Be an Elephant Protector

• ELEPHANT POACHING - Despite a ban on the international trade in ivory, more than 20,000 African elephants are still being poached every year. Their tusks are the most sought after, but their meat and skin are also traded. The ivory is often carved into ornaments and jewellery. Comparatively, elephant poaching in Asia is not as severe as it is in Africa; but some of them are still being killed for trade. Live elephants are also taken from the wild for trade – primarily going to Thailand for the tourism industry.
   
• HABITAT LOSS - As Africa’s human population grows and settlements expand, elephants are losing their habitats and ancient migratory routes. Development and the construction of infrastructure have had a devastating effect – for example, the range of elephants in West Africa has shrunk by nearly 95 per cent.
   
• CONFLICT WITH HUMANS - As a result of habitat loss, elephants are forced into close quarters with humans. When elephants follow their traditional migration corridors through what was once forest or savannah, they are now confronted by roads, fields and villages. Elephants walk into fields without realising that the fruits and crops they hold are not for them. This leads to a vicious cycle of conflict – local people kill elephants in retaliation for crop losses, and elephants also accidentally kill people in self-defense, then wildlife authorities shoot elephants to protect humans and their property.

• WWF-Hong Kong has been campaigning for a ban on the ivory trade and making wildlife crime a serious crime in Hong Kong since 2015. Through in-depth studies on the ivory trade in Hong Kong, we revealed several legal loopholes in local ivory regulations. Following various community engagement campaigns, the results of a 2017 survey commissioned by WWF-Hong Kong and conducted by the University of Hong Kong’s Public Opinion Programme showed that a total ban on ivory sales in Hong Kong was supported by 78 per cent of locals. Our actions contributed to passage of legislation banning the domestic ivory trade with no compensation by 2021 and increasing the maximum penalty to HK$10 million and 10 years’ imprisonment for wildlife crime offences, in January 2018.
   
• WWF works to conserve elephants on both continents through specific programmes that aim to improve elephant protection and management, mitigating human-elephant conflict, strengthening activities against poachers and the illegal ivory trade. WWF also works with elephant range state governments, local people and non-governmental partners to conserve migration corridors and large conservation landscapes like the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), the world’s largest trans-boundary conservation area and home to almost 250,000 elephants.