DAILY QUICK READ - SEPTEMBER 2, 2016

Can We Protect Wildlife?

Two major wildlife conferences will convene in September.  Both are critical to the survival of species that are being pushed to extinction by human activity.  Both demand the best ideas and intentions of humanity.

Illegal trade, worth up to $20bn a year, is now happening at an industrial scale, driven by transnational organised criminals. It robs local people of livelihoods and countries of revenue, as well as of their natural and cultural heritage and the associated tourism potential. It can also become intertwined with legal trade, as we have seen with python skins, posing challenges for authorities and consumers in determining legal origin. It is pushing many species towards extinction.

September will see the 17th World Wildlife Conference, or CoP17, convene in Johannesburg, South Africa. CITES will consider changes to the trade controls of close to 500 species of wild animals and plants, along with new and improved measures to ensure the sustainability of legal trade and to combat the scourge of illegal trade.

And on the eve of CoP17 the wider conservation community will gather in Hawaii for the IUCN World Conservation Congress, where activists, scientists and leaders from across the globe will debate the planet’s most pressing conservation challenges and how to meet them under the theme “Planet at the crossroads”.

The world spotlight will be fixed on these critical sustainability issues in Hawaii and Johannesburg in September, as we map out a path for the ensuring the survival of the world’s wildlife on an increasingly crowded and interconnected planet.

Elephants!!!!!!!

Beautiful photo essay from Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve.

Though Kenya’s elephant population is stable and poaching is relatively under control, across Africa savannah elephants are increasingly under threat

Saving Africa’s elephants: ‘Can you imagine them no longer existing?'

More On Elephants

Despite relative security in Kenya, Africa’s elephants continue to face alarming population declines.  Losses of up to 8 percent of the overall population on an annual basis.

Results of a multiyear survey effort released Wednesday reveal that Africa's savannah elephants are far worse off than anticipated. A survey called the "Great Elephant Census" estimates that only around 352,271 elephants remain—down from previous estimates of 419,000 to 650,000 elephants in 2013. The report's authors estimate they recorded 93 percent of all savannah elephants in the survey. Elephants in Africa are threatened by poaching for their ivory, habitat loss and human encroachment and conflict.

In addition to presenting new survey data, the report uses existing data to estimate that from 2010 to 2014 savannah elephant populations decreased by 8 percent per year, roughly double the rate populations decreased annually from 2005 to 2010. Elephant carcasses—mainly from poaching but also natural deaths—were also surveyed and those results suggest that elephant deaths likely exceeded births. The carcass surveys raise even greater concern for the continued existence of savannah elephants.