U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

African Elephant Conservation Fund

International Affairs

Division of International Conservation

4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Room 730

Arlington, VA 22203

703/358-1754

703/358-2849 fax

internationalconservation@fws.gov

http://international.fws.gov

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

www.fws.gov

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance

Number 15.620

February 2004

African elephants

© Corel

Currently, threats to African Elephants

vary significantly from one region to

another. In some parts of Southern

Africa, elephant numbers have stabilized

or even increased. In East Africa, by

contrast, elephant populations have

decreased by 65 percent. Central Africa

has been plagued by political instability

and civil war, which has led to an

increased flow of guns into the region.

Economic hardship has contributed to

some of these weapons being used to kill

elephants for food—commonly referred

to as “bushmeat,” and for ivory.

In some areas of Central Africa, poaching

elephants for bushmeat has become a

greater threat than poaching for ivory.

Bushmeat is an affordable food source for

people living in remote and rural areas,

but bushmeat is also highly valued by

city dwellers as a native food tied to

cultural tastes and traditions. The

demand for bushmeat in Africa’s urban

areas is skyrocketing, and an

international market is developing too.

In addition to the ivory and bushmeat

trades, there is another threat to

elephant survival that pervades

throughout Africa —the loss of natural

elephant habitat and the resulting

conflict between elephants and humans

who find themselves in competition for

space and resources. As human

populations increase and move into

remote areas, more land is taken up for

agriculture. Elephant populations are

concentrated into smaller ranges with

limited food and water supplies.

Elephants looking for food ramble into

villages and damage crops. Sometimes,

people are killed in their attempt to fend

off elephants. More commonly, people kill

elephants in their attempt to stop the

crop raids.

The African elephant continues to be

classified as a species threatened with

extinction. In 1988, the United States

Congress passed the African Elephant

Conservation Act to establish a fund for

programs aimed at the protection,

conservation and management of Africa’s

elephants. Special emphasis was placed

on review of conservation plans in ivory

producing countries and the United

States established a moratorium on all

ivory imports.
• Organizing “snare and firearms

surrender programs” in Zambia,

ridding the country of thousands of

deadly animal snares and dozens of

firearms;

• Training government agents and

guards in the Republic of Congo to

enforce wildlife protection laws and to

prevent poaching of elephants and

great apes in three high risk areas

with the goal of reducing illegal

commercial bushmeat traffic;

• Improvement and maintenance of

water systems and holding dams in

Tanzania to increase water supply

during dry seasons and reduce

human-elephant conflict over water

resources;

• Survey and monitoring of elephant

populations in Cameroon, Gabon, the

Republic of Congo, the Democratic

Republic of Congo, Guinea, and the

Central African Republic to estimate

The 2003 appropriation of $1.2 million to the African Elephant Conservation Fund

supported 24 conservation projects to carry out work such as:

elephant numbers, distribution and

mortality;

• Facilitating a series of workshops to

develop elephant management and

conservation programs for the

Botswana Department of Wildlife and

National Parks;

• Creating income alternatives to

poaching for hunters in poor rural

areas of Zambia by providing training

in sustainable agriculture;

• Training for university students and

wildlife management professionals in

Namibia to build capacity for locally

supported conservation of elephants;

• Training and mobilization of park

rangers in Garamba National Park in

the Democratic Republic of Congo

where a large-scale commercial

poaching for ivory is devastating

elephant populations;

• Assisting the Kenya Wildlife Service

to repair three aircraft and to provide

aircraft maintenance training. The

aircraft are essential components of

Kenya’s elephant protection and

monitoring programs;

• Determining the ecological “carrying

capacity” for populations of elephants

within the Waza National Park in

Cameroon—considered one of the

most important elephant ranges in

northern Central Africa;

• Sponsoring a workshop with the

Government of Niger to create a

national elephant management

strategy; and

• Supporting Uganda’s Wildlife Authority in its efforts to educate local

communities on ways to reduce

human-elephant conflict in the

Southern Queen Elizabeth

Conservation Area national park.

African elephant poaching

USFWS/Richard Ruggiero

Surrendered firearms

USFWS/Richard Ruggiero

Total Number of Grants Proposals Received 300

Total Number of Grants Awarded 194

Percentage of Countries with African Elephants that Receive Grants 70%

Total Amount Appropriated by U.S. Congress $13,319,766

Total Funds Distributed through Grants $12,825,933

Total Funds to Administration of Grants $493,833

Total Matching/In-kind Funds Leveraged by Grants $60,481,514

African Elephant Conservation Fund from First Appropriation in 1990 through FY 2003