African Elephant Update Recent News from the WWF African Elephant Programme © WWF-Canon / Martin HARVEY Number 5 – June 2005 Cover photo: A herd of elephants on the move in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. The female in the middle of the herd has exceptionally long tusks. This edition of African Elephant Update was edited by PJ Stephenson. The content was compiled by PJ Stephenson & Alison Wilson. African Elephant Update (formerly Elephant Update) provides recent news on the conservation work funded by the WWF African Elephant Programme. It is aimed at WWF staff and WWF's partners such as range state governments, international and national non-governmental organizations, and donors. It is published at least once per year. Published in June 2005 by WWF - World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund), CH- 1196, Gland, Switzerland Any reproduction in full or in part of this publication must mention the title and credit the above-mentioned publisher as the copyright owner. No photographs from this publication may be reproduced on the internet without prior authorization from WWF. The material and the geographical designations in this report do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of WWF concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. © text 2005 WWF All rights reserved In 2000 WWF launched a new African Elephant Programme. Building on 40 years of experience in elephant conservation, WWF’s new initiative aims to provide strategic field interventions to help guarantee a future for this threatened species. The long-term goal of the African Elephant Programme is: to conserve forest and savanna elephant populations in Africa. WWF’s elephant interventions are organised around 4 objectives. • Objective 1 (Protection and Management): To reduce the illegal killing of elephants through improved protection and management • Objective 2 (Capacity Building): To increase capacity within range states to conserve and manage elephants • Objective 3 (Conflict Mitigation): To increase public support for elephant conservation by reducing conflict • Objective 4 (Trade Controls): To reduce the illegal trade in elephant products For further information on the WWF African Elephant Programme please see our website: http://www.panda.org/africa/elephants or contact: Dr Peter J. Stephenson African Elephant Programme WWF International Avenue du Mont Blanc CH 1196 Gland Switzerland Tel: +41 22 364 9111 Email: [email protected] African Elephant Update 5 (2005) INSIDE THIS ISSUE are becoming too large for protected areas and 1 EDITORIAL are destroying their own habitat, as well as 1 African elephant range states face up local people's farms and livelihoods. to emerging challenges In central and southern African range states are 2 ARTICLE coming together with their neighbours at two 2 Monitoring radio-collared forest separate workshops to develop sub-regional elephants (Loxodonta africana strategies for elephant conservation and to plan cyclotis) in southeast Cameroon common approaches across borders (see page 8 NEWS FROM THE FIELD 17). It is hoped that strategic planning at this 8 Conserving elephants across borders: level will further encourage transboundary the Futi Corridor collaboration, of the sort we are seeing already 10 Quirimbas elephant project moves into around the Sangha Trinational in central Africa its last phase (see the article on page 2) and the transfrontier 12 Human-elephant conflict mitigation conservation areas in southern Africa (see an work expands around the Masai Mara update on one of the sites on page 8). The 13 The elephants of Campo Ma'an process will also give range states the 14 Domestic ivory markets under opportunity to tackle common emerging issues continued investigation such as increasing human-elephant conflict 16 Support for CITES enforcement in (see pages 10-13). Ethiopia 17 Planning with the neighbours: sub- Success in elephant conservation across the regional elephant management continent will require an integrated approach strategies and a whole suite of management tools, with 18 NOTICE BOARD different priority actions needed in different 18 Information needed for the African sub-regions. WWF, through its African Elephant Database Elephant Programme, will continue to help 19 Job opportunity for elephant enhance the capacity of range states to conservation biologist conserve their elephants and to face the many 19 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS challenges ahead. PJ Stephenson Gland, Switzerland EDITORIAL 20 June 2005 African elephant range states face up to emerging challenges At the start of the twenty first century, more than ever, differences in elephant management issues are becoming clear across Africa. Reports from the Elephant Trade Information System and the programme for Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (see page 14) continue to show that many central African countries are having trouble stopping poaching and ivory trading. The action plan agreed by African elephant range states at the last CITES Conference of the Parties, which aims to reduce the domestic ivory markets that fuel the illegal international trade, is not yet being widely enforced. In contrast, elephant pop- ulations continue to thrive in southern Africa, to the extent that countries such as South Africa and Botswana are struggling with the problem of local over-population. Some herds © WWF-Canon / Martin HARVEY 1 African Elephant Update 5 (2005) ARTICLE protected areas due to their conservation importance and the hunting pressures they face. Radio telemetry has proven to be one of Monitoring radio-collared forest the best field methods for monitoring forest elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis) elephant movements and distribution patterns (Usongo 2003, WCS 2003). in southeast Cameroon 1 1 2 Three countries in central Africa have launch- Z. Nzooh , L. Usongo , M. Loomis , and ed an international conservation initiative 1 M. Tchamba aimed at managing at a landscape level three adjacent national parks: Lobeke in Cameroon, 1 WWF Central Africa Programme, Yaoundé, Dzanga-Sangha in the Central African Cameroon (email: [email protected] & Republic, and Nouabale Ndoki in the Republic [email protected] ) of Congo. One objective of the transborder 2 North Carolina Zoo, USA (email: mike.loomis@ ncmail.net) conservation initiative known as the "Tri- national de la Sangha" is aimed at promoting joint management of natural resources using Introduction innovative, collaborative management app- roaches. As more land is converted for human use, elephant habitat continues to contract (see Ste- As part of the Sangha Trinational project, phenson 2004). Protected areas become increa- WWF works with the government of singly isolated and elephants increasingly Cameroon in the southeast forests. The main confined within their borders, as their trad- objectives of this programme are: itional seasonal migratory routes become cut 1. To provide baseline data on elephant off. Protected area systems are likely to be movement patterns and home ranges among the last secure refuges for elephants. 2. To identify important elephant corridors This means that management for broader (especially outside protected areas) for biodiversity goals and law enforcement will integration in to an elephant population have to be improved. management strategy 3. To collect data on elephant transboundary Many African countries (particularly those in movements in view of establishing a trans- forest regions) are unaware of the size, frontier monitoring programme distribution and population trends of their 4. To evaluate the impact of human activities national elephant herds. Assistance in census- on elephant movement and distribution ing populations and in developing reliable patterns national and sub-regional databases is 5. To integrate data on species movements important, as is using these data to manage with other data from monitoring programmes national herds. While the large-scale creation such as MIKE (Monitoring Illegal Killing of of new protected areas is likely to come to an Elephants) to enhance knowledge on elephant end in the short to medium-term future, the population ecology. development of transfrontier collaboration in the sub-regional management of herds presents This article reports on recent work by WWF, the opportunity for creating corridors between the North Carolina Zoo and the government of protected areas. This is particularly the case for Cameroon to monitor elephants in the contiguous protected areas in central Africa southeast forest. where elephant herds move across frontiers. The establishment of long-term ecological Study Area monitoring programmes is essential in protected areas (see e.g. Noss 1990, Kremen et The southeast forest of Cameroon is a dense al. 1994). They are required to assess trends semi-deciduous forest, characterized by a and the stability of the ecosystem over time, patchwork of high forest, secondary forest and and provide protected area managers with low-lying swamp, interwoven with a mosaic of information they need for decision-making. Maranthaceae forest, mono-dominant stands Large mammals such as elephants are among and forest clearings (see Letouzey 1985 for the most frequently monitored species within more detail). This patchwork of forest types promotes a high diversity and abundance of 2 African Elephant Update 5 (2005) large mammals such as forest elephant overlaid maps to provide information on (Loxodonta africana