Bloody Ivory

Babile Elephant Sanctuary in Ethiopia faces a myriad of challenges. At over 7,000 km2 there is a lot of land to protect but over the course of several decades, conflict, famine and inadequate enforcement has led to human in-migration and settlement, land conversion, hunting and elephant poaching. The issue of human pressure on a park, in a country ranked 13/233 for its human population, is a significant one that can only be tackled in the long-term. In the shorter-term, Born Free is focusing on supporting monitoring and protection of its important elephant population. Up until this year, law enforcement has been chronically underfunded and poorly managed, offering little or no deterrent to elephant poachers. The last official population estimate of 325 elephants is a decade old, but at least 100 of these have been poached within the last three years, although the true extent of the killing will only be known in due course.

Now, the rangers have received badly needed training, the elephants are monitored daily and poaching incidents are starting to be investigated. On a day to day basis, it is these actions that will reduce poaching pressure. There are always deep-rooted causes of ivory poaching - poverty in rural society and increased global demand and international trade – but these are challenging issues to address, and at least in the former case, arguably impossible to eradicate entirely. Therefore, unless steps are taken on the ground to protect elephants, the impetus to poach will remain.

In the near future, Born Free is planning to engage the local government and communities in the management of the sanctuary and develop solutions to address human-elephant conflict. In the meantime, law enforcement remains a vital component - even the backbone of efforts - to safe-guard wildlife populations in the short and long-term.