At the very crux of the matter, however, is the ruthless and criminal nature of the world's governments - including Japan's. And it is widely believed that, as a direct result of the decision, increased poaching will affect this rate of recovery. A typical female elephant gives birth just once every five years. According to the Ivory Trade Review Group, the African elephant population dropped from 1.3 million animals in 1979 to 625,000 in 1989 due mainly to poaching. Zimbabwean government officials claim that they cull elephant herds because elephants disrupt the local habitat.
Some ecologists disagree, however.
Culling, they say, is more or less a pretext for continuing the trade in elephant parts with countries like Japan. Animal rights activists note that tourism is far more lucrative than the ivory trade. But while tourism at least has the potential to spread the financial benefits to the larger population, it cannot be as easily controlled by mafia-type operators in these countries. Ivory smugglers have included everyone from an Indonesian ambassador on up to the South African apartheid government which partially funded its wars in Angola and Mozambique wtih illicit ivory and rhino-horn money. Asian elephants, too, were listed as endangered in 1976 and continue to move toward extinction because of poaching and habitat loss.