Poachers kill between 20,000 and 30,000 African elephants each year, which has reduced their numbers by about 20 percent just in the last decade. They do so for their ivory, which is sold in markets across Asia.
African countries where elephants encounter severe poaching see a loss of about $25 million a year thanks to reduced tourism.
“We know that within parks, tourism suffers when elephant poaching ramps up,” says study co-author Andrew Balmford, a professor at the University of Cambridge. “This work provides a first estimate of the scale of that loss.”
The researchers used statistical modeling to show that the tourism revenue lost to poaching actually exceeds the cost necessary to decrease poaching and stop the decline of elephants.
In many cases, conservation is seen as a luxury when compared to the struggle for governments to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter.
However, according to a recent study, for every $1 invested in elephant conservation, African countries would make about $1.78 in tourism money. Conserving elephants, then, has return of investment rates about as good as investing in education, food security, or electricity.
Balmford says the study shows that “stronger conservation efforts usually make sound economic sense even when looking at just this one benefit stream.”
Although elephant-based tourism can be quite lucrative in east, west and south Africa, the same cannot be said for the countries in central Africa, where tourism levels are lower and elephants are more difficult to see due to heavy forest cover. In central Africa, a different argument will be needed to encourage people to conserve, rather than poach, elephants.
“The economic argument is helpful,” says study co-author Brendan Fisher of UVM, “but only if we have a clear ethical foundation that we should not be slaughtering elephants. Period.”
Have you ever gone on a safari and seen elephants? Would you invest in elephant conservation? What arguments would you use to explain why elephants should be conserved? Please sound off in the comments.