Title
When Africa's elephant trails became mean streets, the world decided to take them back
Author(s)
Calvelli, John
Published
2018
Publisher
Curator: The Museum Journal
Abstract
Popular televised crime dramas show us what happens on streets that go unprotected: taped-off crime scenes and the pavement chalk marks illustrate human tragedy. By contrast, wildlife crime often happens in remote areas far from pedestrians, far from the cameras.
Since the founding of the Wildlife Conservation Society as the New York Zoological Society in 1895, our international organization has been working globally to protect threatened species and the biological systems they rely on to survive. We have been engaged in conservation efforts in Africa for half a century, supporting research over the years by some of the most notable conservation scientists in the field, and reaching the public through our zoos and aquarium in New York and in protected areas where we work in cooperative management programs. As the recently elected Chair of New York City's Cultural Institutions Group (CIG), I have the distinct privilege of working in partnership with museums large and small across our city to promote and sustain the unique cultural and educational offerings they provide.
Like most conservation organizations and the dedicated people who work with them, we experienced first-hand the precipitous decline in African elephant populations from some 1.2 million individuals in 1980 to approximately 420,000 by 2012 (UNEP, CITES, and TRAFFIC IUCN, 2013). This drop came despite a strict ban following the 1989 international agreement to list African elephants as an Appendix 1 endangered species during the seventh meeting of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) (Convention of Parties CoP7) (Landy 1989). The Appendix I listing, a defacto "ban" on international trade by all member countries, became effective on January 18, 1990.1
Two reports by Maisels et al. (2013a,b)1 galvanized our attention and that of our partners irrevocably on the crisis at hand. They found that in the brief span of time between 2002 and 2011, Africa's forest elephant population had collapsed by roughly 62 percent, a figure that a year later would be updated to 65 percent.2 This rate of slaughter, if maintained, could spell the extinction of African forest elephants within a decade.
The source of this staggering slaughter had begun to come into focus: a sophisticated criminal trafficking network that required urgent intervention (Nellemann et al. 2014).
Access Full Text
A full-text copy of this article may be available. Please email the WCS Library to request.
![]()
Back
PUB23925