Recently, we have found occasion to celebrate certain victories in the continuing struggle to successfully conserve the African elephant. Regular readers will have noted our many references to the reduction in poaching numbers here in Kenya.
Elephant conservationists here, in this country, obviously celebrate these numbers. That poaching is reducing here in Kenya – in 2020, only 11 elephant were killed by poachers, that’s down from 386 in 2013 – is the culmination of decades of good work by the Kenyan Wildlife Services and the variously-affiliated not-for-profit organisations that have dedicated themselves to saving the elephants here in Kenya.
Reporting on this incredible decline is, despite that it is so obviously good news, handled with care within elephant conservation circles. There is a fear, shared by certain conservationists, that good news with regarding the recovery of Africa’s elephants undermines the continued need for funding, the continued struggles conservationists face in protecting the existence of these majestic icons of the savannah.
But, of course, many of the varied organisations that operate towards the goal of elephant conservation are not-for-profit enterprises. Our mandate is certainly the protection of the African elephant, but it is also in ensuring that our stakeholders are treated with honesty and integrity.
It is true that the reduction in poaching is good news. It is also true that good news can promote a sort of complacency with regarding conservation. It is equally true that eradicating poaching is just one of the many issues elephant conservation faces. We have touched on many of those other issues in previous articles and we imagine that many of our regular following here know about the main culprits: habitat loss through development, increased conflict with humans over historical migratory routes, climate change, etc.
Each of these things are true and spoken of often. What is less well-versed of an argument is how Kenya’s successes, and their continuation, is perhaps the greatest tool in the elephant conservationist’s arsenal. In this article, we want to pose the argument that Kenya’s successes so far in elephant conservation are the largest reason why, here in this country, we must not let off in our mission.
As Kenya succeeds at conservation, and does so profitably, its example gives Africa’s governments a blueprint linking success in conservation with development.
Kenya’s economy was affected quite heavily by COVID-19 but, according to the African Development Bank, its growth outlook is positive.
Between 2015 and 2019, Kenya’s economic growth averaged at 5.7%. That made it one of the fastest growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the world bank, this growth was propelled by “a stable macroeconomic environment, positive investor confidence and a resilient services sector.”
After agriculture, tourism is the second largest source of foreign exchange revenue in Kenya. Tourism’s value to the country’s gross domestic product has, disregarding the slump caused by the global pandemic, been growing year on year. Tourism and the services related to it amounted to 5.8 billion dollars of the country’s GDP in 2017. That rose to 6.4 billion in 2018 and then peaked at 8.1 billion in 2019 before dipping to 4.2 billion in 2020.
Today, Kenya’s is the strongest economy in East Africa. It is stronger than neighbouring, larger and more populous Tanzania. In fact, the Kenyan economy, with a pre-pandemic average growth rate of 5.9%, was one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.
Despite that the country’s economy is diversifying year on year, there is no doubt that tourism provided the springboard for that economic growth and diversification. Kenya’s natural beauty, its attachment to the idea of safari, and the well-running of its parks have all played their part in making the Kenyan tourism industry as resilient as it proved itself pre-pandemic.
However, another huge reason why Kenya’s national parks have managed to attract the tourists they did before, and will do after, travel was disrupted in early 2020 is because of the successes conservationists have had in Kenya.
Despite that Kenya hasn’t always witnessed the successes of recent years, it has always stood up for the cause of conservation. In a previous article, we looked back at the moment Kenya’s government and wildlife services decided to burn a stockpile of confiscated ivory. The symbolic act was the first ever conducted and it was a message to poachers and ivory-hunters in Africa that Kenya and Kenyans would not stand by as their elephant were slaughtered.
(If you want to read more about the inaugural ivory burn and about the history of ivory stockpile destruction in general, you can do so here.)
Kenya banned elephant hunting in 1973. It then followed that up with a ban on all animal hunting without a permit in 1977. In contrast, trophy hunting is still legal in Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and the country Kenya shares a 482 mile-long land border with: Tanzania.
Furthermore, Botswana, home to Africa’s largest elephant population in Africa, recently repealed their blanket ban on hunting on state lands. The hunting ban was implemented in 2014 and was reversed in 2019 following a lengthy process of consideration.
The ban was initially imposed in order to promote an impression of Botswana as a safe haven for elephants. It was hoped that, in doing so, photographic tourism, that which drives the Kenyan safari industry, would be promoted. The ban, and the sentiments behind it, has failed. A loss of confidence in the idea of pushing national tourism based on an image of a country as a wildlife haven is behind that failure.
Kenyan first national wildlife census results prove Kenya’s elephant population is on the rise
On August 31st, the Kenyan Wildlife Service published the results of its first nation-wide wildlife census. The census, led by the KWS, conducted over three months and to which the Tsavo Trust supplied a pilot, a plane and an observer, was a huge undertaking.
Kenya’s cabinet secretary for Tourism and Wildlife launched this census in order to establish accurate data of the country’s biodiversity. This data provides an essential benchmark for future conservation efforts and is also crucial for our understanding of the present state of Kenya’s wildlife.
Kenya, according to the report, is now home to 36,280 elephant and, what’s more, that is an increase on previous estimates. Few other countries in Africa have as up-to-date information of the state of their elephant populations but the fact that Kenya’s is growing, after conservationists have spent decades trying to stem the tide of population decrease, is incredible.
“As the world grapples with both climate change and human activities that threaten botanical and zoological life as well as their habitats, Kenya is leading the way by implementing bold and decisive actions to conserve and promote our ecological wealth,” Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta said about the report’s findings.
Conservation: creating investor confidence, attracting tourists and building a reputation on ‘safe haven’ principles
As the repealed hunting ban in Botswana makes clear, there is scepticism surrounding the subject of relying on ‘safe haven’ tourism models. Botswana tried to turn itself into a safari hotspot that was reliant on photographic tourism as opposed to hunting tourism.
It failed there. This is a significant failure for the continent’s conservationist ideals.
Conservationists here in Africa want, ideally, to see a continent where the animals that have lived here, often longer than we have, can do so safe from hunting and as close to their natural mode of existence as possible.
Kenya’s good results with regards to conservation combine well with its economic growth and diversification to provide evidence that this dream is possible and that it can come along with benefits to Africa’s peoples. Kenya’s continued successes in conservation and economic development are the strongest evidence that there is a future of peaceful cohabitation between homo sapiens and Africa’s animal life.
There is, for this writer, no clearer indication why Kenya, its wildlife services and conservation non-profits, should not let up now. This country’s example presently provides the best framework for how a world with success in conservation might look.