The Elephant Crisis Fund (ECF), a joint initiative of Save the Elephants and Wildlife Conservation Network, has just won the 20th BBVA Foundation World Biodiversity Conservation Award. La Razón talks with Dr. Chris Thouless, a zoology specialist and world leader in the study of elephants, about his work in the tireless fight for the protection of these species in Africa and Asia.
How do you receive this recognition?
We are very grateful for this recognition and part of the reason is that we have adopted a new approach to funding conservation, especially in crisis situations, and this has involved a model that minimizes bureaucracy, allows us to act quickly and provides funding to any organization working towards the same goals, whether large or small. This is very different from the conventional conservation funding model, which tends to work through very large grants to large organizations and often takes many years to raise the grants. The fund was created when thousands of elephants were being killed by poachers and ivory traffickers were moving from one place to another in Africa and Asia very quickly and so we needed a very rapid response, something that the old style of conservation funding could not address. For example, when a helicopter belonging to a conservation organization was shot down by armed poachers, we were able to provide funding within 48 hours to get a replacement helicopter on site.
Your training includes areas such as tourism, what has been your role in the preservation of elephants?
Certainly, in countries where wildlife tourism is an important part of the economy, there is a predisposition on the part of people to have a positive opinion about conservation. But unfortunately, countries with a strong wildlife tourism industry are now mostly those countries where there is no major threat. So where there is a big threat, mainly in West and Central Africa and in some parts of Southern Africa, tourism is not helping. And that worries us a lot, because it often means that the people of those countries have no idea of the potential value of wildlife. In Angola, for example, due to the country’s own history there is little tourism. It is not an important part of the economy or for the Government’s agenda.
When thinking about elephants we usually focus on Africa, but what is their situation in Asia?
In Asia there are fewer elephants. It is a different species. Three different types of elephants are currently recognized in the world. One is the African savanna elephant, another is the African forest elephant and the third is the Asian elephant, which is why there are many more African elephants than Asian elephants. There are perhaps 50,000 in Asia. In Africa we believe there are around 150,000 forest elephants and perhaps 400,000 savannah elephants. These figures are approximate because they live in dense forests or in areas where there are civil conflicts. It is difficult to count them precisely. But poaching for ivory has not been a significant threat to elephants in Asia and that is because, while almost all African elephants have tusks and therefore there is a value for ivory, no female Asian elephant has tusks. In Sri Lanka, even, very few males have tusks either. The problem is that this relatively small number of Asian elephants is increasingly surrounded by a very large number of people, fighting for space.
How does climate change affect elephants?
In Africa the climate is often very changeable: we have droughts, wet seasons and, obviously, like everywhere in the world, there is evidence of global warming and climate change. But the biggest problem we see is population growth: farms, roads, railways and other infrastructure are encroaching on elephant habitat. Human expansion is a much more current threat to elephants.