Corruption - the greatest obstacle to elephant conservation?

When it comes to charismatic megafauna the African elephant is one of our best loved species and a prominent icon of conservation. But as fond as many of us may be of these pliable-nosed pachyderms, their ivory tusks are proving ever-more popular. And it's reaching dangerous levels.

African elephants are now facing "the most serious conservation crisis since 1989" when the species was transferred to CITES Appendix I, effectively banning all commercial trade in ivory. Since 2007, however, the illegal ivory trade has more than doubled¹ - a surge which has coincided strongly with a more than quadrupling of local black-market ivory prices and increased trafficking to China⁴. A similar trend has been noted for rhino horn².

Desperate times...

Unsurprisingly, this is having a devastating effect on African elephant populations, with tens of thousands of elephants being killed across the continent each year, resulting in a marked decline in in the species over the past four years⁴. As large prime-aged males are the major targets (for their larger tusks) poaching also causes strongly skewed sex ratios, as well as social disruption due to collapsed families and increasing numbers of orphans⁴.

A recent study, published last month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides the first detailed assessment of the illegal killing rates of African elephants at population, regional and continental scales. The study combined field data on carcasses with demographic data in order to partition mortality into natural and illegal causes for an intensively studied elephant population in Samburu, Kenya. They then extrapolated from these findings in order to model the population trends and rates of illegal killing of elephants at regional and continental scales, using data collected by CITES's MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants) program.

Their findings show a worrying trend, with the proportion of illegally killed elephants having climbed from 25% to between 60 and 70% over the last decade. A poaching level of over 54%, the study shows, is unsustainable (meaning it exceeds the rate at which elephant birth rates can compensate for such losses). As a result the population is in decline.

...Desperate measures?

A proposed solution to these prolific black market activities is for a controlled, steady-supply legal trade to be established in its place, the idea being that this would allow more effective regulation and the money raised put back into elephant conservation.

I have written previously about the various pros and cons of legalising trade. Not only would such a system be incredibly difficult to establish, the idea itself hasn't been that well received either. However, in a recent article published in Conservation Biology this August, Bennett argues that it's corruption, throughout the entire ivory trade chain, that is the real threat to elephant survival, and the main reason that a legal trade system is completely unfeasible¹.

In the field

One of the major issues with legalising trade is that supply would be unlikely to meet demand. There are only so many elephants out there and obviously the aim alongside a legal trade would be to maintain a healthy population level. But with the longest gestation period of any mammal to produce single offspring, coupled with long maturation and inter-birth intervals, elephants have a very low level of population increase. Under a legal trade, demand for ivory would remain as high as it is now, if not greater due to its legalisation and reduced stigma, but the quantity of available tusks would always be biologically constrained. This gives a huge incentive for ivory from illegal killings to be laundered into the legal market.

At present poachers and traffickers are easily able to pay their way out of trouble by bribing officials to turn a blind eye. With the price of ivory so high, the financial incentive to break the law heavily outweighs the benefits of abiding by it¹, especially given that just 3-5% of ivory retail values is still equivalent to many months' worth of salary for most rural Africans³.

At the borders

Opportunities for bribery are found along the entire trade chain, but one of the most problematic is the falsification, switching or altering of permits and certifications either at the point of processing or at the end point of sale, in order to make an illegal item seem legal¹. One of the major downfalls of legalising trade is the difficulty in maintaining a reliable and leak-proof permitting system. And once illegal ivory has entered legal trade it is nigh on impossible to identify¹.

In January last year, Li Zhifei, leader of an international crime ring, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of smuggling, wildlife trafficking, falsifying documents and conspiracy, in relation to illegal rhino horn trade. In his statement he admitted having paid off customs agents and bribed officials in China to ensure that his contraband went untouched².

Enforcement is extremely challenging, particularly given the low priority status and low pay status of wildlife agencies around the world, many of which are "severely understaffed, undertrained, and under-resourced"¹. It's also not always clear whose responsibility such enforcement is, meaning it often falls to those with little interest or knowledge of wildlife crime such as transportation or urban authorities.

On the market

One thing which is clear from all of these recent studies is the correlation between increased illegal ivory seizures and a rise in disposable income in East Asia, as well as more robust trade routes between Africa and Asia. The evidence strongly points to East Asian nationals, in particular the Chinese, as the key drivers of modern ivory trade. Not only the consumers, but also the traffickers are primarily Asian organised criminal networks, working from both Asia and Africa, at nearly every point along the supply chain³. It's a shockingly affluent business, with those able to handle the entire operation, from carcass to consumer, earning more than 2,500% in profit margins.

Laying down the law - unequivocally

With such high levels of entrenched corruption and financial incentives to dodge the system, the trial of creating a robust legal trade in ivory is at risk of remaining of Sisyphean task¹.

Bennett states that "addressing corruption throughout a trade network that permeates countries across the globe will take decades, if it can ever be achieved." Hence the insistence that the only way to conserve elephants is to close ALL markets, so that the law is clear and unambiguous on any trading of ivory.

Obviously, the task still remains to tackle existing illegal activities, but the idea is that it leaves fewer opportunities for fraud. Born Free's Out of Africa report lays out a more comprehensive strategy for targeting these criminal networks, with a strong emphasis on closing down the transit routes of wildlife contraband. Curbing demand will also play a lesser role in order to alleviate the unsustainable pressure on wild populations, but centuries-old consumer preferences are not so easy to change³...

With 2013 having been the worst year on record, with almost 50 tons of ivory seized that were linked to organised criminal networks³, it's going to take a huge international effort to make sure 2014-15 isn't even worse.

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