Elephants

Some elephant populations in Africa have grown to the point where they endanger the welfare of local people by trampling crops and homes. In the Kruger National Park, the South African authorities are trying to deal with the damage the large elephant population is doing to its habitat.

In the west, the false impression has grown that all elephant populations are in great danger from man. The reality is that many elephant stocks are abundant. What is required is the proper management of their populations.

In the Kruger National Park there are now around 12,000 elephants. Unless a culling program is introduced there will be long-term damage to plants, the soil and other wildlife, and ultimately to the elephants themselves.

Some African nations want to sell ivory stocks - largely gathered from elephants that have died naturally - to pay for their management programs. They also want to charge fees to hunters to kill certain animals - usually the older ones - and use that revenue and ivory sales to pay for conservation programs. Without these sources of revenue, many African countries cannot afford to pay for rangers, game wardens and wildlife research.

For local people, many of whom are poor, it seems unjust when wealthy outsiders tell them that they must not utilize abundant natural wildlife resources to provide food and shelter for their families.

Animal rights groups, most of which are based in North America and Europe, oppose the killing of elephants under any circumstances - even when populations are too large to support their habitats. They argue that ivory sales promote the illegal poaching of elephants - a claim that is not supported by the facts. They advocate destroying ivory stockpiles by burning them, believing that limiting supply will destroy the market. They have also tried to introduce contraceptive schemes for elephants to keep populations under control.

We believe that burning ivory is a terrible waste of resources and deprives poor local communities of a source of income. It is a Luddite approach that ignores all common sense. The best way to deter the illegal poaching of elephants is to have carefully controlled harvesting and culling programs and to have trade in ivory that is properly administered and regulated.