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African elephant poaching rates correlate with local poverty, national corruption and global ivory price

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Listed:
  • Severin Hauenstein

    (University of Freiburg
    University of York)

  • Mrigesh Kshatriya

    (United Nations Environment Programme, MIKE – CITES Secretariat)

  • Julian Blanc

    (United Nations Environment Programme, MIKE – CITES Secretariat
    Wildlife Management Unit, Ecosystems Division, United Nations Environment Programme)

  • Carsten F. Dormann

    (University of Freiburg)

  • Colin M. Beale

    (University of York)

Abstract

Poaching is contributing to rapid declines in elephant populations across Africa. Following high-profile changes in the political environment, the overall number of illegally killed elephants in Africa seems to be falling, but to evaluate potential conservation interventions we must understand the processes driving poaching rates at local and global scales. Here we show that annual poaching rates in 53 sites strongly correlate with proxies of ivory demand in the main Chinese markets, whereas between-country and between-site variation is strongly associated with indicators of corruption and poverty. Our analysis reveals a recent decline in annual poaching mortality rate from an estimated peak of over 10% in 2011 to

Suggested Citation

  • Severin Hauenstein & Mrigesh Kshatriya & Julian Blanc & Carsten F. Dormann & Colin M. Beale, 2019. "African elephant poaching rates correlate with local poverty, national corruption and global ivory price," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-09993-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09993-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Luguang Jiang & Ye Liu & Haixia Xu, 2023. "Losing the Way or Running Off? An Unprecedented Major Movement of Asian Elephants in Yunnan, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-10, February.
    2. Markus Shiweda & Fillipus Shivute & Ana Raquel Sales & Mário J. Pereira, 2023. "Climate Change and Anthropogenic Factors Are Influencing the Loss of Habitats and Emerging Human–Elephant Conflict in the Namib Desert," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-23, August.
    3. Neil, Emily & Madsen, Jens Koed & Carrella, Ernesto & Payette, Nicolas & Bailey, Richard, 2020. "Agent-based modelling as a tool for elephant poaching mitigation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 427(C).

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