a> than tree species dispersed by other methods, such as by monkeys or the wind.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, despite their importance, there have been increasing reports of human-elephant conflict (crop-raiding) in some areas. This has become a highly charged political issue, as farmers blame their crop damage on elephant protection, which undermines conservation efforts. </p>
<p>Since 2012 there have been studies in Gabon along the <a href="http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6399/1/EmilieFairet_Thesis_Finaldraft_08022013.pdf?DDD5+">coast</a>, a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2011.00565.x">national review</a>, and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/19400829211026775">more recent</a> reports and <a href="http://ncr-journal.bear-land.org/article/133">investigations</a> into <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155690">appropriate methods</a> for elephant conservation. </p>
<p>Having acknowledged the updated forest elephant estimates provided in our study, the Gabonese government initiated a series of national meetings in December 2021. The aim was to outline a <a href="https://www.savetheelephants.org/about-elephants-2-3-2/elephant-news-post/?detail=human-elephant-conflict-lee-white-determined-to-mitigate-the-crisis-gabon">national strategy plan</a> that addresses the concerns of the local communities affected by elephants.</p>
<p>This is a welcome step forward. Our study provides a useful baseline with which to regularly monitor <a href="https://www.africa.undp.org/content/rba/en/home/blog/2021/gabon-leads-africa-in-the-preservation-and-conservation-of-fores.html">Gabon’s ambitious environmental and development policy goals</a>.</p>
<p><em>Alice Laguardia was the lead author of this research study.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178233/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Maisels works for the Wildlife Conservation Society (Global Conservation Program), and is affiliated with the University of Stirling, Scotland. She is a member of the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group and one of the 2021 African Elephant Red List team.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Laguardia works for the Wildlife Conservation Society.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gaspard Abitsi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This was the first national DNA-based assessment of any free-ranging large mammal in Africa.Fiona Maisels, Wildlife Conservation Society, African Elephant Specialist Group (IUCN) and Honorary Professor, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1770122022-02-14T16:08:22Z2022-02-14T16:08:22ZElephant ivory: DNA analysis offers clearest insight yet into illegal trafficking networks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446275/original/file-20220214-19-1fzwj1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5485%2C3329&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/guangzhou-china-jan-6-2014-chinese-760119226">Plavi011/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Poaching rare wildlife for teeth, tusks, fur, horns and other body parts is a crime which threatens many species with extinction, but the evidence which could incriminate traffickers is often difficult to access, hard to interpret, or piecemeal. </p>
<p>To discover more about the criminal networks sustaining this trade, researchers in the US, Kenya and Singapore have extracted as much data as possible from the products of illegal elephant ivory trafficking in Africa.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01267-6">The new study</a> analysed the DNA of tusk ivory seized from 49 large shipments impounded in African ports between 2002 and 2019. The researchers sampled 111 tonnes of ivory from at least 4,320 poached African elephants – a fraction of the total haul. These included ivory from the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/species/202103/african-elephant-species-now-endangered-and-critically-endangered-iucn-red-list#:%7E:text=The%20African%20savanna%20elephant%20(loxodonta%20africana)%20is%20now%20listed%20as,on%20the%20IUCN%20Red%20List.&text=The%20IUCN%20Red%20List%20now,imagination%20all%20over%20the%20world">savanna and forest elephant species</a> which are both listed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened species.</p>
<p>African savanna elephants, which live in the grasslands of eastern central Africa, have declined by at least 60% over the past 50 years, but the number of forest elephants, found in western central Africa, has decreased by more than 86% in 31 years.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An elephant wades through shallow water with a calf beneath her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446298/original/file-20220214-25-aaxeox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forest elephants (mother and calf) in a Congolese swamp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_forest_elephant#/media/File:Loxodontacyclotis.jpg">Thomas Breuer</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While 111 tonnes may sound like a lot of tusk, it is likely the tip of the ivory iceberg. The new analysis indicated where many elephants are being poached in Africa, where they are being shipped from and the consumer markets in south-east Asia and elsewhere they are destined for. It found that most tusks came from repeated poaching of the same elephant populations and implicated a handful of large, interconnected networks. This knowledge could help law enforcement officials link multiple shipments to a single group, thereby tying together a raft of crimes and illuminating the true scale of criminal activity.</p>
<h2>Inside the ivory trade</h2>
<p>Remarkably, the data indicates that most of the 49 shipments confiscated from across Africa contained ivory from the same bands of close relatives. This suggests the tusks of several elephants poached in one place were split up and packed into separate shipping containers for transport: mainly on cargo ships, although some went via road or rail to different countries. By spreading their illegal load across numerous vessels, traffickers reduce the risk of losing a large ivory store. With nearly one billion shipping containers <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aat0625">travelling the world</a> each year, not all of them can be thoroughly checked.</p>
<p>The new data indicates that the power brokers of the elephant ivory trade network are transnational criminal organisations. Matching tusks that came from elephants in the same families – including parents and offspring and siblings – between different shipments helped to identify three major criminal groups based in Mombasa in Kenya, Kampala in Uganda and Lomo in Togo.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large vessel laden with colourful containers in a busy harbour." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446300/original/file-20220214-29677-qvcwgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lots of potential hiding places for contraband.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/container-ship-industrial-port-import-export-1570847962">Avigator Fortuner/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Mombasa and Kampala groups may well be arms of a single large organisation, with links across <a href="https://baselgovernance.org/publications/SNA_IWT">east Africa and south-east Asia</a>. Nevertheless, the possible links between criminal groups, ports and countries described in the study are probably an underestimate, given the high likelihood that most illegal ivory shipments pass undetected. There are practical constraints on DNA sampling and analysis too – not all tusks in every captured shipment can be genetically analysed.</p>
<p>I was alarmed to learn that my old stomping-ground, Uganda, where I was privileged to see and be among wild elephants on numerous occasions, has become a hub for this trade. The ivory illegally shipped from Uganda in this study was not principally from Ugandan elephants, but drew heavily from populations in Tanzania and Kenya instead. The data also revealed a growing web of connections between ports in different countries, indicating the expanding reach of the criminal organisations in the network.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four maps of central Africa depicting genetic connections between ivory seizures over time." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446295/original/file-20220214-17-1m2yas2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blue lines connect any two ivory seizures containing one or more genetic matches.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01267-6">Wasser et al. (2022)/Nature Human Behaviour</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most recent seizure in the dataset also contained 12 tonnes of <a href="https://reports.eia-international.org/out-of-africa/">scales</a> belonging to pangolins – the most poached animals in the world. Other ivory shipments included rhino horn. In many cases, the cover load in containers hiding animal parts is timber, but even the timber tends to originate from <a href="https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2020/Forestry-crime-targeting-the-most-lucrative-of-environmental-crimes">illegal harvests</a>. This shows that criminal organisations behind ivory trafficking are routinely engaging in multiple wildlife and environmental crimes involving many other protected species and <a href="https://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/Money-laundering-and-illegal-wildlife-trade.pdf">laundering the revenue</a>.</p>
<p>Trafficking groups may change which ports they use to distribute ivory to evade increased law enforcement at an existing one. These groups appear to be large, with transnational transport networks. This means that effective law enforcement must be similarly expansive and adaptable, involving government at various levels, scientists, conservation groups and the private sector. The role of institutional corruption cannot be overlooked either. At least some of the impounded ivory was taken from a <a href="https://intpolicydigest.org/the-enterprise-the-burundi-stockpile-and-other-ivory-behind-the-extradition/">Burundi government stockpile</a>.</p>
<p>Including the tusks that were not sampled, lead author of the study Samuel Wasser estimates the number of elephants represented by the total haul at 17,619. Some quick maths suggests that approximately 84,945 tonnes of elephant mass was removed, over 17 years, from the ecosystems which these animals contributed to – roughly equivalent to three times the weight of the Statue of Liberty. Considering the majority of illegal ivory shipments that pass through undetected, the scale of this <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.1557">ecological loss</a> is massive.</p>
<p>Understanding the networks that illegal wildlife products travel can help. But while there is demand for elephant ivory, poaching and illegal trafficking will continue. Alongside more effective law enforcement, there must be a major effort to promote <a href="https://files.worldwildlife.org/wwfcmsprod/files/Publication/file/2gga0z78ui_ReducingDesireforIvory_011917_print.pdf/%20https://globescan.com/2021/10/26/consumer-demand-for-ivory-remains-decline-wwf-fifth-annual-china-survey-finds/">behaviour change</a> among the people who buy illegal wildlife products and so fund the trade. </p>
<p>Investment in and ownership of illegal wildlife products must become <a href="https://theconversation.com/rhino-horn-must-become-a-socially-unacceptable-product-in-asia-103498">a badge of shame</a> rather than a status symbol.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177012/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Gilchrist does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new study reveals the major players and routes involved.Jason Gilchrist, Ecologist, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1715132021-11-23T14:17:08Z2021-11-23T14:17:08ZStatistical ecology can unlock the power of biodiversity data in Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431906/original/file-20211115-23-473371.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Statistical techniques are often used to show where poaching actually happens.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wildsnap/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa boasts an immensely rich diversity of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9221/?fbclid=IwAR2yFlI5lvfwAuEp7Bl9PnnjLVcE7SpVt18IuOTJxBTpT-VJx4HMKJAAzhc">plant and animal species</a>. These are the building blocks of healthy ecosystems. Yet, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0406-z">the projected loss</a> of wild habitats and species on the continent threatens biodiversity. Recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panels on <a href="https://zenodo.org/record/5657041#.YYwLgWBBxPY">Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services</a> and <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/">Climate Change</a> also highlight how biodiversity loss and climate change threaten human well-being.</p>
<p>Good information is crucial to understand and reverse this trend. More and more data about biodiversity is becoming available worldwide, through satellite imagery, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fclim.2021.650760/full">citizen science programmes</a> and wildlife rangers, for example. But socio-ecological systems are enormously complex and so data can still be sparse, biased, or incomplete. Not only must data be collected, it also has to be analysed if it is to be useful for decision making.</p>
<p>The emerging field of <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-statistics-022513-115633">statistical ecology</a> offers great promise to meet these challenges. This discipline uses growing datasets and innovative analytical methods to tackle important questions in biodiversity science and management. Statistical ecology offers <a href="https://jrsbiodiversity.org/our-programs/capacity/">opportunities</a> for African researchers to develop local solutions to the continent’s ecological challenges. It is currently a fast developing field, even in Africa where it is led mostly by active research groups in South Africa. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431011/original/file-20211109-25-1eqn7ew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two graphs showing ecology and statistics" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431011/original/file-20211109-25-1eqn7ew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431011/original/file-20211109-25-1eqn7ew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431011/original/file-20211109-25-1eqn7ew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431011/original/file-20211109-25-1eqn7ew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431011/original/file-20211109-25-1eqn7ew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431011/original/file-20211109-25-1eqn7ew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431011/original/file-20211109-25-1eqn7ew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The recent development of the field of statistical ecology as compiled from Web of Science (a) per publications worldwide, and (b) per institutions working on African data. African institutions are shown in orange, although others have delegations in Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Henintsoa Onivola Minoarivelo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our aim at the centre for <a href="http://www.seec.uct.ac.za/">Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation</a> at the University of Cape Town is to answer important ecological questions using cutting edge statistical methods. The case studies below, in which researchers at the centre are involved, illustrate the potential of this exciting field.</p>
<h2>Case studies of statistical ecology in Africa</h2>
<p>The South African <a href="https://www.sanbi.org/biodiversity/building-knowledge/biodiversity-monitoring-assessment/freshwater-programme-birdie-project">Biodiversity Data Pipeline for Wetlands and Waterbirds</a> is a clear example of a project that can make an impact on conservation. This collaborative project led by the <a href="https://www.sanbi.org/">South African National Biodiversity Institute</a> collates data from citizen science bird monitoring programmes to determine the state of waterbird populations and wetlands. Information about population trends and species distribution is critical for conservation managers. The project will transform raw data into usable indicators and display the results online for anyone to see. It has the potential to inform decisions and policies.</p>
<p>Statistical ecology can also help limit poaching. From <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/poaching-stats/">rhinos</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/wildlife-african-elephants-population-decrease-great-elephant-census">elephants</a> to <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-05-02-the-abalone-connection-the-ties-that-bind-poaching-and-smuggling-with-the-sa-crystal-meth-industry/">abalone</a> and <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/cycads-are-you-living-next-door-to-a-poacher/">cycads</a>, wildlife trade is a threat to African biodiversity.</p>
<p>A recent study by researchers analysed data collected by rangers to <a href="https://theconversation.com/statistical-models-and-ranger-insights-help-identify-patterns-in-elephant-poaching-137834">identify elephant poaching hotspots</a>. Across the African continent, tens of thousands of wildlife rangers patrol wide areas every day, helping track biodiversity and threats to it. The challenge is that the locations of elephant carcasses they detect may reflect patrol patterns rather than true poaching patterns. The researchers <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719319512">used tailored statistical techniques</a> to correct this bias and show where poaching was actually concentrated within their Zimbabwean study site.</p>
<p>Sometimes, researchers need to use refined techniques to gather reliable data, particularly when the species is difficult to detect. For instance, acoustic monitoring was <a href="https://theconversation.com/pasha-53-why-we-listened-to-tiny-frogs-131685">used</a> to keep track of the population of the Cape Peninsula moss frog. Researchers placed microphones at the study sites to record sounds from the environment. Then, they used automated sound recognition software to distinguish calls from the moss frogs. Frog abundance could be estimated from the frequency and location of calls using <a href="http://john.measey.com/aSCR">innovative statistical models</a>. These imaginative procedures allowed them to monitor the population of this threatened endemic species without the need for specialist field staff.</p>
<h2>Challenges and the way forward</h2>
<p>Despite these promising examples, statistical ecology has yet to reach its potential in Africa. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9221">Large gaps remain</a> in African biodiversity data, linked to limited local research funding and government support in many countries. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07106-5">Citizen science</a> and <a href="https://earthengine.google.com/">remote sensing</a> are exciting options for addressing these limitations at relatively low cost, yet specialised skills are needed to analyse these data.</p>
<p>There is a promising trend of growing research and training in statistical ecology in Africa, but many institutions lack capacity and resources. Researchers from the Global-North working on African systems should try to collaborate <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/csp2.517">more meaningfully</a> with African institutions to help address these gaps. This is critical to enrich the way data informs decisions in African biodiversity management and policy.</p>
<p>There’s a unique opportunity next year to share knowledge, build capacity, and create a long-term collaboration network. Our centre in Cape Town is hosting the <a href="https://www.isec2022.org/">International Statistical Ecology Conference</a>, a flagship event in the field. We encourage Africans working in this space to <a href="https://www.isec2022.org/">submit an abstract</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henintsoa Onivola Minoarivelo is based at the Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation, within the department of Statistical Sciences at the University of cape Town. She receives funding from the DAAD ClimapAfrica programme. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francisco Cervantes Peralta is a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation (University of Cape Town), and at the South African National Biodiversity Institute. His position is funded by the JRS Biodiversity Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>
Timothy kuiper is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He receives funding from the National Research Foundation (South Africa) and the University Research Council at UCT. </span></em></p>There is a promising trend of growing research and training in statistical ecology in Africa.Henintsoa Onivola Minoarivelo, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Cape TownFrancisco Cervantes Peralta, Post-doctoral Researcher in Statistical Ecology, University of Cape TownTimothy Kuiper, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1697452021-10-12T17:19:15Z2021-10-12T17:19:15ZChina’s wildlife food ban is vital for public health and threatened species – our research reveals what must happen next<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425913/original/file-20211012-13-tqj2w3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C404%2C5000%2C2836&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/animal-market-city-shenzhen-north-hongkong-1655975449">Amnat30/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>World leaders are attending an online summit to discuss the future of life on Earth. With one million species <a href="https://theconversation.com/revolutionary-change-needed-to-stop-unprecedented-global-extinction-crisis-116166">threatened with extinction</a> this century, the UN biodiversity conference, <a href="https://www.cbd.int/meetings/COP-15">known as COP15</a>, is supposed to yield a new global plan for protecting nature. The host nation, China, has committed to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01563-2">protect</a> more of its land for nature. But one of the most radical and far-reaching measures introduced by the Chinese government in recent years came at the beginning of the pandemic.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has shown the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-has-finally-made-us-recognise-the-illegal-wildlife-trade-is-a-public-health-issue-133673">risk to human health</a> posed by the trade in and consumption of wildlife. To strengthen the protection of wildlife and to reduce the risk of zoonotic viruses spilling over into human populations, China issued a ban on eating wild meat and the related trade in February 2020. This targeted the illegal wildlife trade and poaching, but also the legal farming and selling of terrestrial wildlife for food – from snakes to bamboo rats – which previously was possible through a complex system of licences. </p>
<p>It still allows people to eat certain species, such as sika deer, which are farmed according to established techniques and pose a low risk to human health. The ban doesn’t apply to wild aquatic species, such as fish. Nor does it cover other uses of wildlife, such as rearing species for medicinal purposes or as pets.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-why-a-blanket-ban-on-wildlife-trade-would-not-be-the-right-response-135746">Critics</a> argue that improved regulation, rather than an outright ban, would be a better solution, maintaining the benefits of the trade for local communities while reducing pressure on wild populations and health risks. But for that to work, the Chinese state would need to manage the wildlife trade. And our research, <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31888-1?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982220318881%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">published in Current Biology</a>, revealed that China’s existing laws and regulations covering the wildlife trade are insufficient. </p>
<p>The ban, then, is a useful, short-term stop gap, but must now be backed up by updated, evidence-based legislation and regulation for the future.</p>
<p>The 2020 ban aimed to close loopholes in existing legislation, such as China’s Wildlife Protection Law, which was last amended in 2016 and is being <a href="https://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/en/news/2020/11/wildlife-group-submits-suggestions-for-law-revision">revised again now</a>. This law legalised and regulated the wildlife trade through a complex license system. Before the ban, most wildlife species could be farmed and traded for different purposes legally as long as a license had been granted.</p>
<p>Troublingly, there was no evidence-based framework for establishing which species could be farmed and traded and which couldn’t. This meant that species which were potential vectors of zoonotic diseases, or declining in the wild, could still slip through the regulatory net and be farmed and traded legally. There was also little collaboration between the different government departments responsible for supervising the trade in wildlife, such as those covering forestry, markets and agriculture.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A ferret-like mammal peers through the mesh of a wire cage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425907/original/file-20211012-25-o3go5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425907/original/file-20211012-25-o3go5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425907/original/file-20211012-25-o3go5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425907/original/file-20211012-25-o3go5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425907/original/file-20211012-25-o3go5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425907/original/file-20211012-25-o3go5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425907/original/file-20211012-25-o3go5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Before the ban, China’s management of the wild meat trade lacked coherence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-palm-civet-animal-who-produce-143329990https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-palm-civet-animal-who-produce-143329990">Saiko3p/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>A booming business</h2>
<p>At the beginning of 2018, the Chinese government began promoting the farming of wildlife as a means of reducing rural poverty. The state offered loans and broadcast programmes about successful wildlife farmers on Chinese television to entice more people into joining the industry. Official state and provincial licenses granted for the trade in and farming of wildlife trebled between 2017 and 2019. But the number of criminal cases related to the illegal hunting or trade in wildlife increased over the same period too, suggesting the system was unable to control unlawful practices in the industry.</p>
<p>There were also problems with the licenses granted lawfully. We looked at 13,121 trade licenses granted by state and provincial Forestry Bureaus between 2001 and 2020. Under these licenses, 254 species were traded legally for different commercial purposes, of which 69 – including masked palm civets, red deer and common buzzards – have been identified as possible hosts or vectors for at least one zoonotic disease.</p>
<p>Equally troublesome was the pre-ban legislation’s approach to quarantine. The law required all wildlife to be quarantined before entering a market, but the official methods suggested for doing this were patchy at best. There were protocols in place for domestic species, such as pigs. But while some similar wild species, such as boar, could be quarantined under the protocols for related domestic animals, no rules were in place for widely-traded species such as bamboo rats, palm civets or porcupines. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two grey and furry rodents hang from green rope." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425906/original/file-20211012-15-1q7fxqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425906/original/file-20211012-15-1q7fxqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425906/original/file-20211012-15-1q7fxqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425906/original/file-20211012-15-1q7fxqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425906/original/file-20211012-15-1q7fxqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425906/original/file-20211012-15-1q7fxqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425906/original/file-20211012-15-1q7fxqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bamboo rat meat is a popular commodity among China’s poor traders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lesser-bamboo-rat-on-rope-north-1582448146">Gerardo C.Lerner/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Under the ban, only a limited number of species can be farmed, depending on whether quarantine standards are available and whether farming techniques are cost-effective and safe enough for wild populations and human health.</p>
<p>To safely govern the trade in wildlife in the future, quarantine protocols for different species must be informed by the latest scientific evidence. Licensing and tracing – perhaps by introducing microchipping – of legitimately farmed animals should also vary according to each species and what evidence suggests is most likely to reduce the risk to human health and the conservation of species in the wild. And there must be closer collaboration between government departments and farmers and traders, both within China and internationally.</p>
<p>But it is also important to reduce the demand for wildlife as food in China. While COVID-19 has highlighted the potential risks of trading and eating wildlife, these lessons must extend to trading and farming wildlife for other purposes, such as medicine and pets.</p>
<p>Evidence-based changes to the way China manages its wildlife trade could help inspire and inform policies at COP15, especially among the leaders of developing countries facing a similar situation at home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169745/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lingyun Xiao was a scientific consultant for Shanshui Conservation Center. She is currently member of the IUCN Caprinae Specialist Group, and steering committee member of the international Snow Leopard Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Binbin Li does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We analysed the legal systems regulating the wildlife trade in China. Here’s what we found.Lingyun Xiao, Assistant Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool UniversityBinbin Li, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science, Duke Kunshan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1669992021-09-26T08:33:42Z2021-09-26T08:33:42ZMali’s elephants show how people and nature can share space in a complex world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421950/original/file-20210918-27-14cfalo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A herd of elephants in Mali.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carlton Ward Jr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The challenge of conserving wildlife while meeting the many needs of humans is a complex one. Some policymakers don’t see how economies can grow while still making space for wildlife. Others understand that conservation must make space for people, but it’s difficult to do in practice. </p>
<p>The issues involved in the coexistence of humans and wildlife are interconnected and can’t be broken down into small, predictable, manageable parts.</p>
<p>Recognising the uncertainty that arises from multiple relationships could help to make conservation more effective.</p>
<p>An example is provided by the “desert-adapted” elephants of Mali. These 250 to 300 animals are among the last of an elephant population that once stretched across the Sahel. They’re now reduced to tiny refuges due to the intrusion of human activities. </p>
<p>The Mali elephants have been excluded, since the 1970s, from the rich resources of the <a href="https://www.ramsar.org/sites/default/files/documents/library/wwd2004_rpt_mali_press_e.pdf">inner delta</a> by increasing human pressure. And their numbers have almost been halved by the poaching that accompanied the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Mali/2012-coup-and-warfare-in-the-north">lawlessness</a> of the 2012 coup. These animals have adapted by migrating annually over a vast, arid area to follow the availability of water and food, and to avoid human activity.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00139157.2021.1871292">Our work</a> as the Mali Elephant Project began with three years (2003-2006) of studying the elephants and their migration to understand the threats. We did this using GPS collar data provided by Save the Elephants. But it was difficult to see how a small organisation with no resources could intervene over such a large area (about 32,000km2) which was inhabited by people. </p>
<p>A better understanding of local attitudes and livelihoods helped us see the problem as part of a complex social-ecological system. In turn, that suggested ways to promote sustainable change. The results have continued to surprise. And the insights gleaned may be of use in delivering the <a href="https://www.cbd.int/conferences/post2020">Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework</a> and supporting the achievement of the <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">Sustainable Development Goals</a>. </p>
<h2>Developing the intervention model</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00139157.2021.1871292">Our work</a> understood the threat to elephants to be as a result of a system of relationships between people and their living and non-living environments. </p>
<p>We looked for points in the complex system of relationships where a small action might make a big impact. The idea was to identify “assets” – aspects of the system that favoured the elephants – and link these to reinforce each other. Assets ranged from individuals, organisations, and features of the environment to laws and traditions. At the same time we wanted to diminish aspects that were a threat.</p>
<p>This broader view provided more “pathways”, more scope for discovering solutions and compromises.</p>
<p>The human environment was complex. Multiple ethnicities and livelihoods coexisted. Nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists shared space and water with settled farmers.<br>
Clearing land for agriculture removed elephant habitat and obstructed access to water. This made crops vulnerable to trampling and hungry elephants. Ever-increasing numbers of cattle put pressure on water sources, soils and vegetation.</p>
<p>We found that local people valued Mali’s elephants for multiple reasons – most strikingly because “if elephants disappear it means the environment is no longer good for us”. </p>
<p>People also understood that human activity needed to respect environmental limits. Yet despite this, the environment was clearly degraded and over-exploited.</p>
<p>Further in-depth studies found that 96% of the cattle in the study area belonged to distant wealthy urbanites. They invested in cattle and sent them into more remote areas to find pasture and water. Many other natural resources (such as firewood, charcoal, game and wild foods) were also harvested by urban commercial interests. </p>
<p>And although each ethnic group sharing the area had its own systems to manage natural resources sustainably, they were reluctant to respect the enforcement systems of other groups. The result was shared resources such as pasture and forest being depleted by individual users for their immediate benefit. </p>
<h2>Searching for solutions</h2>
<p>In 2010 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4DuL6Zj2cc">the project</a> brought together the local communities to discuss these findings. Once unified around a shared understanding of the problems, they proposed a solution that also respected the needs of elephants. Their solution was modelled on traditional governance systems. A committee of elders set the rules of resource use and teams of young “ecoguards” would patrol to ensure the rules were respected. The ecoguards also conducted activities such as building firebreaks and planting trees.</p>
<p>The protection of an area of pasture with firebreaks meant, for example, that abundant pasture was available close by. People could sell fodder and grazing or water access rights. Their own animals were healthier and more productive and valuable. The protection of forest from exploitation by outsiders meant wood, forage, wild foods, medicines and other forest products could generate income from schemes managed by women’s associations. This approach was possible because Mali’s <a href="https://dgct.gouv.ml/la-region-de-tombouctou-a/">decentralisation legislation</a> puts natural resource management in the hands of local communities.</p>
<p>The conflict and lawlessness that have afflicted the area since 2012 presented huge challenges. The combination of a resurgence of Tuareg separatism, a military coup and a jihadist insurgency caused government to retreat from the north and centre of Mali. </p>
<p>Despite these challenges, applying a complexity perspective to a problem of elephant conservation helped address several problems simultaneously. </p>
<p>Elephants avoided areas where they were poached and where armed groups were present. This pushed them into more populated areas where we could use the model to mitigate conflict. </p>
<h2>Results</h2>
<p>The approach helps elephants and humans to live together peaceably. It has also improved local livelihoods through more abundant natural resources. The collective nature of the solutions improved social cohesion because people had to work together to realise the benefits. </p>
<p>As one community ecoguard observed during a recent survey, “when you sit around the fire talking, having worked together all day, you realise that we all have the same problems”. It has also countered youth unemployment by providing socially respected occupations in the restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity. </p>
<p>The resilience of the project in the face of insecurity seems to have been achieved because it was rooted in local and inclusive systems to solve local problems. </p>
<p>The approach has relevance for the <a href="https://www.cbd.int/conferences/post2020">Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework</a> to be agreed at the next Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2022, and its aim for a shared vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Canney receives funding from the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Canadian and UK governments through the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the International Conservation Fund of Canada, Tusk Trust. She is a member of the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group, a Trustee of Tusk Trust, a member of the Tusk conservation awards judging panel, and a member of the Sahara Conservation Fund's science committee.</span></em></p>Elephants avoided areas where others were poached.Susan Canney, Research Associate & Director Mali Elephant Project (WILD Foundation/ICFC), University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1678322021-09-14T13:14:16Z2021-09-14T13:14:16ZRhinos: scientists are hanging them upside-down from helicopters – here’s why<p>Each year, a selection of apparently weird and pointless scientific experiments receive the Ig Nobel Prize. Awarded by the science humour magazine <a href="https://www.improbable.com/">Annals of Improbable Research</a>, the prize honours projects that “first make people laugh, and then make them think”.</p>
<p><a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/jwd/article-abstract/57/2/357/451340/THE-PULMONARY-AND-METABOLIC-EFFECTS-OF-SUSPENSION">A recent study</a> that suspended rhinos upside-down by their ankles from a helicopter must have been a shoe-in for the award’s judges, securing the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58507100">2021 Ig Nobel Transportation Prize</a>. But while hanging rhinos produce spectacularly absurd photographs, behind the award and the study lies a serious business.</p>
<p>Rhinos are in trouble. There are <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/rhino-species/">five species</a> of rhino, and all are endangered. The three-tonne white rhino is the least endangered, yet there are still only an <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/white-rhino?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwis9aDVgebxAhW_rksFHfTLAo8Q9QF6BAgDEAI">estimated 20,000</a> of them left in the wild. The species hung upside-down in the study is the black rhino, weighing in at 1.5 tonnes and with an estimated population of <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/black-rhino?fspic&enews=enews1209c">just 5,000</a>. </p>
<p>In attempts to protect rhino populations, conservationists have tried <a href="https://theconversation.com/dehorning-rhinos-why-there-may-be-a-case-for-doing-it-64902">dehorning</a> (to try to make rhinos less desirable to poachers), <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-translocating-rhinos-promotes-genetic-health-and-keeps-them-safe-50082">translocation</a> (moving rhinos, including upside-down via helicopter), and even <a href="https://theconversation.com/hybrid-embryos-raise-hope-of-resurrecting-northern-white-rhino-but-whats-the-point-99249">resurrection</a> (creating embryos from the eggs and sperm, or even the DNA, of dead individuals).</p>
<p>We translocate rhinos because they live within guarded, fenced areas to keep them monitored – and protected, in theory, from poaching for rhino horn, <a href="https://theconversation.com/chopping-off-the-rhinos-horn-and-the-war-on-wildlife-crime-33427">their main threat</a>. But this prevents animals from colonising new areas, recolonising vacant areas, or mixing genes between areas. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-translocating-rhinos-promotes-genetic-health-and-keeps-them-safe-50082">How translocating rhinos promotes genetic health and keeps them safe</a>
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<p>So conservationists have to lend a helping hand – or helicopter – to place rhinos into new regions. But until the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study, we weren’t entirely sure whether this upside-down transportation was actually safe for the rhinos involved.</p>
<h2>Hanging herbivores</h2>
<p>The capture and translocation of large mammals can be dangerous and disruptive to the welfare of the animals concerned. Big African mammals, including elephants, giraffes, and rhinos, are physiologically sensitive. The entire capture and translocation process can result in psychological and physiological stress. If such animals are given too great a tranquiliser drug dose, or are left in the wrong position under tranquilisation, they can die.</p>
<p>Historically, <a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=nwrcwdmts">wildlife translocation</a> methods were informal and experimental, with successful methods spreading by word of mouth. Increasingly, this ad-hoc approach has been replaced by formal scientific research, either supporting perceived wisdom, or providing novel innovations.</p>
<p>So it’s important, for animal health and welfare reasons alone, for the procedures applied to catch and move big animals to be as safe and non-disruptive as possible.</p>
<p>For a number of years, African rhinos have been translocated by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY6aYQm29x4">hanging them upside-down</a> suspended from a helicopter, blindfolded and under tranquilisation. As well as enabling the capture and short-distance transfer of rhinos from areas inaccessible by road, transport by helicopter can mean shorter journey times, so it can be preferable for the rhino where it’s practical to do so. </p>
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<p>But no one had ever established whether hanging upside-down is harmful to rhinos. Sure, rhinos appear fine when woken up at their final destination – but are they really OK thereafter? </p>
<p>This is where science comes in. It might sound funny to deliberately hang 12 black rhinos upside-down for 10 minutes just to monitor their physiology. But if nobody does the research, nobody knows whether it’s a safe way to transport an endangered animal.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/jwd/article-abstract/57/2/357/451340/THE-PULMONARY-AND-METABOLIC-EFFECTS-OF-SUSPENSION">Ig Noble Prize-winning study</a> compared the respiratory function and metabolic effects of rhinos when they were hung by their ankles to when the same animals were lying on their sides. The researchers found that the respiratory efficiency of rhinos hung upside-down is, if anything, slightly better than when rhinos are laid on their side during tranquilisation. So, the process is affirmed as at least as good as traditional methods of transport.</p>
<h2>Rhino relocation</h2>
<p>I have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23qTj-j1q0Y&ab_channel=JasonGilchrist">been involved</a> in numerous white rhino capture and translocation operations in South Africa for my own research: collecting blood and saliva samples to evaluate physiological stress associated with capture.</p>
<p>The teams that I worked with also used helicopters, but only to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOxHCZtuFks&ab_channel=JasonGilchrist">dart the rhino</a> with a tranquiliser from the air. The rhinos were then woken up as soon as possible before walking them, blindfolded and ear muffed, onto crates for road transportation by truck to locations many hours away. During long-distance rhino transportation, it’s neither economical nor healthy for the rhino to remain tranquilised – so road transport is preferred.</p>
<p>While being up close to such impressive beasts is humbling, and the capture experience somewhat exciting, my motivation for being there was the science: collecting data on the effects of capture, to ultimately inform and improve wildlife conservation. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, I always felt a sadness that we have to put these sensitive and gentle giants through such an unnatural process in the first place. But unfortunately we have no choice. </p>
<p>If we’re to effectively save endangered species, we can’t simply leave them alone. They need to be managed, and often that means moving them to where they’re safer from poaching, or to new areas to try to spread the population and diversify locally inbred populations.</p>
<p>We want such animals to survive the capture and translocation procedure, and to have as strong and healthy immune and reproductive systems as possible on their release.</p>
<p>Achieving that needs science. And if that science involves hanging rhinos upside-down, or other apparently weird and amusing research, let’s do it. The extinction of wildlife is no laughing matter, even if it throws up the odd opportunity to laugh as we learn.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167832/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Gilchrist does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Helicoptering heavy herbivores across Africa is no laughing matter.Jason Gilchrist, Ecologist, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1603752021-05-16T07:50:34Z2021-05-16T07:50:34ZNigeria could gain by promoting more biodiversity awareness among its citizens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399730/original/file-20210510-17-15pyiv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite its numerous benefits, biodiversity is still not well appreciated in Nigeria. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/violet-turaco-violaceous-plantain-eater-native-to-west-news-photo/1172550442?adppopup=true">Philippe Clement/Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Poachers <a href="https://dailytrust.com/furore-over-killing-of-elephant-in-ogun">recently killed</a> an elephant in Ogun State, south-west Nigeria. This was the second in the area in two years. It raises concerns about <a href="https://guardian.ng/property/conservationists-seek-protection-of-wildlife-population/">Nigeria’s dwindling elephant population</a>. This is important as Nigeria is now one of Africa’s <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/nigeria-emerges-as-africas-primary-export-hub-for-ivory-pangolin-scales/">primary export hubs for ivory</a>. </p>
<p>It also raises concerns about Nigerians’ attitude towards biodiversity conversation. </p>
<p>Awareness and understanding of biological diversity <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719307116">determines the conservation of threatened species </a> in many regions of the world.</p>
<p>Based on this, in 2010 the Convention of Biological Diversity set new targets for achieving biodiversity action plans at various levels. These are known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aichi-Biodiversity-Targets">Aichi Biodiversity Targets</a>.</p>
<p>First among the targets is raising people’s awareness of biodiversity conservation. This is the first step towards achieving conservation success and <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal15.html#:%7E:text=Goal%2015%3A%20Protect%2C%20restore%20and,degradation%20and%20halt%20biodiversity%20loss">Sustainable Development Goal 15</a> – halting biodiversity loss. </p>
<p>Biological diversity <a href="http://www.fao.org/ecosystem-services-biodiversity/en/">benefits are enormous</a>. Plants and animals <a href="http://www.fao.org/ecosystem-services-biodiversity/en/">provide many services</a>. These range from food to shelter, medicine, aesthetics, ecotourism opportunities and jobs. </p>
<p>A visit to natural sites to view endangered or rare animals is also one of the mainstays of economies of some African nations like <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ta/2009/00000014/00000003/art00012">Kenya,</a> Uganda and Tanzania. Such visits also have benefits for people’s <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00550/full">health</a>.</p>
<p>Despite its numerous benefits, biodiversity is still not well <a href="http://www.wildlife-biodiversity.com/article_37148.html">appreciated or promoted</a> in Nigeria. People don’t bother about the conservation status of such animals before killing them for food or money. Poaching of rare and endangered animals does not receive a corresponding level of punishment in Nigeria. It is also not perceived <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01639625.2019.1629537">as crime by many poachers</a>. This is not the case in East and Southern Africa. There, poaching is criminalised and <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/ugandan-police-arrest-4-men-suspected-of-killing-lions/2185948">arrests are publicised</a> to serve as deterrent.</p>
<p>Furthermore, there is little or no data on poachers for Nigeria unlike <a href="http://www.poachingfacts.com/poaching-statistics/environmental-crimes-and-arrests-statistics/">some East and Southern African nations</a>.</p>
<p>An example of poaching in Nigeria was <a href="https://punchng.com/national-park-cg-condemns-butchering-of-whale-in-bayelsa/">the 2019 killing</a> of a whale washed ashore in the Niger-Delta region. Also, <a href="https://africasustainableconservation.com/2020/01/16/nigeria-killing-of-manatees-in-benue-river-a-threat-to-survival/">the killing of manatees</a> in the Benue River and the <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/256554-conservationists-condemn-killing-manatee-nigeria.html">Niger-Delta region</a>. </p>
<h2>What Nigerians said about biodiversity</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-021-02175-x">research group</a> sought to appraise the level of biodiversity conservation awareness by Nigerians, using a structured questionnaire. </p>
<p>A total of 1,124 respondents which included 839 professionals (those with tertiary education) and 285 non-professionals (those with basic or no formal education) participated in the survey. The respondents were drawn from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. They were asked different questions to test their knowledge of biodiversity, conservation, National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, and their understanding of the importance of biodiversity to the nation’s ecology and economy.</p>
<p>As a party to the Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Nigeria formulated a policy document towards realising those targets. This document is known as <a href="https://www.cbd.int/doc/world/ng/ng-nbsap-01-en.pdf">National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan</a>. It has 14 targets, 21 impact indicators and 67 actions. The first target aims at raising the level of awareness of biodiversity conservation among Nigerians to 30% of the entire population by 2020.</p>
<p>Our findings revealed that Nigerians still don’t know enough about biodiversity or why it’s important. Awareness is low (less than 30%) among those with basic or no formal education. Many of our respondents were unaware of any national biodiversity action plan (43.8% for professionals were aware and 12.1% for non-professionals). The ecotourism potential of many states is not being promoted enough, in the opinion of the respondents. </p>
<p>Some of the respondents’ comments showed the level of awareness as very low: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have never heard of biodiversity conservation. If it is important there should be proper awareness. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I thought biodiversity was about different culture until today. Please it is high time we helped educate others.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And one remarked:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is the first time I am having a full glimpse of what biodiversity is all about in full. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This research outcome speaks to the need for federal and state governments to do more to promote biodiversity and optimise its potential for present and future generations. </p>
<p>Many state governments rely substantially on the federal allocation from oil revenues, while many ecotourism sites with huge economic potential remain untapped. An example of such sites is <a href="https://worldstagenews.com/west-africa-largest-waterfalls-to-receive-govt-attention-commissioner/">the highest waterfall in West Africa</a> – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcwcJVtZKSs">the Oowu Waterfalls</a> which is located in Kwara State.</p>
<p>The nation needs to move from policy formulation to policy implementation to achieve this goal. My research group offered some recommendations. </p>
<h2>Improving biodiversity awareness</h2>
<p>Issues such as biodiversity, conservation and biodiversity action plan must take their due place in the public discourse. They should also be taught as compulsory subjects at various levels of education. </p>
<p>Electronic media promotion of these issues in local languages must also improve to reach out to people who can’t read.</p>
<p>Graduates of botany, zoology, forestry and wildlife conservation should be employed where their expertise is needed, rather than allowing non-experts to take their positions in the relevant ministries, departments or agencies of governments. </p>
<p>To start with, such graduates could be employed during their national youth service, and thereafter as career officers to educate people in their respective communities. They could also help in implementing Nigeria’s biodiversity strategy and action plan.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160375/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emmanuel O. Akindele is affiliated with Obafemi Awolowo University and the Nigeria Tropical Biology Association. </span></em></p>Nigeria must improve biodiversity awareness among its citizens to stem animal poaching and halt biodiversity loss.Emmanuel O. Akindele, Senior Lecturer, Obafemi Awolowo UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1579442021-03-26T16:41:53Z2021-03-26T16:41:53ZAfrica’s 2 elephant species are both endangered, due to poaching and habitat loss<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391841/original/file-20210325-21-1q6lz7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C22%2C5061%2C3366&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An African forest elephant (_Loxodonta cyclotis_) in Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Republic of the Congo.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/african-forest-elephant-odzala-kokoua-national-park-news-photo/1288088426">Nicolas Deloche/Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391826/original/file-20210325-13-19hrc5b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Humans have been over-exploiting African elephants for centuries. More than 2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire’s demand for ivory led to the extinction of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.10.086">genetically distinct elephant populations in northern Africa</a>. But in recent times, population increases among southern African elephants and declines across the rest of the continent have made it hard to clearly assess how threatened the species is overall. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=89PvLp0AAAAJ&hl=en">I serve on a team of scientists</a> that recently reviewed African elephants’ status for the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a> (IUCN). We compiled data from over 400 sites across Africa, spanning 50 years of conservation efforts – and our results were grim. </p>
<p>The number of African savanna elephants – the largest subspecies of elephants – has <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/species/202103/african-elephant-species-now-endangered-and-critically-endangered-iucn-red-list">declined by 60%</a> since 1990. And forest elephants, which the IUCN is treating as a separate species for the first time, have declined in number by over 86%. Based on our assessment, the IUCN has changed its listing from “vulnerable” for all African elephants to “endangered” for savanna elephants and “critically endangered” for forest elephants.</p>
<h2>Two species</h2>
<p>By separating savanna and forest elephants into independent assessments, our report reveals the critical state of the more elusive forest elephants, which was obscured in previous reviews that lumped all of Africa’s elephants together. Scientific evidence for separating the species has been <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1059936">building over the past two decades</a>, and many taxonomists felt this recognition was long overdue. </p>
<p>Increased research on forest elephants highlights the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059469">dramatic declines</a> these <a href="http://www.cnn.com/NATURE/9908/26/africa.elephants/">secretive giants</a> are undergoing. Studies also show that they are among the slowest-reproducing mammals on the planet. This means that even if they receive adequate protection, their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12764">recovery will take decades</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of elephant populations across Africa." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391969/original/file-20210326-23-t9ktxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Habitat encroachment, increased human population densities, urban expansion, agricultural development, deforestation and infrastructure development are all reducing African elephants’ rangelands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gridarendal/31514045354/">Riccardo Pravetoni for GRID-Arendal/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Global threats, global solutions</h2>
<p>Scientists believe that elephant populations across Africa actually increased during the early 20th century, when nations were entrenched in global wars and consumption of ivory and other luxury items declined. After World War II, however, conspicuous consumption surged. Over-hunting for ivory drove <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300020433">severe declines in the number of elephants</a> in the 1970s and 1980s. </p>
<p>Thanks to interconnected global trade networks, along with porous and unregulated borders in many parts of Africa, rising ivory demand in one part of the world quickly translates into <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1403984111">higher black market ivory prices in Africa</a>. And these higher prices lead to poaching.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Female elephant and calf drinking on open savanna." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391962/original/file-20210326-21-1wezvse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Savanna elephants (<em>Loxodonta africana</em>) in South Africa’s Addo Elephant National Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/SPSSgs">Bernard Dupont/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Removing elephants from an area can pave the way for converting forests and grasslands to agriculture. This cycle has led to the <a href="https://www.traffic.org/publications/reports/elephants-in-the-dust-the-african-elephant-crisis/">depletion of much of African elephants’ historic range</a>. </p>
<p>Habitat loss also brings elephants and humans closer together, leading to more human-elephant conflict. Such clashes lead to the direct loss of elephants. They also are a burden for local communities that can erode their interest in and support for conservation. </p>
<p>While the scale of decline in Africa’s elephant populations is overwhelming, there are many examples of successful conservation efforts across the continent. The <a href="https://www.kavangozambezi.org/en/">KAZA (Kavango-Zambezi) Transfrontier Conservation effort</a>, anchored by Botswana, holds the largest contiguous elephant population on the continent, and that population has experienced strong growth over the past 50 years. This success reflects government collaboration across borders and work with local communities. </p>
<p>Joint international efforts to reduce the illegal ivory trade are raising awareness of the problems with ivory consumption. China <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-42532017">banned domestic ivory trade in 2017</a>, and concurrently ivory poaching across many elephant populations in Africa declined – including in the largest populations in Tanzania and Kenya, which were under severe pressure less than 10 years ago. The core population of forest elephants in Gabon, which <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)30024-6?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982217300246%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">declined by 80% between 2004 and 2014</a>, has stabilized with increased government investment and reduced poaching pressure. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wcjBy0fyGl0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Basketball star Yao Ming publicizes China’s domestic ivory trade ban to Chinese viewers.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Innovative work with communities in countries such as Namibia and Kenya to enhance people’s livelihoods by developing wildlife-supported economies has led to the protection of enormous tracts of lands as conservation areas. And researchers and conservationists are working to find solutions to conflicts between human activities and elephant needs that can be applied across Africa. </p>
<p>By highlighting the precarious state of Africa’s two elephant species, my colleagues and I hope that this <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/assessment/process">Red List Assessment</a> can help motivate African countries with elephant populations and the international community to invest in measures that support elephant conservation. </p>
<p>Elephants provide much more than just aesthetic benefits. Recent studies show forest elephants also play an important role in fighting climate change by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0395-6">enhancing carbon storage in central African forests</a>, among the most important carbon reserves on the planet. The elephants disperse seeds and thin out young trees as they forage, which makes room for larger trees to thrive. </p>
<p>Elephants also are a linchpin of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13379">wildlife-based economy across Africa</a>. And elephants, in compliment with fire, are considered to be ecosystem engineers that structure the balance between trees and grass on Africa’s savannas. Along with many other conservation experts, I see reversing their decline as a global imperative that requires concerted global support.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Wittemyer is a member of the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group and serves as the Chairman of the Scientific Board for Save the Elephants, a Kenyan non-governmental organization.</span></em></p>A new review of the status of African elephants finds scientific grounds for dividing them into two species, and reports that both have suffered drastic population declines since 1990.George Wittemyer, Associate professor of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1569992021-03-15T15:15:47Z2021-03-15T15:15:47ZCurious Kids: why do elephants have tusks?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389590/original/file-20210315-15-1n9g1j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tim – one of the last big tusker elephants – died last year at the age of 50, in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">From the author</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Why do elephants have tusks and we have hair? From Valentina, 6 years old, London</em></p>
<p>Elephant tusks are actually teeth. They are elongated incisors. We have incisors too – they’re the teeth at the front of our mouths, which we use for biting food. In elephants, these incisors continue to grow throughout their lives, extending from deep within their upper jaw. </p>
<p>The tusks are one of the most noticeable features of elephants, along with their massive body size and long trunk (<a href="https://www.4elephants.org/blog/article/the-trunk-of-an-elephant">one of the most</a> amazing and versatile appendages in the animal world – but that is another story). In African elephants both males and females have tusks, while in Asian elephants only the males do.</p>
<p>While our incisors are used only for biting food, elephants use theirs for a whole <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/what-is-ivory-and-why-does-it-belong-on-elephants">range of activities</a>, from digging holes and stripping bark from trees to fighting. They’ll even rest a weary trunk upon their tusks. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An elephant seen from below resting its trunk on one of its tusks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389583/original/file-20210315-15-pbj2dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389583/original/file-20210315-15-pbj2dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389583/original/file-20210315-15-pbj2dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389583/original/file-20210315-15-pbj2dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389583/original/file-20210315-15-pbj2dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389583/original/file-20210315-15-pbj2dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389583/original/file-20210315-15-pbj2dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tusks extend from deep within the upper jaw.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">From the author</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Generally speaking, male elephants use their impressive size to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20141101-male-elephants-have-a-sweet-side">intimidate rivals and impress females</a>. Size is so important in attracting mates that adult males have evolved to be twice as large as adult females, reaching a whopping seven metric tonnes. This is the weight of four family cars – with passengers. As part of the package, male elephant tusks are often five to seven times as large as those of adult females.</p>
<p>Some of the largest tusks ever recorded belonged to <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/140619-satao-tusker-tsavo-kenya-ahmed-elephant-poaching">an old elephant called Ahmed</a>, who lived in Kenya until the ripe old age of 65. His tusks were 3m in length and weighed 67kg each. That is 5kg more than the average weight of an adult human. Ahmed’s tusks were so big that it was rumoured he had to walk backwards uphill – a great story, but unlikely to be true. </p>
<p>Thanks to protection from the president of Kenya at the time, Ahmed got to live out his life in full, dying of old age in 1974. Sadly this is not the case for many elephants.</p>
<h2>The cost of ivory</h2>
<p>Humans have long been attracted to the beautiful tusks of elephants. Ivory <a href="https://theconversation.com/ivory-up-in-flames-but-who-really-noticed-how-messages-on-elephant-poaching-might-be-missed-92987">remains one of</a> the most highly prized materials in the natural world. Unfortunately, this demand has led to the deaths of thousands of elephants <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/111/36/13117">across Africa</a>, because the only way that humans can get hold of the elephant’s tusks is by killing them. Those targeted are often the oldest and largest animals – because they have the biggest and therefore most valuable tusks. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389592/original/file-20210315-21-160pl8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389592/original/file-20210315-21-160pl8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389592/original/file-20210315-21-160pl8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389592/original/file-20210315-21-160pl8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389592/original/file-20210315-21-160pl8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389592/original/file-20210315-21-160pl8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389592/original/file-20210315-21-160pl8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zoologists do not yet know how not having tusks will affect elephants’ daily lives.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is not only tragic for individual animals, but also for <a href="https://theconversation.com/save-the-elephant-what-we-can-learn-from-failures-of-the-war-on-drugs-64839">the wider elephant population</a>, as the oldest and wisest elephants play a key leadership role in elephant society. In fact, <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2011.0168?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed">we conducted experiments</a> showing that the oldest elephant matriarchs – the female leaders of the family groups – were much better than younger matriarchs at distinguishing more dangerous male lions from female lions using just the sound of their roars.</p>
<p>The killing of elephants for ivory has actually resulted in elephants having smaller tusks now than they did just a few decades ago (<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.1769">a 2015 study</a> noted a 21%-37% decline). Plus, particularly in the areas where illegal killing has been most common, there is a huge increase in the number of elephants that <a href="https://www.awf.org/blog/going-tuskless">don’t have any tusks at all</a>. In a normal population you might expect two or three out of every hundred elephants to be tuskless, but <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/wildlife-watch-news-tuskless-elephants-behavior-change">in one population in Mozambique</a> this has reached 32%. </p>
<p>Now, these elephants are likely to be at an advantage as they are much less likely to be targeted by poachers. A greater chance of surviving and breeding might explain why these tuskless animals have become more common in the population. (<a href="https://socgen.ucla.edu/2018/11/09/under-poaching-pressure-elephants-are-evolving-to-lose-their-tusks/">Studies are underway</a>) to determine whether that is the case. What we don’t know is how not having tusks affects the day-to-day lives of these elephants when it comes to feeding and interacting with others in the population.</p>
<p>The good news, however, is that when protected and given space to roam, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42367560">elephant populations can flourish</a>. There are many excellent conservation projects across Africa and Asia working hard to ensure that elephants – and their tusks – are a part of the natural world for many years to come. </p>
<p>Indeed, by greatly reducing the number of elephants killed for their ivory, we can protect remaining populations, and potentially halt, or even reverse, the decline in tusk size. Who knows, maybe there is a young elephant in Africa who is destined to one day rival Ahmed and his mighty tusks. </p>
<h2>As for hair …</h2>
<p>Interestingly, elephants and humans both have hair. In fact, all mammals have hair <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-difference-be/">at some point in their lives</a>, even whales and dolphins. It is just present in differing amounts, which generally depends on how useful it is to the animal for keeping warm. </p>
<p>Elephants for example, have a very sparse covering of wiry hair across their bodies, which is only noticeable from very close up. Compare this to sea otters, which have some of the most densely packed hair in the mammal world: 130,000 hairs per sq cm. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-do-humans-not-have-fur-like-chimpanzees-and-gorillas-80320">The human head</a>, by comparison, has between <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10417585/">124-200 hairs per sq cm</a>. For sea otters, the value of that dense fur is to keep them warm in chilly seawater. Elephants commonly face the opposite challenge of needing to stay cool in hot environments, and therefore have very little hair.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graeme Shannon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Elephants use their giant incisors to dig holes, impress rivals and rest weary trunks. But as so many continue to be killed for their ivory, he question is whether they are destined to be tuskless.Graeme Shannon, Lecturer in Zoology, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1568382021-03-11T18:03:42Z2021-03-11T18:03:42ZCOVID-19 wasn’t just a disaster for humanity – new research shows nature suffered greatly too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388976/original/file-20210311-15-lf7i9h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4804%2C2891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32191675/">one year</a> since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. While the human and economic toll have been enormous, new findings show the fallout from the virus also seriously damaged nature.</p>
<p>Conservation is often funded by tourism dollars – particularly in developing nations. In many cases, the dramatic tourism downturn brought on by the pandemic meant funds for conservation were cut. Anti-poaching operations and endangered species programs were among those affected.</p>
<p>This dwindling of conservation efforts during COVID is sadly ironic. The destruction of nature is directly linked to zoonotic diseases, and avoiding habitat loss is a cost-effective way to prevent pandemics.</p>
<p>The research papers reveal the inextricable links between the health of humans and the health of the planet. Together, they make one thing abundantly clear: we must learn the hard lessons of COVID-19 to ensure the calamity is not repeated.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A gorilla and man wearing mask" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388974/original/file-20210311-18-9j8lht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388974/original/file-20210311-18-9j8lht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388974/original/file-20210311-18-9j8lht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388974/original/file-20210311-18-9j8lht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388974/original/file-20210311-18-9j8lht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388974/original/file-20210311-18-9j8lht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388974/original/file-20210311-18-9j8lht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protected areas are a boon for nature, and can help prevent pandemics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jerome Starkey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A disaster for conservation</h2>
<p>The findings are contained in a <a href="https://parksjournal.com/parks-27-si-march-2021/">special issue</a> of PARKS, the peer-reviewed journal of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, co-edited with Brent Mitchell and Adrian Phillips.</p>
<p>Researchers found <a href="https://parksjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Spenceley_et_al10.2305-IUCN.CH_.2021.PARKS-27-SIAS.en_.pdf">between</a> January and May 2020, 45% of global tourism destinations totally or partially closed their borders to tourists. This caused the loss of 174 million direct tourism jobs around the world, and cost the sector US$4.7 trillion.</p>
<p>Over-dependence on tourism to fund conservation is fraught with peril. For example in Namibia, initial estimates suggested communal wildlife conservancies could lose US$10 million in direct tourism revenues. This threatened funding for 700 game guards and 300 conservancy management employees. </p>
<p>It also threatened the viability of 61 joint venture tourism lodges employing 1,400 community members. This forced families to rely more heavily on natural resource extraction to survive.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-is-a-wake-up-call-our-war-with-the-environment-is-leading-to-pandemics-135023">Coronavirus is a wake-up call: our war with the environment is leading to pandemics</a>
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<img alt="Closed entrance to Grand Canyon national park" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388955/original/file-20210311-15-xf01q1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388955/original/file-20210311-15-xf01q1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388955/original/file-20210311-15-xf01q1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388955/original/file-20210311-15-xf01q1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388955/original/file-20210311-15-xf01q1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388955/original/file-20210311-15-xf01q1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388955/original/file-20210311-15-xf01q1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Around the world, the pandemic forced the closure of national parks - including the Grand Canyon, pictured here.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lani Strange/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Emergency funds were raised to cover critical shortfalls. However in April 2020, rhinos were poached in a communal conservancy in Namibia – the first such event in two years. Researchers believe this may have been linked to the pandemic fallout.</p>
<p><a href="https://parksjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Waithaka_et_al_10.2305-IUCN.CH_.2021.PARKS-27-SIJW.en_-1.pdf">More than 70%</a> of African countries reported reduced monitoring of the illegal wildlife trade as a result of the pandemic. More than half reported impacts on the protection of endangered species, conservation education and outreach, regular field patrols and anti-poaching operations.</p>
<p>Rangers have also been hard hit. A <a href="https://parksjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Singh_et_al10.2305-IUCN.CH_.2021.PARKS-27-SIRS.en_-1.pdf">global survey of nearly 1,000 rangers</a> found more than one in four had their salaries reduced or delayed due to COVID-related budget cuts. A third of all rangers in Central and South America, Africa and Caribbean countries reported being laid off. Some 90% said vital work with local communities had reduced or ceased.</p>
<p>In more bad news, governments of <a href="https://parksjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Golden_Kroner_et_al10.2305-IUCN.CH_.2021.PARKS-27-SIRGK.en_.pdf">at least 22 countries</a> used the pandemic as a reason to weaken environmental protections for protected and conserved areas, or cut their budgets. </p>
<p>Many of the changes allowed large-scale infrastructure (such as roads, airports, pipelines, hydropower plants and housing) and extractive activities (such as coal, oil and gas development and industrial fishing). Brazil, India and, until recently, the United States have emerged as hotspots of COVID-era rollbacks.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/un-report-says-up-to-850-000-animal-viruses-could-be-caught-by-humans-unless-we-protect-nature-148911">UN report says up to 850,000 animal viruses could be caught by humans, unless we protect nature</a>
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<img alt="Man holds up leopard skin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388954/original/file-20210311-23-1l5p1x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388954/original/file-20210311-23-1l5p1x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388954/original/file-20210311-23-1l5p1x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388954/original/file-20210311-23-1l5p1x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388954/original/file-20210311-23-1l5p1x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388954/original/file-20210311-23-1l5p1x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388954/original/file-20210311-23-1l5p1x2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When poverty strikes, vulnerable people can turn to poaching and other illegal means to survive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Morgan/AP/WWF-Canon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Humans and animals pushed closer</h2>
<p>SARS-COV-2 is very similar to other viruses in bats, and may have been passed to humans via another animal species. The pandemic shows the potentially devastating outcomes when animals and humans are forced into closer contact in shrinking habitats – for example, as a result of forest destruction.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://parksjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Ferreira_et_al_10.2305-IUCN.CH_.2021.PARKS-27-SIMNF.en_-1.pdf">one paper</a> found, during the last century an average of two new viruses spilled from animals to humans each year. These include Ebola and SARS.</p>
<p>Clearly, investment is needed to preserve the world’s protected and conserved areas, ensuring they act as a buffer against new pandemics. <a href="https://parksjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Cumming_et_al10.2305-IUCN.CH_.2021.PARKS-27-SITC.en_.pdf">One study</a> puts the required spending at US$67 billion each year – and notes only about one-third of this is currently being spent. </p>
<p>While it’s undoubtedly a large sum, the International Monetary Fund <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/13/imf-covid-cost-world-economic-outlook">estimated</a> late last year the pandemic would cause US$28 trillion in lost economic output in 2020.</p>
<p>Like many zoonotic epidemics, it appears COVID-19 was caused by the trade in wildlife and wild meat consumption. But diseases caused by uncontrolled land-use change – often for agriculture and livestock production – are just as dangerous.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://parksjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Reaser_et_al10.2305-IUCN.CH_.2021.PARKS-27-SIJKR.en_-1.pdf">greatest risk</a>, according to one group of researchers, is in forested tropical regions where land use is changing and a rich variety of mammal species are present. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/most-laws-ignore-human-wildlife-conflict-this-makes-us-vulnerable-to-pandemics-135191">Most laws ignore ‘human-wildlife conflict’. This makes us vulnerable to pandemics</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Rangers managing forest with fire." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388979/original/file-20210311-14-1gm7hv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388979/original/file-20210311-14-1gm7hv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388979/original/file-20210311-14-1gm7hv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388979/original/file-20210311-14-1gm7hv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388979/original/file-20210311-14-1gm7hv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388979/original/file-20210311-14-1gm7hv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388979/original/file-20210311-14-1gm7hv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Investment is needed in protected areas to ensure important conservation and land management continues.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2021: a crucial year</h2>
<p>As the special issue’s co-editors <a href="https://parksjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/PARKS-27-SI-Editors-postscript.pdf">argue</a>, if COVID-19 is not enough to make humanity wake up to the “suicidal consequences” of misguided development, then how will future calamities be avoided?</p>
<p>The cost of effectively maintaining protected and conserved natural areas is a small fraction of the cost of dealing with the pandemic and getting economies moving again. Imagine, for a moment, if the effort put into the development of vaccines were applied in the same measure to addressing the root causes of zoonotic pandemics.</p>
<p>In 2021, a series of international meetings will be held to decide how to stabilise our climate, save biodiversity, secure human health and revive the global economy. Through these events should run a golden thread: learn the lessons of COVID-19 by protecting nature and restoring damaged ecosystems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Hockings has received funding from the Australian Research Council, several Australian Governments and international conservation organisations. He is affiliated with IUCN, The International Union for Conservation of Nature and is Managing Editor of PARKS: The International Journal of Protected Areas and Conservation</span></em></p>Global conservation efforts have suffered during the COVID-19 outbreak. It’s sadly ironic, because avoiding habitat loss is a cost-effective way to prevent pandemics.Marc Hockings, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Management, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1541932021-02-09T14:06:38Z2021-02-09T14:06:38ZWork can be a violent experience for Zimbabwe’s forest rangers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382758/original/file-20210205-21-14tchum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Militarised conservation has had unfortunate consequences</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As cases of poaching <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/poaching-stats/">rise</a> across Africa’s protected areas, some governments have responded with a military approach to nature conservation. From as early as the mid 1980s, military forces themselves were used to enforce conservation, as were military strategies and technologies and paramilitary personnel. In 2011, about 165 South African soldiers were deployed to the <a href="https://www.defenceweb.co.za/security/border-security/sandf-deploys-in-kruger-national-park/">Kruger National Park</a>, and soldiers were deployed to Zimbabwe’s national parks <a href="https://www.defenceweb.co.za/security/border-security/zimbabwe-deploys-army-to-combat-cyanide-poison-poachers/">in 2015</a>. Deployment of soldiers and use of military tactics has increased the number of arrests and poachers killed but has not reduced the number of rhinos and elephants <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/the_war_on_african_poaching_is_militarization_fated_to_fail">poached</a>. </p>
<p>Militarised conservation has had unfortunate consequences. Sometimes poaching suspects died before getting their right to a trial. For example, between 2008 and 2013, about 300 suspected poachers were <a href="https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/journals/riia/v90i4/f_0032203_26199.pdf">killed in the Kruger National Park.</a>. Communities living in and around protected areas also suffer unintended consequences such as being harassed by rangers for <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345312310_Dimensions_and_corollaries_of_violence_in_Zimbabwe's_protected_forests">accessing resources</a>. </p>
<p>Though often hailed as <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/rangers-unsung-heroes-wildlife-conservation">heroes</a>, park rangers have also been victims of militarised conservation. Not only are they at direct risk of death in the line of duty, they also experience violence as implementers of the policy. This aspect has not received much previous attention from researchers.</p>
<p>I <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tafadzwa_Mushonga/publication/345313135_The_militarisation_of_conservation_and_occupational_violence_in_Sikumi_Forest_Reserve/links/5fa2fc4f299bf10f73233af4/The-militarisation-of-conservation-and-occupational-violence-in-Sikumi-Forest-Reserve.pdf">studied</a> the experiences of forest rangers in Sikumi Forest Reserve in Zimbabwe in 2016. I found that forest rangers were subjected to occupational violence by their employers. Occupational violence refers to all acts or threats of physical violence, intimidation or verbal abuse, including exposure to life threatening risks at the workplace. I further found that experiences of violence by forest rangers contributed to the persistence of everyday violence such as aggressive policing. These findings also have to be taken into account when considering alternative approaches to conservation. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-rangers-in-the-congos-virunga-national-park-are-under-attack-153227">Why rangers in the Congo's Virunga national park are under attack</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Forest rangers and violence at work</h2>
<p>My study in Sikumi Forest Reserve took place from April to July 2016. The reserve is managed by the state through its authority, the <a href="http://www.forestry.co.zw/">Forestry Commission</a>. The area was primarily reserved to protect endangered tree species and fragile Kalahari soils. The forest, however, shares a permeable border with Hwange National Park, providing continuity of wildlife movement. This means wildlife also has to be managed by the forest rangers. One of the key duties of Sikumi forest rangers, as specified by the <a href="http://forestry.co.zw/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/FOREST_ACT_19_05-1.pdf">Forest Act</a>, is to combat timber and wildlife theft.</p>
<p>During the four months that I became a 14th member of the anti-poaching team in the reserve, I observed that forest rangers experience occupational violence through violent training. Though it is necessary for them to learn techniques for their safety, training is often conducted in a manner that is overly violent. They are subjected to direct physically harmful punishments and verbal harassment. “After training we are angry!” was a common statement among forest rangers, suggesting the emotional effect of a violent training process.</p>
<p>Training instructors defended their methods as part of hardening forest rangers and instilling discipline. Discipline is fundamental in any paramilitary establishment or organisation, but in Sikumi Forest Reserve it systematically entrenches occupational violence against forest rangers. For instance, discipline prohibited forest rangers from questioning orders even if those orders threatened their well-being and safety at the workplace. As a result forest rangers suffered in silence. </p>
<p>They also had to work with obsolete equipment that exposed them to occupational hazards. The firearms used by forest rangers were old and incapable of matching modern automatic rifles used by poachers; neither could they efficiently respond to animal attacks. Instead of protecting forest rangers, these firearms exposed them to life-threatening danger. For several years, requests for more suitable firearms or servicing of the current ones were not addressed by the Forestry Commission.</p>
<p>Forest rangers additionally conducted daily anti-poaching activities without adequate protective clothing. All 13 rangers had worn-out or oversized uniforms, and improvised protective hats. They had received a donation of boots from a local non-governmental organisation. But while I was there, two rangers still had to wear ordinary shoes which were not appropriate for the job. </p>
<p>Deployment to anti-poaching camps was done without provisions and adequate water. When water supplies ran out, rangers turned to wildlife waterholes, potentially exposing themselves to zoonotic diseases. But these camp experiences were defended as part of hardening forest rangers.</p>
<h2>The ripple effect of occupational violence</h2>
<p>Occupational violence frustrates forest rangers. Such frustration often turns to anger, and anger to hostile policing. A group of forest rangers explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Imagine going to work hungry then coming across illegal activities. If the person runs away you have to chase them for more than 2km. Maybe you are tired because you have already walked 20km in the heat with no food, no water and poor shoes. Tell me what is going to happen when we finally catch that person. We will teach him a lesson. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These views show that experiences of occupational violence can provoke a violent reaction to illegal activities, resulting in violent policing tendencies.</p>
<p>This study was conducted in 2016, but the circumstances of forest rangers in the reserve have not changed. And there are similar reports from <a href="https://www.greenvision.news/rescue-us-eco-guards-cry-out-to-govt/">Cameroon</a>, Democratic Republic of Congo and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36951644">Tanzania</a>. Resources for conservation in Zimbabwe are limited because of long standing economic and political challenges but authorities could do better to meet the needs of forest rangers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tafadzwa Mushonga received funding from The Andrew. W. Mellon Foundation, Canon Collins Educational Trust and Margaret McNamara Education Grants</span></em></p>Forest rangers were subjected to occupational violence by their employers. This in turn can provoke a violent reaction to illegal activities, resulting in violent policing tendencies.Tafadzwa Mushonga, Postdoctoral Fellow. Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1426422020-07-22T19:51:43Z2020-07-22T19:51:43ZChinese fishing boats took half a billion dollars of illegal squid from North Korea. Scientists used satellites to catch them out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348630/original/file-20200721-15-1qbf9qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1905%2C1080&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Seung-Ho Lee</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A “dark fleet” of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels has illegally caught more than half a billion dollars worth of squid in North Korean waters since 2017, according to <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abb1197">new research</a> that used satellite technology, on-water observations and machine learning to track the unreported vessels. The illegal catch may have driven small North Korean fishing boats into dangerous waters and contributed to the sharp decline of the Japanese flying squid.</p>
<h2>A global problem</h2>
<p>Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is a global problem. It threatens fish stocks, marine ecosystems, and the livelihoods and food security of legitimate fishing communities worldwide. This kind of fishing is hard for governments to address, as it is often carried out by “dark fleets” of vessels that do not appear in public monitoring systems. </p>
<p>However, working with a team from Korea, Japan, Australia and the US, we’ve devised a new approach to tracking clandestine fishing. We used it to identify more than 900 vessels originating from China that fished illegally in North Korean waters in 2017, and more than 700 in 2018. The research is published today in <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abb1197">Science Advances</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347219/original/file-20200714-50-44qyu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347219/original/file-20200714-50-44qyu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347219/original/file-20200714-50-44qyu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347219/original/file-20200714-50-44qyu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347219/original/file-20200714-50-44qyu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347219/original/file-20200714-50-44qyu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347219/original/file-20200714-50-44qyu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347219/original/file-20200714-50-44qyu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As Chinese vessels fish North Korean waters, North Korean boats move further north towards Russia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Global Fishing Watch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sanctions and ghost boats</h2>
<p>Chinese vessels have historically fished the waters adjacent to North Korea. However, in 2017 the UN Security Council <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/05/world/asia/north-korea-sanctions-united-nations.html">adopted sanctions</a> restricting North Korea’s fisheries and seafood trade in response to ballistic missile testing. The sanctions also prohibited North Korea from selling or transferring fishing rights. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tighter-sanctions-on-north-korea-could-have-a-harsh-humanitarian-impact-84299">Tighter sanctions on North Korea could have a harsh humanitarian impact</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Because of the sanctions, Chinese vessels fishing in North Korea after September 2017 would constitute a violation of either or both international and domestic law. Nevertheless, the South Korean Coast Guard identified hundreds of vessels of Chinese origin passing through their waters en route to North Korean fishing grounds.</p>
<p>Additionally, the Chinese fishing activity has displaced smaller North Korean fishing boats, many of which have been driven into illegal fishing in neighbouring Russian waters. These vessels lack the equipment or endurance for these distant and dangerous waters. Japanese coastal communities have reported hundreds of such vessels drifting ashore as <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Japan-Update/North-Korean-ghost-ship-arrivals-in-Japan-hit-record-99">“ghost boats”</a>, empty or carrying only human remains.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348795/original/file-20200722-31-dlu5dx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348795/original/file-20200722-31-dlu5dx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348795/original/file-20200722-31-dlu5dx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348795/original/file-20200722-31-dlu5dx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348795/original/file-20200722-31-dlu5dx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348795/original/file-20200722-31-dlu5dx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348795/original/file-20200722-31-dlu5dx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348795/original/file-20200722-31-dlu5dx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pair trawler, a Chinese lighting vessel and a North Korean fishing boat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">East Sea Fisheries Management Service, South Korea / Seung-Ho Lee</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lighting up the dark fleet</h2>
<p>Our multinational study was initiated at a technical workshop in 2018, co-hosted by the international non-profit organisation <a href="https://globalfishingwatch.org/">Global Fishing Watch</a>, <a href="http://www.fra.affrc.go.jp/english/eindex.html">Japan’s Fisheries Research and Education Agency</a>, and the <a href="https://www.uow.edu.au/law-humanities-the-arts/research/ancors/">Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security</a> (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong. The study was led by Jaeyoon Park from Global Fishing Watch and Jungsam Lee from the Korea Maritime Institute, and included scientists, engineers and policy experts from Korea, Japan, Australia and the US.</p>
<p>Together, the research team conducted an unprecedented synthesis of four satellite technologies, combining <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_identification_system">automatic identification system (AIS)</a> data, optical imagery, infrared imagery, and satellite radar to create the most comprehensive picture of fishing activities in the area to date.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347220/original/file-20200714-30-10lflut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347220/original/file-20200714-30-10lflut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347220/original/file-20200714-30-10lflut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347220/original/file-20200714-30-10lflut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347220/original/file-20200714-30-10lflut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347220/original/file-20200714-30-10lflut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347220/original/file-20200714-30-10lflut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347220/original/file-20200714-30-10lflut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Global Fishing Watch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The research team focused on the two most common types of fishing vessels active in the area: pair trawlers and lighting vessels. </p>
<p>Pair trawlers travel in teams of two, dragging a net between them, and can be identified in satellite imagery by their characteristic pairs. The team used a machine learning approach called a convolutional neural network to pick out pair trawlers from high-resolution optical satellite imagery, verified with satellite radar and AIS data. </p>
<p>With these three technologies, the team estimated approximately 796 distinct pair trawlers operated in North Korean waters in 2017, and 588 in 2018, and traced these vessels back to Chinese ports.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348337/original/file-20200720-15-spjs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348337/original/file-20200720-15-spjs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348337/original/file-20200720-15-spjs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348337/original/file-20200720-15-spjs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348337/original/file-20200720-15-spjs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348337/original/file-20200720-15-spjs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348337/original/file-20200720-15-spjs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348337/original/file-20200720-15-spjs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pair trawlers can be detected from satellite imagery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Planet / Global Fishing Watch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lighting vessels use bright lights to attract fish. The Chinese vessels are uniquely bright, using as many as 700 incandescent bulbs which put out as much light as some football stadiums.</p>
<p>To track these lighting vessels, the research team used high-sensitivity infrared imagery cross-referenced with high-resolution optical imagery and satellite radar. This analysis identified approximately 108 lighting vessels of Chinese origin operating in North Korean waters in 2017 and 130 in 2018. </p>
<p>These analyses allowed researchers to estimate that more than 900 distinct fishing vessels fished these waters in 2017, and more than 700 in 2018.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348312/original/file-20200720-17-16v7p0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348312/original/file-20200720-17-16v7p0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348312/original/file-20200720-17-16v7p0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348312/original/file-20200720-17-16v7p0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348312/original/file-20200720-17-16v7p0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348312/original/file-20200720-17-16v7p0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348312/original/file-20200720-17-16v7p0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348312/original/file-20200720-17-16v7p0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Automatic identification system (AIS) data show the origin of vessels fishing in North Korean waters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Global Fishing Watch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also identified low-intensity lighting vessels: the North Korean fleet of much smaller boats. North Korean fishing vessels are typically wooden boats 10–20 metres long, using only 5 to 20 light bulbs. </p>
<p>We spotted about 3,000 North Korean vessels fishing in Russian waters during 2018. While Russia historically licensed small numbers of North Korean boats, they stopped issuing permits in 2017, suggesting this activity is also likely in violation of fishing laws. </p>
<p>In recent weeks, the study team has undertaken a <a href="https://globalfishingwatch.org/news/">follow-up analysis</a> to verify if the illegal fishing has continued in the interim since the paper was first submitted for peer review. The analysis identified approximately 800 vessels from China fished in 2019 in North Korean waters, indicating that the illegal activity is ongoing.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-a-tangled-net-unravelling-the-international-complications-of-tuna-conservation-6178">What a tangled net: unravelling the international complications of tuna conservation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A political and ecological problem</h2>
<p>This massive operation poses substantial implications for fisheries governance and regional politics. If the vessels are not approved by China and North Korea, they are fishing illegally in contravention of Chinese and/or North Korean domestic regulations. On the other hand, if they <em>are</em> authorised by China or North Korea, it is a violation of UN sanctions and illegal under international law.</p>
<p>In addition, the fishing is a catastrophe for regional fish stocks. The Japanese flying squid (<em>Todarodes pacificus</em>) is targeted by several fishing fleets and is a critical seafood for South Korea, North Korea and Japan. The lack of cooperation and data-sharing prevents accurate stock assessments and sustainable management of a fishery that has already declined by approximately 80% since 2003.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348317/original/file-20200720-17-hiw6a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348317/original/file-20200720-17-hiw6a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348317/original/file-20200720-17-hiw6a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348317/original/file-20200720-17-hiw6a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348317/original/file-20200720-17-hiw6a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348317/original/file-20200720-17-hiw6a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348317/original/file-20200720-17-hiw6a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348317/original/file-20200720-17-hiw6a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Japanese flying squid are in sharp decline.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Global Fishing Watch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The study demonstrates the ongoing need for improved understanding of the often hidden dynamics that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Political barriers and conflicts often hinder international cooperation, data sharing and effective joint fisheries management. </p>
<p>Combining satellite technologies can reveal the activities of dark fleets, filling a major gap in the management of distant fisheries. But to ensure safe, legal, and sustainable fishing, regional cooperation and a renewed focus on transparency and reporting are necessary.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142642/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Hanich receives research funding from Global Fishing Watch, and is a research partner with the Japanese Fisheries Research and Education Agency, and Global Fishing Watch.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Seto is a Global Fishing Watch research partner and an affiliate of the Australia National Centre of Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS). </span></em></p>Satellite technology and machine learning are helping track down illegal and environmentally damaging ‘dark fleets’ of fishing boats.Quentin Hanich, Associate Professor, University of WollongongKatherine Seto, Assistant Professor of Marine and Coastal Governance, University of California, Santa CruzLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1420042020-07-03T15:27:00Z2020-07-03T15:27:00ZHundreds of elephants are mysteriously dying in Botswana – a conservationist explains what we know<p>Worrying news has recently come to light: hundreds of elephants have been found dead in Botswana, and as yet, there is no clear cause of death. But as an <a href="https://vickyboult.com/research/">expert in elephants and their conservation</a>, I believe we can at least rule out a few possible answers.</p>
<p>Here’s what we do know: the first deaths were reported in March, but significant numbers were only recorded from May onwards. To date, it’s thought that the death toll stands at nearly <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/botswana-elephant-graveyard-mystery-death-toll-rises-to-400/">400 elephants of both sexes and all ages</a>. Most of the deaths have occurred near the village of Seronga on the northern fringes of the Okavango Delta, a vast swampy inland region that hosts huge wildlife populations. Many of the carcasses have been found near to water.</p>
<p>Of those discovered so far, some lay on their knees and faces (rather than on their side), suggesting sudden death, although there are also reports of elephants looking disoriented and even <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-03/botswana-elephants-mysteriously-die/12419064">walking in circles</a>. The tusks of the dead elephants are still in place and, as yet, no other species have died under similar circumstances.</p>
<h2>Botswana’s elephant politics</h2>
<p>Botswana has long been a stronghold for Africa’s remaining 400,000 elephants, boasting a third of the continent’s population. While elephant numbers have widely declined in recent decades, largely due to poaching, Botswana’s population has grown. </p>
<p>However, this growth has been outpaced by the ever-increasing human population. With more elephants and more people, competition for space has escalated and increasingly, elephants and people find themselves at odds. Some communities see elephants as pests, as they feed on and trample crops, cause damage to infrastructure and threaten the lives of people and livestock. In return, people retaliate by killing and injuring offending elephants.</p>
<p>With large rural communities struggling to coexist with elephants, the issue has become highly politicised. In 2019, in a controversial move, president Mokgweetsi Masisi <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-48374880">lifted a ban</a> on the hunting of elephants in Botswana, reasoning that hunting could both reduce their numbers and generate income for struggling rural communities. This, against a backdrop of <a href="https://theconversation.com/botswana-has-an-elephant-poaching-problem-not-an-overpopulation-problem-119366">rising poaching</a>, suggests that times are changing for Botswana’s elephants.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345544/original/file-20200703-33939-194p5th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345544/original/file-20200703-33939-194p5th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345544/original/file-20200703-33939-194p5th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345544/original/file-20200703-33939-194p5th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345544/original/file-20200703-33939-194p5th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345544/original/file-20200703-33939-194p5th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345544/original/file-20200703-33939-194p5th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345544/original/file-20200703-33939-194p5th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The elephants lived on the fringes of the Okavango Delta, a unique ‘desert wetland’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">evenfh / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Speculation</h2>
<p>This has sparked speculation about the recent deaths. However, given what we know, we can address some of the rumours.</p>
<p>Firstly, it seems unlikely that poachers are to blame, since the tusks of the dead elephants have not been removed. It’s estimated that illegal black-market ivory trade is responsible for the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66906-w">deaths of 20,000 elephants annually</a>. </p>
<p>The elephants could have been killed by <a href="https://theconversation.com/too-many-elephants-in-africa-heres-how-peaceful-coexistence-with-human-communities-can-help-112645">frustrated local people</a>, typically by shooting or spearing. In this case however, the sheer number of dead elephants and the lack of reports of gunshot or spearing wounds, does not support this hypothesis.</p>
<p>Poisoning could be used instead, either by poachers or in retaliation by locals. A few years ago hundreds of elephants in Zimbabwe died after drinking from <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/11/151124-zimbabwe-elephants-cyanide-poaching-hwange-national-park-africa/">watering holes laced with cyanide</a>, and the proximity of many of the recent deaths to water has given the idea some foundation. </p>
<p>However, in the event of poisoning, we would expect to see other species dying as well, either because they drank from the same poisoned water source or because they fed on the poisoned carcass of the elephant, and this has not been reported.</p>
<h2>A natural cause of death?</h2>
<p>If the evidence currently available doesn’t support foul play, that leads us to consider natural causes.</p>
<p>Drought can cause significant deaths. In 2009, a drought killed around 400 elephants in Amboseli, Kenya, a quarter of the local population. But drought tends to kill the very young and old, while the deaths recently reported in Botswana show elephants of all ages are affected. Moreover, rainfall in recent months has been near normal, ruling out the influence of drought.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345531/original/file-20200703-33913-17gkakb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345531/original/file-20200703-33913-17gkakb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345531/original/file-20200703-33913-17gkakb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345531/original/file-20200703-33913-17gkakb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345531/original/file-20200703-33913-17gkakb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345531/original/file-20200703-33913-17gkakb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345531/original/file-20200703-33913-17gkakb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345531/original/file-20200703-33913-17gkakb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mount Kilimanjaro looms over Amboseli National Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Shannon / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps because wildlife disease has gained much attention in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the remaining possibility that has been widely suggested is disease. While COVID-19 itself is unlikely, elephants, like humans, are affected by a range of diseases. </p>
<p>For instance, over 100 were suspected to have died from an <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-botswana-elephants/more-than-100-elephants-die-in-botswana-in-suspected-anthrax-outbreak-idUKKBN1X12EE">anthrax outbreak</a> in Botswana in 2019. Those elephants that seemed disoriented and to be <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-03/botswana-elephants-mysteriously-die/12419064">walking in circles</a> might suggest a disease causing a neurological condition.</p>
<p>Still, the information currently available is inconclusive. The Botswana government has <a href="https://twitter.com/BWGovernment/status/1278655613468323842">released a statement</a> explaining that investigations are ongoing and that laboratories had been identified to process samples taken from the carcasses of dead elephants. </p>
<p>To avoid further speculation and prevent the deaths of more elephants in their last remaining stronghold, it’s vital that investigations are expedited so that the cause of death can be determined and suitable action taken.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vicky Boult does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The death toll stands at nearly 400 elephants of both sexes and all ages.Vicky Boult, Postdoctoral Researcher in Conservation Biology, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1370522020-04-29T18:02:05Z2020-04-29T18:02:05ZEndangered tigers face growing threats from an Asian road-building boom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330851/original/file-20200427-145560-1nlgr5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C16%2C5491%2C3772&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Female tiger crossing track, Bandavgarh National Park, India. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bengal-tiger-panthera-tigris-female-crossing-track-news-photo/1140444140?adppopup=true">David Tipling/Universal Images Group/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tigers are one of the world’s most iconic wild species, but today they are <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/15955/50659951">endangered throughout Asia</a>. They once roamed across much of this region, but widespread habitat loss, prey depletion and poaching have reduced their numbers to only about <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/global-wild-tiger-population-increases-but-still-a-long-way-to-go--3">4,000 individuals</a>. They live in small pockets of habitat across South and Southeast Asia, as well as the Russian Far East – an area spanning 13 countries and 450,000 square miles (1,160,000 square kilometers). </p>
<p>Today Asia is experiencing a road-building boom. To maintain economic growth, development experts estimate that the region will need to invest about <a href="https://www.adb.org/publications/asia-infrastructure-needs">US$8.4 trillion</a> in transportation infrastructure between 2016 and 2030. </p>
<p>Major investment projects, such as China’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13317">Belt and Road Initiative</a> – one of the largest infrastructure projects of all time – are fueling this growth. While roads can <a href="https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/29406/when-rural-roads-benefit-poor.pdf">reduce poverty</a>, especially in rural areas, many of Asia’s new roads also are likely to traverse regions that are home to diverse plants and animals. </p>
<p>To protect tigers from this surge of road building, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SquL06QAAAAJ&hl=en">conservation scientists like me</a> need to know where the greatest risks are. That information, in turn, can improve road planning in the future. </p>
<p>In a newly published study, I worked with researchers at the University of Michigan, Boise State University and the University of British Columbia to examine how existing and planned Asian roads <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/18/eaaz9619">encroach on tiger habitats</a>. We forecast that nearly 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometers) of new roads will be built in tiger habitats by 2050, and call for bold new planning strategies that prioritize biodiversity conservation and sustainable road development across large landscapes.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hYL3v5wxxW4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Economic growth in Asia means more roads will be built into tiger habitat. Planning at the outset can make these projects more tiger-friendly.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Letting humans in</h2>
<p>Road construction <a href="http://tigers.panda.org/news/asias-infrastructure-development-threatens-worlds-tigers/">worsens existing threats to tigers</a>, such as poaching and development, by paving the way for human intrusion into the heart of the tiger’s range. For example, in the Russian Far East, roads have led to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2008.00458.x">higher tiger mortality</a> due to increased collisions with vehicles and more encounters with poachers. </p>
<p>To assess this threat across Asia, we focused on areas called Tiger Conservation Landscapes – 76 zones, scattered across the tiger’s range, which conservationists see as crucial for the species’ recovery. For each zone we calculated road density, distance to the nearest road and relative mean species abundance, which estimates the numbers of mammals in areas near roads compared to areas far from roads. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1522488113">Mean species abundance</a> is our best proxy for estimating how roads affect numbers of mammals, like tigers and their prey, across broad scales. </p>
<p>We also used <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aabd42">future projections of road building</a> in each country to forecast the length of new roads that might be built in tiger habitats by 2050.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iFJSfOsbcDs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Overpasses and underpasses, like this one in Florida, help wild animals traverse highways safely.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More roads, fewer animals</h2>
<p>We estimated that more than 83,300 miles (134,000 kilometers) of roads already exist within tiger habitats. This is likely an underestimate, since many logging or local roads are missing from the global data set that we used. </p>
<p>Road densities in tiger habitat are one-third greater outside of protected areas, such as national parks and tiger reserves, than inside of protected areas. Non-protected areas averaged 1,300 feet of road per square mile (154 meters per square kilometer), while protected areas averaged 980 feet per square mile (115 meters per square kilometer). For tiger populations to grow, they will need to use the forests outside protected areas. However, the high density of roads in those forests will jeopardize tiger recovery. </p>
<p>Protected areas and priority conservation sites – areas with large populations of tigers – are not immune either. For example, in India – home to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/29/746237332/census-finds-nearly-3-000-tigers-in-india">over 70% of the world’s tigers</a> – we estimate that a protected area of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_reserves_of_India">500 square miles, or 1,300 square kilometers</a>, contains about 200 miles (320 kilometers) of road. </p>
<p>Road networks are expansive. Over 40% of areas where tiger breeding has recently been detected – crucial to tiger population growth – is within just 3 miles (5 kilometers) of a nearby road. This is problematic because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.02.009">mammals often are less abundant</a> this close to roads. </p>
<p>In fact, we estimate that current road networks within tiger habitats may be reducing local populations of tigers and their prey by about 20%. That’s a major decrease for a species on the brink of extinction. And the threats from roads are likely to become more severe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330556/original/file-20200426-163110-nlgbdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C182%2C2079%2C2114&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330556/original/file-20200426-163110-nlgbdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C182%2C2079%2C2114&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330556/original/file-20200426-163110-nlgbdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330556/original/file-20200426-163110-nlgbdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330556/original/file-20200426-163110-nlgbdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330556/original/file-20200426-163110-nlgbdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330556/original/file-20200426-163110-nlgbdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330556/original/file-20200426-163110-nlgbdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Estimated road densities for 76 tiger conservation landscapes (colored zones), with darker red indicating more roads per unit area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neil Carter</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Making infrastructure tiger-friendly</h2>
<p>Our findings underscore the need for planning development in ways that interfere as minimally as possible with tiger habitat. Multilateral development banks and massive ventures like the Belt and Road Initiative can be important partners in this endeavor. For example, they could help establish an international network of protected areas and habitat corridors to safeguard tigers and many other wild species from road impacts. </p>
<p>National laws can also do more to promote <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27751">tiger-friendly infrastructure planning</a>. This includes keeping road development away from priority tiger populations and other “no go” zones, such as tiger reserves or habitat corridors. </p>
<p>Zoning can be used around infrastructure to prevent settlement growth and forest loss. Environmental impact assessments for road projects can do a better job of assessing how new roads might exacerbate hunting and poaching pressure on tigers and their prey. </p>
<p>Funding agencies need to screen proposed road developments using these tiger-friendly criteria before planners finalize decisions on road design, siting and construction. Otherwise, it might be too late to influence road planning. </p>
<p>There are also opportunities to reduce the negative effects of existing roads on tigers. They include closing roads to vehicular traffic at night, decommissioning existing roads in areas with important tiger populations, adding road signs announcing the presence of tigers and constructing wildlife crossings to allow tigers and other wildlife to move freely through the landscape. </p>
<p>Roads will become more pervasive features in Asian ecosystems as these nations develop. In my view, now is the time to tackle this mounting challenge to Asian biodiversity, including tigers, through research, national and international collaborations and strong political leadership.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/??utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Carter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new study forecasts that thousands of miles of new road construction will cut through tiger habitat across Asia by 2050. Planning can make these projects more tiger-friendly.Neil Carter, Assistant Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1346882020-04-05T08:32:38Z2020-04-05T08:32:38ZNigeria’s nature reserves need more help to protect biodiversity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324213/original/file-20200331-65503-16urcci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Omo Forest, a home for elephants, in Ijebu East and North Local Government Areas, Ogun State, Nigeria </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/truck-carries-logs-of-wood-in-the-omo-forest-a-home-for-news-photo/1153792293?adppopup=true">Peter Martell/AFP via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Environment recently <a href="https://www.channelstv.com/2020/02/05/fg-nominates-nlng-to-make-finima-nature-park-a-ramsar-site/">nominated Finima Nature Park</a> in River State as a <a href="https://www.ramsar.org/">Ramsar site</a>: a wetland of international importance. </p>
<p>These sites are designated under the <a href="https://www.ramsar.org/about/the-convention-on-wetlands-and-its-mission">Ramsar Convention</a>, an intergovernmental environmental treaty established in 1971 by UNESCO. It aims to protect representative, rare or unique wetlands, or those important for conserving biological diversity. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://finimanaturepark.com/">Finima nature park</a>, when finally gazetted, will be Nigeria’s 12th Ramsar site. Established by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company in 2001, the park covers about 1,000 hectares. It’s a mixture of tropical rain forest, mangrove swamps and freshwater ponds and is home to birds, crocodiles, snakes, alligators and the salt water hippopotamus. </p>
<p>Apart from conserving species, wetlands help to control floods, replenish groundwater, stabilise shorelines, retain nutrients and purify water. </p>
<p>The park will join <a href="http://www.fao.org/forestry/15148-0c4acebeb8e7e45af360ec63fcc4c1678.pdf">Nigeria’s protected area</a> of 445 forest reserves, 29 game reserves, 12 strict nature reserves, 11 Ramsar sites, 7 national parks and one biosphere reserve. </p>
<h2>Contributions to the environment</h2>
<p>The protected area network is vital to protect and conserve the country’s biodiversity. </p>
<p>Protected areas provide habitat for the country’s endangered, rare and endemic <a href="http://www.earthsendangered.com/search-regions3.asp">plant</a> and <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/endangered_species/great_apes/gorillas/cross_river_gorilla/">animal species</a>. For instance, the White throated guenon (<em>Cercopithecus erythrogaster</em>) and <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/4229/17945814">Sclater’s guenon</a> (<em>Cercopithecus sclateri</em>) are mostly found in Okomu National Park, Edo State. The drill or forest baboon (<em>Papio leucophaeus</em>) and the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/40014/17990330">chimpanzee</a> (<em>Pan troglodytes ellioti</em>) survive only in Cross River (Cross River State) and Gashaka-Gumti (Taraba/Adamawa States) national parks, as well as some fragments of forests such as Ngel Nyaki forest reserve in Taraba State. The lowland or Cross River gorilla (<em>Gorilla gorilla diehli</em>) is <a href="https://www.neprimateconservancy.org/cross-river-gorilla.html">endangered</a> and restricted to three sites – Cross River National Park’s Okwangwo Division and Mbe Mountains in Nigeria, and the neighbouring Takamanda Forest Reserve in Cameroon.</p>
<p>The constitution of forest reserves by authorities began in 1889 with Mamu Forest Reserve, created as a buffer between Ibadan and Ijebu territories. In 1956, the Yankari Forest Reserve in Bauchi province became the first <a href="https://www.yankarigamereserve.com.ng/">game reserve</a> in the country. <a href="http://nigeriaparkservice.org/?p=148">Kainji Lake National Park</a>, created in 1979, was the first national park. The protected areas are distributed across the various ecological zones of the country. Most of them are included in the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/theme/protected-areas/our-work/world-database-protected-areas">World Database for Protected Areas</a>. </p>
<p>The management of these areas is backed by specific legislation. The National Park Service, under the Federal Ministry of Environment, is responsible for the administration of the national parks. The game and forest reserves are controlled and managed by the states in which they are located.</p>
<p>But so far their achievements in conserving biodiversity have been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14888386.2010.9712664">quite fortuitous</a>. </p>
<h2>Challenges</h2>
<p>Protected areas in Nigeria are generally hampered by limited funds and resources. Most face a dearth of protection staff and sound working equipment, especially patrol vehicles and modern weapons. Poachers and cattle herders who drive their livestock to graze inside protected areas are a threat. </p>
<p>In recent times, insecurity in and around protected areas has emerged as the greatest threat to their existence. For instance, the Kamuku National Park became a hideout for bandits, cattle rustlers and kidnappers. The Sambisa Game Reserve has long been taken over by <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/thousands-nigerian-hunters-prepare-chase-boko-haram-66203040">Boko Haram</a>. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/29/nigeria-sambisa-forest-boko-haram-hideout-kidnapped-school-girls-believed-to-be-held">Sambisa forest</a> was a huge vacuum and an ungoverned space that Boko Haram filled as a result of neglect. The situation is the same for many areas around the Lake Chad Basin.</p>
<p>Many of the protected areas in Nigeria are yet to be connected to the national power grid. They sometimes go for weeks without electricity where there is no alternative mode of power generation. This is the case in different sections of Chad Basin National Park, Kamuku National Park, Old Oyo National Park and others. The mobile network, too, is very poor in these areas. </p>
<p>Government has failed to formally gazette the protected area boundaries recommended by management plans. This hinders their management. And there are inadequate support zone programmes for local communities who share their natural frontier and destiny with the protected areas. </p>
<p>Because of these problems, the ecological integrity of the protected areas has been <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336060801_MANAGEMENT_EFFECTIVENESS_OF_PROTECTED_AREAS_A_CASE_STUDY_OF_FOUR_NATIONAL_PARKS_IN_NIGERIA">weakened</a>. Valuable species have been lost. The black rhinoceros (<em>Diceros bicornis</em>), West African giraffe (<em>Giraffa camelopardalis peralta</em>) and cheetah (<em>Acinonyx jubatus</em>) are no longer found anywhere in the country. </p>
<p>There is a need to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292311311_Protected_area_management_in_Nigeria_A_review">revamp management activities</a> in all protected areas across the country. Facilities and infrastructure must be rehabilitated for effective operation. Adequate funds should be allocated so that the sector can perform its duties and deal with criminals and insurgents. Aerial surveillance and monitoring should be carried out periodically for research and protection purposes.</p>
<p>Local communities around protected areas should also be actively involved in decision making and conservation efforts. This can mitigate conflicts between protected area managers and local communities. It can also reconcile the goals of biodiversity conservation with local people’s social and economic needs. </p>
<p>Nigeria’s protected areas truly need protecting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tajudeen Amusa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Protected areas in Nigeria are generally hampered by limited funds and resources.Tajudeen Amusa, Senior Lecturer, Forest Resources Management , University of IlorinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1327512020-03-03T10:45:54Z2020-03-03T10:45:54ZWhat Kenya must do to save its roan antelope population<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318000/original/file-20200302-18266-yqkkct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kenya has seen a huge decline in the number of roan antelopes.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cathy Withers-Clarke/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Roan antelopes are Africa’s second largest antelope species. Their populations are stable and growing in some African countries, but in others – like Kenya –they’re threatened with extinction. To address this, the Kenya Wildlife Service is <a href="http://www.kws.go.ke/content/world-wildlife-day-and-launch-roan-antelope-recovery-plan">launching</a> a recovery plan. Johnstone Kimanzi sheds light on why their numbers are declining and what can be done to protect them.</em></p>
<p><strong>Where can roan antelopes be found in the world today and how many are left?</strong></p>
<p>The roan antelope, which is endemic to Africa, used to be one of the most common antelopes – found in <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/cpis/2014/908628/">almost all</a> African savannas. It is <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/10167/50188287">found in</a> 30 countries, mostly within western, central and eastern Africa.</p>
<p>Today there are <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/10167/50188287">an estimated</a> 60,000 roan antelopes remaining in Africa. One-third of these are concentrated in four countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Zambia and Tanzania. About 60% of them live in protected areas. </p>
<p>In general, the overall population trend of roan antelopes across countries is that they’re <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/10167/50188287">decreasing</a> in number - one-third of their population is stable or increasing.</p>
<p><strong>What’s caused a decline in their numbers?</strong></p>
<p>In Kenya, there has been a huge decline in the number of roan antelopes, <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/cpis/2014/908628/">from</a> 202 in 1976 to 19 individuals in 2019. Roan antelopes are now only found in Ruma National Park, in western Kenya.</p>
<p>This is primarily the <a href="https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.540376">result of</a> killing for meat and traditional values – such as horns for musical instruments and skin for burial ceremonies. </p>
<p>Poaching is a major threat. In 2013 my colleagues and I <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259686239_Habitat_suitability_modelling_and_implications_for_management_of_roan_antelopes_in_Kenya">revealed that</a> the decline of roan antelopes between 1976 and 2008 was due to snares with an average of 10 roans poached each year.</p>
<p>Ruma National Park is highly accessible to poachers because of a public road and footpath that cut across it. High vantage points adjacent to the park also allow poachers to monitor wildlife and the activities of Kenya Wildlife Services personnel. In addition to this, there’s not enough patrolling and monitoring. Poachers are able to use these advantages to lay their snares in the park. It should be noted however that <a href="http://www.kws.go.ke/file/1439/download?token=VWttwQJY">since the translocation</a> of black rhinoceros into the park in 2012, security patrols have been greatly increased. </p>
<p>Alongside poaching, there are other threats which limit the roan’s population growth. </p>
<p>Too many young roan antelopes are being preyed upon by mainly hyena. For example, in one three-year period (1993-1995), six out of 16 calves born in Ruma were <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/cpis/2014/908628/">predated on</a>. This is because young roans are kept away from roan herds for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/aje.12097">six weeks</a> after birth by their mothers and are therefore exposed to predators.</p>
<p>Frequent fire outbreaks, caused by people, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290478320_Roan_antelope_Hippotragus_equinus_in_Africa_A_review_of_abundance_threats_and_ecology">diminish the</a> roan’s habitat in Ruma National Park and may also burn and kill young, secluded roans.</p>
<p>Roans have also lost a lot of their habitat because of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880904001665">bush encroachment</a>. Roan antelope <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225987733_Roan_Hippotragus_equinus_population_decline_in_Kruger_National_Park_South_Africa_Influence_of_a_wetland_boundary">are sensitive</a> and will not survive well to any increase in the density of woody plants or reduction in grass cover as <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321637337_Impacts_of_Bush_Encroachment_on_Wildlife_Species_Diversity_Composition_and_Habitat_Preference_in_Ol_Pejeta_Conservancy_Laikipia_Kenya">has happened</a> in many protected areas.</p>
<p>In addition to this, a perimeter fence was put up around Ruma in 1994, isolating their habitat. They can’t range freely, which would be ideal.</p>
<p>Fencing leads to more competition between grazers. It also means that they are exposed to mineral deficiencies and excesses in soil and plants. This <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3671743/">could affect</a> reproduction and death rates in roans. </p>
<p>The changes in weather – like more frequent, and longer, droughts – have made things worse. During dry seasons, the only source of water in Ruma national park is the Lambwe River, which dries up in extreme drought. This puts huge stress on the water-dependent roans, whose body condition deteriorates due to dehydration, making them more susceptible to disease and consequently death. When the river is in flow, the roans have the added threat of travelling through thick riverine vegetation, which makes them easy prey. </p>
<p>In areas where they come into close proximity with livestock, roan populations are <a href="https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.540376">susceptible to diseases</a>, such as anthrax. </p>
<p>The current small population of only 19 roan antelopes in Ruma is at its lowest level in a decade. This may have already resulted in high levels of inbreeding, which <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article/78/2/320/909513">would increase</a>
the antelope’s vulnerability to disease and stress and reduce their fertility, growth rate and survival.</p>
<p><strong>How can these threats be addressed?</strong></p>
<p>There are a few steps that Kenya must take to establish, and maintain, a stable and growing population of roan antelopes. </p>
<p>New breeding individuals need to be brought in – for instance from neighbouring Tanzania – to mitigate the effects of inbreeding depression and increase the population in Ruma to at least 50. This is <a href="http://www.ybfwrb.org/Assets/Documents/References/Soule_1980.pdf">the minimum</a> number needed to maintain healthy population growth. The roan population <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268204076_Mapping_and_Modelling_the_Population_and_Habitat_of_the_Roan_Antelope_Hippotragus_equinus_langheldi_in_Ruma_National_Park_Kenya">dipped</a> below 50 individuals in 1990 and hasn’t been able to recover since.</p>
<p>Within the park, the roans need a predator-free sanctuary with less competition
from other grazers. Eventually, when numbers grow, the roans can be released into Ruma and other former ranges, like the Maasai Mara National Reserve. </p>
<p>To eliminate poaching, footpaths into the park must be closed and cars using the public road should be inspected. There needs to be routine monitoring and maintenance of the park’s electric fence. The park also needs intensive de-snaring
operations, and intelligence networks need to be developed to put an end to poaching. Camera traps would be a useful resource. </p>
<p>To make the habitat more hospitable for the roan, the Kenya wildlife service needs to construct and rehabilitate small reservoirs that catch surface runoff water. For good water supply, more must be done to protect existing springs and catchment areas from human degradation. This water can then be pumped to water troughs during the long dry season.</p>
<p>The park also needs a comprehensive fire management plan and plan that combats invasive species - such as Mauritius thorn, Datura stramonium and Eucalyptus fiscifolia - to protect the roan’s grazing areas. </p>
<p>Vets should be brought in to diagnose and treat sick animals.</p>
<p>Another step is to find ways for nearby communities to generate income from nature conservation activities such as wildlife photography, bird-watching and tour-guiding. This will help support the long-term survival of the animals.</p>
<p><strong>Kenya has a plan to protect the roan antelope. Is it too late?</strong></p>
<p>No, it is not too late. The roan population <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268204076_Mapping_and_Modelling_the_Population_and_Habitat_of_the_Roan_Antelope_Hippotragus_equinus_langheldi_in_Ruma_National_Park_Kenya">was only</a> 22 individuals in 1995 and they’ve managed to grow and survive.</p>
<p>In South Africa, intensive management of roans increased the <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/wild/26/4/EJC117013">population</a> at a rate of 20% per year. </p>
<p>I’ve modelled that a population of 43 roans <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2018/6015694/">could reach</a> over 550 roans in 45 years if a 32km₂ intensively managed predator-free sanctuary is established in Ruma National Park. This would be coupled with re-stocking roan groups from other countries, eliminating poaching and predation, improving habitat and increasing the human resources to protect them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132751/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johnstone Kimanzi received funding from Commonwealth Scholarship Commission for research towards this article. He is also serving as a member of the Technical committee for the Kenya Wildlife Service Roan Antelope Recovery and Action Plan.</span></em></p>Kenya can save its roan population if it re-stocks from other countries, eliminates poaching and improves their habitat.Johnstone Kimanzi, Senior Lecturer, Department of Wildlife Management, University of EldoretLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1236992019-10-02T10:58:04Z2019-10-02T10:58:04ZChimpanzees are being killed by poachers – researchers like us are on the frontline protecting them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294579/original/file-20190927-185375-1gbkngf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1504%2C999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kila with her infant, Kitu.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caroline Fryns/GMERC</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On a sunny day in early August 2019, screams broke the calm of a national park in East Africa. Researchers ran to find Kidman – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/08/death-chimpanzee/595303/">an adult female chimpanzee – and her child</a> being attacked by the dogs of poachers. In their desperate attempt to save them, the researchers fought off the dogs and removed a spear that poachers had lodged in Kidman’s back. She died shortly after the researchers had arrived, her infant a few days later.</p>
<p>Primatologists around the world were in awe of the researchers’ heroic efforts, but we were also shocked that such a vicious attack could happen on the Ngogo apes of Kibale Forest in Uganda – one of the world’s best-known community of chimpanzees in one of Africa’s most famous national parks.</p>
<p>Less than two months later, tragedy struck again. On September 13, less than 1,000km south of Kibale Forest in the Issa Valley of Tanzania, researchers found another two chimpanzees being attacked by dogs. Kitu, a two-year old infant, was mauled by four dogs while her mother, Kila, fought another six. The <a href="http://gmerc.org/">Issa chimpanzees</a> live outside of national park boundaries and only became accustomed to human presence in 2018. </p>
<p>The researchers beat the dogs back, killing one and badly wounding the others. By the time the last dog limped away, Kila was bleeding badly and couldn’t stand. Kitu called despondently from a few trees away, but Kila didn’t look in her direction as she sat struggling to breathe. Eventually she recovered enough to stand and walk through the forest. Our team decided to stay with Kitu, monitoring the infant chimp, and assumed that Kila would return for her in time. They left her late in the day, with no sign of Kila.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294580/original/file-20190927-185390-iomxzt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294580/original/file-20190927-185390-iomxzt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294580/original/file-20190927-185390-iomxzt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294580/original/file-20190927-185390-iomxzt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294580/original/file-20190927-185390-iomxzt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294580/original/file-20190927-185390-iomxzt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294580/original/file-20190927-185390-iomxzt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kila was one of an increasing number of chimpanzees to be killed by poachers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caroline Fryns/GMERC</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like humans, infant chimpanzees nurse through the first years of their lives and rely on their mothers for transport and safety to show them what is safe to eat – and who is an ally and who an enemy. While chimpanzees <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0008901&type=printable">often adopt orphans in their community</a>, we knew Kitu was too young to survive long without Kila.</p>
<p>The next morning, the team found Kitu not far from where they had left her, having travelled in the same direction as her mother the previous day. She was on the ground and seemed to have slept there – something chimpanzees <a href="https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/353172">rarely do when they live around predators</a>. They’ve never been <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajp.22138">observed doing this at Issa</a>. She could only muster groans, too weak to call. She died a few hours after the researchers found her, less than 24 hours since the dog attack.</p>
<p>Chimpanzees led researchers to a feeding tree four days later, under which lay Kila, dead from her injuries.</p>
<h2>Scientists on the frontline</h2>
<p>Chimpanzees and their cultures are <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/human-encroachment-threatens-chimpanzee-culture">under threat</a> across Africa. Their forest <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ddi.12005">habitats are being converted to farmland</a> while <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982208000171">human-transmitted diseases</a> proliferate and decimate populations. </p>
<p>Chimpanzees are also hunted for the <a href="http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/1200343/22589048/1367415794373/Afr_Prim_71_Hicks_et_al.pdf?token=H9FmdjsmGvyqrkk%252B53azxvEq1nA%253D">bushmeat trade</a> – likely the single most acute threat to their survival in the wild. At Ngogo and Issa, it’s probable that bushmeat hunters were the culprits. </p>
<p>Combined, these threats have pushed chimpanzees onto the IUCN red list of endangered species. In some parts of Africa, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/western-chimpanzees-have-declined-80-percent-over-past-25-years-180965334/">chimpanzee populations have declined by 80%</a> since 1990.</p>
<p>Scientists are often forced into being advocates for the species they study – those who study primates often more so than others, simply because we share so much in common with our evolutionary cousins. To protect chimpanzees from the many threats to their survival, we often risk our own safety. Researchers at Issa advise <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/effects-of-antipoaching-patrols-on-the-distribution-of-large-mammals-in-tai-national-park-cote-divoire/D3B17F719DF523AC81C14301C3C714B9">armed patrols</a> and support these teams when in the forest.</p>
<p>Though we couldn’t save Kitu and Kila, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989414000845">mere presence of researchers here helps protect chimpanzees</a>. Besides collecting data on them, we monitor the forest for other wildlife, including leopards and antelope. We keep an eye on threats such as illegal logging and sponsor Tanzanian postgraduate students – the next generation of chimpanzee researchers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294581/original/file-20190927-185383-f2br8d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294581/original/file-20190927-185383-f2br8d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294581/original/file-20190927-185383-f2br8d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294581/original/file-20190927-185383-f2br8d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294581/original/file-20190927-185383-f2br8d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294581/original/file-20190927-185383-f2br8d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294581/original/file-20190927-185383-f2br8d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kitu was only two years old when she died. Protecting future generations of chimpanzees will take a coordinated effort by governments and researchers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caroline Fryns/GMERC</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In all this, we work closely with the district government, and the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), a government research body that oversees all research in the country. TAWIRI expends tremendous effort to protect Tanzania’s chimpanzees, recently publishing a <a href="http://tawiri.or.tz/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Tanzania-Chimpanzee-Conservation-Action-Plan-2018.pdf">national conservation action plan</a>. </p>
<p>We were too late to save Kila and Kitu, but as great ape scientists and conservationists, we’re determined to protect their community. If you would like to help us, please consider contributing to our cause. Our project - GMERC - has a registered non-profit sister group based in California that can receive your <a href="http://gmerc.org/support">support</a> – every dollar, euro, and pound which will go directly to facilitating anti-poaching patrols. Only with increased protection can we minimise the threat imposed by poaching and protect Issa’s chimpanzees.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Piel receives funding from the Arcus Foundation, Jane Goodall Institute, and United State Fish and Wildlife Great Ape Fund. With Fiona Stewart, he directs GMERC, a Tanzania-based organisation that oversees research and conservation of Tanzania's chimpanzees. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Stewart receives funding from the Arcus Foundation, Jane Goodall Institute, and United State Fish and Wildlife Great Ape Fund. Together with Alex Piel, she directs GMERC, a Tanzania-based organisation that oversees research and conservation of Tanzania's chimpanzees.</span></em></p>Attacks on chimpanzees are happening at an alarming rate, within and outside national parks.Alexander Piel, Reader in Primate Ecology, Liverpool John Moores UniversityFiona Stewart, Visiting Lecturer in Primatology, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1158832019-07-11T22:50:11Z2019-07-11T22:50:11ZArtificial intelligence makes fishing more sustainable by tracking illegal activity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283436/original/file-20190710-44505-1w5nrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C10%2C783%2C520&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A fisherman carries a yellowfin tuna to be weighed and sold in Mindanao, Philippines in 2013.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Javellana / Greenpeace</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world’s fish stocks are in decline and our increasing demand for seafood may be one of the main drivers. But the true extent of the problem is hard to estimate, especially when fishing occurs in the high seas, which lie beyond national jurisdiction and are hard to monitor. </p>
<p>Conservation planners face growing pressures to combat illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, the value of which has been estimated at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004570">US$10-23.5 billion</a> annually. This is an important cost for society as a whole, but also for <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aat2504">the major high seas fishing countries such as China and Taiwan that subsidize their fleets and may have low labour costs</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283438/original/file-20190710-44466-1k1l00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283438/original/file-20190710-44466-1k1l00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283438/original/file-20190710-44466-1k1l00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283438/original/file-20190710-44466-1k1l00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283438/original/file-20190710-44466-1k1l00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=624&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283438/original/file-20190710-44466-1k1l00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283438/original/file-20190710-44466-1k1l00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283438/original/file-20190710-44466-1k1l00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">High-seas vessels by flag state and gear type, as detected by Global Fishing Watch in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/6/eaat2504">From 'The economics of fishing the high seas,' Science Advances</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>Artificial intelligence (AI) could address this global environmental concern — and satisfy the need of seafood retailers and consumers to know if what they’re selling and eating is sustainable. Social scientists are beginning to think of ways that can bring AI, ecology and economics together — to design policies that target socially desirable outcomes such as preserving biodiversity values and returning the benefits of fishing to society.</p>
<p>At a February meeting of HUMAINT, a European Commission-led initiative on human behaviour and machine intelligence, I discussed the ways AI can be used to help marine resource management. </p>
<h2>Poached fish</h2>
<p>Fisheries and conservation managers have put a lot of effort in recent years in establishing spatial management tools such as marine protected areas to help fish stocks recover from past over-exploitation. Fish biomass in no-take marine reserves can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsx059">on average 670 per cent greater than in unprotected areas</a>. </p>
<p>Even though they are protected, these areas are not always immune to IUU fishing. Poaching occurs and cannot be tracked easily. This can make it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the protected area in a rigorous scientific manner. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283439/original/file-20190710-44453-n7zyvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283439/original/file-20190710-44453-n7zyvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283439/original/file-20190710-44453-n7zyvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283439/original/file-20190710-44453-n7zyvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283439/original/file-20190710-44453-n7zyvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283439/original/file-20190710-44453-n7zyvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283439/original/file-20190710-44453-n7zyvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tuna fishing port in Japan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>IUU fishing results in <a href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-fisheries-aquaculture">environmental, economic and social costs</a> — namely declining fish stocks — and can lead to a loss of profit for those fishers who play by the rules. It can turn the industry against the regulatory authorities that impose these spatial restrictions, undermine public trust in fisheries management and conservation science. </p>
<h2>Tracking fishing with AI</h2>
<p>Traditionally, observers have been employed, at high cost, to monitor fishing activity on board vessels. But in remote locations, such as the Arctic, it can be difficult to find observers. </p>
<p>AI tools have the potential to lower monitoring and operational fishing costs and improve efficiency in fisheries management. Examples include automatic review of video footage, monitoring vessel sailing patterns for IUU fishing and illegal at-sea transshipments (moving goods from one ship to another), compliance with catch limits and bycatch or discard regulations, and improving assessment of fish stocks. </p>
<p>AI tools can also help build trust among fishers, scientists and society through <a href="https://civileats.com/2018/05/10/the-future-of-fish-is-big-data-and-artificial-intelligence/">improved seafood traceability</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283526/original/file-20190710-44466-1bmti4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283526/original/file-20190710-44466-1bmti4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283526/original/file-20190710-44466-1bmti4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283526/original/file-20190710-44466-1bmti4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283526/original/file-20190710-44466-1bmti4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283526/original/file-20190710-44466-1bmti4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283526/original/file-20190710-44466-1bmti4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Snow Crab is an invasive species that has been fished commercially in international waters of the Barents Sea and the Svalbard Fisheries Protection Zone of the Arctic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Image recognition using AI can help identify the size of a vessel and its activity. It can help conservation managers understand who fishes for what in international waters where <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.01.007">it is unclear who the fish belong to</a>. It may also contribute to a better understanding of how commercially fished invasive species are spreading. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/snow-crab-saga-a-story-that-demonstrates-the-complexities-of-climate-change-93092">Snow crab saga: a story that demonstrates the complexities of climate change</a>
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<p>However, there are also potential risks. Some fear the data may be used for unintended purposes or that AI tools might replace manually performed tasks and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019">make human labour obsolete</a>, a big concern for small, coastal fishery-dependent communities. </p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://globalfishingwatch.org/">Global Fishing Watch platform</a>, an independent organization that emerged through a collaboration between Google, SkyTruth (a digital mapping non-profit organization) and Oceana, is an excellent example of how combining AI and satellite data can change our understanding of global fishing activity. </p>
<p>Global Fishing Watch shows vessel movement in near real-time. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao5646">Its work</a> goes beyond tracking vessel activity: the neural network (computer program) it uses can identify vessel size and engine power, the type of fishing being done and the gear used. The ambitious project goes as far as tracking <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07118-9">human slavery and rights abuse</a>, a well-known phenomenon in the fishing industry. </p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/646/2.example_tracks.gif?1562729685"></p>
<p>The developments in AI applications have been impressive in recent years, allowing for a better understanding of fishing activity across the globe. Further progress in making them more widely applicable has been limited partly by the costs involved for the industry. Concerns about the impact of digital surveillance on privacy interests are also an issue.</p>
<p>Despite all the progress in AI science and the development of advanced algorithms that improve the quality and speed of information transmitted for ongoing fishing activities at sea, there is still very little formalized integration of science, regulatory authorities and the fishing industry. </p>
<p>Making the best use of what AI tools have to offer requires experts to transcend their disciplinary boundaries and actively collaborate — so they can provide value to ongoing management efforts to conserve biodiversity and build trust among seafood consumers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115883/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melina Kourantidou does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Earth-orbiting satellites and AI tools can track fishing vessels around the world.Melina Kourantidou, Postdoctoral Fellow, Marine Affairs Program, Ocean Frontier Institute, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.