Over the past 40 years, the world has lost half of its wildlife and a very visible part of that loss has been the killing of African elephants for ivory. The illegal ivory trade is big business. Despite increasingly strong ivory trade bans, the slaughter of elephants has not abated. Some 23,000 African elephants were killed for their tusks in 2013 alone. The raw ivory value of a single poached elephant is estimated to be $21,000. All this money has led to corruption and difficulty in enforcing anti-poaching laws.
Recently, a study has looked at the value of live elephants to local economies and the results are eye opening. According to the report conducted through the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a single elephant is worth more than $1.6 million over its lifetime, largely as a result of its value to eco-tourism.
The presence of the world’s largest land animal is a boon to travel companies, airlines, and local economies. Protecting elephants makes economic sense, which has not really become clear to policy makers. It seems pretty crass to discuss elephants as economic commodities when they mean so much more. But political decisions and local enforcement are all-too-often driven by monetary concerns.
Given this fact, the notion that a living elephant is worth 76 times more than a pile of ivory in a box is an important one. Africa’s developing countries have much to gain from a thriving tourist trade and every elephant killed makes these regions much less profitable.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.