Elephants are worth 76 times more alive than dead.

Conservation never played a more important role in the life of so many as it does today.

A few years back, in 2014, the David Sheldrick Trust published a report that estimated that a living elephant is worth more than $1.6 million in ecotourism revenue compared to $21,000 which is the black market value of its body, specifically, its ivory tusks.

Yet, more elephants are being killed each year than are being born.[1] Despite the efforts to control the poaching crisis, the rate at which elephants are disappearing from the wild is alarming.

My wake-up call arrived during a recent trip with my three years old daughter and my husband to Ngala andBeyond, in the Kruger National Park in South Africa. It was early into the afternoon when we saw the first herd of elephants heading their way to our pool. The matriarch lead the way, inspected the air for threats and only when she was certain that there was water and that it was safe, the rest of the herd followed her. Twenty minutes later another herd arrived. The matriarchs greeted as if the latest one was asking for permission to join. She was fortunately welcomed and assigned to the left side of the pool. It was winter time and the waterholes where absolutely dried, which is probably why we were so lucky to see so many elephants together.

It was then when I realized that at this pace, when my daughter turns 25, there might not be elephants left in the wild, except those contained in heavily protected areas. It made me think, what future can Africa and the world have if all the mega-fauna were to disappear? And what kind of people would destroy the planet that their own children will inhabit? We are no longer talking about the future, but the present.

According to the United Nations we have a window of ten years to save Earth’s biodiversity. The challenge is to protect what we have left and to plan for a sustainable future. It is a complex challenge but not an impossible one. In the words of Bill Gates, “Solving complex problems does not just require the smartest people or the most recent inventions. Problem solving requires understanding how a given solution would (or wouldn't) impact the lives of everyday people”. This is the challenge of conservation today…Wildlife conservation projects can only work if there is a direct benefit to local communities.

We are starting to see a downturn in poaching, which is obviously positive news, but it is still above what is sustainable, which means elephant populations are still declining. Education, and tougher international ivory trade legislation can help reduce demand but if protected areas are not properly funded and protected, and local communities have increasing conflicts with wildlife, the future of Africa’s wildlife will continue to look grim.

Protected areas are the cornerstone of conservation, yet about 80% of all protected areas are underfunded, or are to small and scattered. Unfunded protected areas are the perfect target for poachers. Simply, rangers need money to run their operations. With human population growth in the rise, human-wildlife conflict will not recede. Good news is that we now know what to do and how to do it. We even know that it will cost about $1 Billion every year for the foreseeable future to secure most of Africa’s protected areas.

The elephant crisis opens an opportunity to re-think conservation. Education will play a leading role in defining our relationship with the planet, but it can only do so much unless sustainable, long-term management plans for protected areas are put into place. From transforming poorly managed protected areas into conservation areas for wildlife tourism, to the implementation of creative sustainable finance, one thing is certain, there has never been a better opportunity to invest in the future of humanity than today…

[1] Ivory poaching drives decline in African elephants.

George Wittemyer, Joseph M. Northrup, Julian Blanc, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Patrick Omondi, Kenneth P. Burnham.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Sep 2014, 111 (36) 13117-13121; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1403984111