Elephant conservation, the ivory trade and corruption

African elephants are in decline through their illegal killing for ivory. The legal trade of ivory from natural mortality and problem animal control has been suggested as a way to reduce this problem, as it can provide a... [ view full abstract ]

African elephants are in decline through their illegal killing for ivory. The legal trade of ivory from natural mortality and problem animal control has been suggested as a way to reduce this problem, as it can provide a direct and regular source of funding to elephant conservationists in Africa, people who currently depend on over-stretched government budgets and grants from international donors to support their work. Such international trade has not taken place since 2008 but several African countries stockpile their ivory in expectation of future sales and many countries outside Africa have legal domestic markets for ivory certified as antique or coming from these legal stockpiles. However, recently a number of conservationists have argued that such trade is counter-productive and should be banned because: (i) current legal domestic markets have been subverted by corruption and are allowing the laundering of illegal ivory, and; (ii) reducing this corruption to acceptable levels within the next few decades is impossible. This singling out of the ivory trade gives the impression that it is uniquely affected, but here we argue that corruption potentially undermines every aspect of elephant conservation and there is no evidence that any approach is more or less susceptible. We also argue that the conservation sector needs to take the problem more seriously, and that current approaches for reducing elephant poaching could be playing into the hands of corrupt officials. Fortunately, there is plenty of evidence from the corporate and development sectors that corruption can be tackled, so conservationists should break this seemingly monolithic problem into specific issues and especially focus on aspects where they have most influence over policy and practice. Thus, the long-term future of elephants and many other species requires conservationists to learn lessons from other sectors to understand and tackle this problem.