In 2020, surveyors for the Kenyan Tourism Ministry found an incredible result for elephant conservations in their battle against poaching in this country. Over the previous two years, Kenya, as a whole, saw a 91% decrease in elephant poaching. In 2018, 80 elephant were poached within our borders. The following year, that number had dipped further to just 34.
This is an incredible result for elephant conservationists in Kenya and we, at the Tsavo Trust, are exceptionally proud of the part we’ve played in this drastic reduction. In fact, here in the Tsavo Conservation Area, we have collated our own results and they are equally heart-warming.
In our latest census of Tsavo’s African Elephant, local wildlife authorities and non-profit organisations estimate that there are 15,000 individuals currently residing in the TCA. That is a huge jump up from the roughly 5,500 head of elephant that could be found here in 1988.
Elephant conservation Kenya:- Great results for those that have been working to eradicate poaching
In Kenya, the story is slightly different to accounts that one hears from abroad. In a previous article, we discussed how the conservation of Kenya’s elephant must be a regional undertaking.
These huge, majestic creatures are migratory and they cover huge distances. It is part of the reason they are so important to conservationists. If you protect the space needed for the world’s largest land mammal to move about and live as natural a lifestyle as possible, then you also protect all the indigenous flora and fauna that live on those migratory routes.
That is why it is such a shame that one does not see the same successes for elephant conservation in Kenya’s neighbouring countries in East Africa. While Kenya’s elephant population size has been on the rise, Tanzania’s, for example, has shrunk.
Tanzania witnessed a 60% decrease in elephant populations between 2007 and 2014. This is a clear indication that conservation is not working so well there as it is here in Kenya.
Elephant conservation Kenya: – From poaching to planting avocadoes, the new threat posed to the African elephant
Many of our readers, concerned as they are with the impact our species is having on the planet, may have watched the Netflix documentary Cowspiracy. If you haven’t watched the controversial documentary but would like to learn more about its key points, you should follow this link.
Suffice it to say that the main topic of the film is to illustrate the danger and damages of the agricultural industry. The meat and dairy industries, in particular, use a huge amount of water and create even more fossil fuels (a huge contributor the rising global temperatures) than even the global transport industry.
Meat and dairy production is very resource exhaustive. Hydrating American cattle accounts for 80-90% of US water consumption. Growing feed for crops that are fed to these cattle accounts for 56% of total water use in the US.
Obviously, this is hugely detrimental to the earth. So too is the space that is required to keep this industry running. Land needs to be tilled and converted for both feed production and the raising of these animals (even if they are battery farmed, as some are).
The more land that we give to ranching or to the raising of other livestock, the less is left to the wild and its animal inhabitants. Meat and dairy is obviously very damaging to the natural, wild environments and these dangers are in no place more obvious than they are in South America’s Amazon basin. There, hectare after hectare is converted daily from rainforest to ranching pasture.
It is the human appetite for meat and dairy that fuels this rainforest destruction. And it seems, here in Kenya, that humanity’s adoration of another foodstuff is doing the same for Kenyan wildlife.
Here in Kenya, Aljazeera recently wrote an article outlining the new threats posed by avocado farmers to our wildlife.
Avocado farming has become very lucrative business as the fruit grows in popularity in the western world. It is increasingly being conducted in lands that were once safely used by roaming elephant.
In October of 2020, avocado exports in Kenya are reported to have risen by 33% and are forecast to rise even further as the popularity of the fruit soars. What’s more, the state of conservation for the African elephant is made even more complicated by the present decline in tourism caused by the Coronavirus.
With tourism down, conservation has been known to suffer. We have written an article on the complicated relationship between conservation and tourism. If you want to access it, you can find it here.
As those previously involved in eco-tourism lose jobs, they turn to other occupations. According to Aljazeera, many of the individuals previously involved in wildlife protection have left to work in the farming industry that is growing here in Kenya. The Aljazeera article specifically looks at a farm near the Amboseli national park.
They described the development of this new farm as the latest act in a ‘turf war’ between elephant and human beings.
These types of conflict, between humanity and its reaching areas of habitation, are the new face of conservation.