FIVE years after the ban on trade in ivory, elephant poaching is increasing again in Africa. The main reason why the ban has failed to halt illegal killings is that most countries have slashed their budgets for protecting elephants, according to TRAFFIC, the trade monitoring arm of the World Wide Fund for Nature, and the World Conservation Union鈥檚 African Elephant Specialist Group.
Since 1990, budgets for protecting elephants in Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe have fallen by almost 90 per cent. Even Kenya鈥檚 budget, which is boosted by more foreign funding for elephant protection than other African countries, has fallen by 13.5 per cent.
The Elephant Specialist Group claims that the shrinking budgets for protecting wildlife have been a direct response to the ban on the ivory trade. Foreign donors have reduced the amount they give because they mistakenly thought the ban would stop poaching. And, paradoxically, some countries used to earn considerable amounts from the legal sale of ivory 鈥� which was spent on protecting wildlife. Now that source of income has dried up.
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鈥淎 lot of donors believed the ban itself would solve the problem. Some have stopped donating funds to conservation, but others have refocused on the rhino, thinking that elephants are now safe,鈥� says Bobbie Jo Kelso of TRAFFIC.
In some African countries, such as Cameroon and Zimbabwe, government spending cuts or diversion of funds to more pressing development projects have meant less money for wildlife protection. In Kenya and Malawi the budgets for managing wildlife have increased in local currency terms, but inflation and devaluation mean the money does not go so far.
鈥淎frican wildlife departments are at the mercy of economic factors well beyond their control and the donor community has failed, and probably never will be able to meet the shortfall,鈥� says Tom Milliken of TRAFFIC鈥檚 South and East Africa branch.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) does not agree that budget cuts have caused the increase in poaching. It points out that in some places, such as Malawi and Gabon, both budgets and poaching have decreased. 鈥淭here are examples all over Africa where funds are minimal and poaching has gone down,鈥� says Susie Watts, of the EIA.
Most countries want the ban to stay. 鈥淲hy do 74 per cent of African conservationists interviewed for this research support a continuation of the ban?鈥� asks Watts. 鈥淲hy do most African governments staunchly support it? Because the ban has worked superbly, even where there鈥檚 almost no anti-poaching budget.鈥�
Milliken remains adamant that more money must be spent on protecting elephants. 鈥淎s long as elephants are under pressure there is a need to protect them, and protection costs money. A lot of it.鈥�