Well, if you are going to stoop to using facts.
Here's another one you prolly already know. Tho poaching is an unfortunate fact af life for the Elephants in Africa<and elsewhere too>,
it's effect on populations is miniscule compared to what is really
killing them off. That is, plain and simple, loss of habitat - like most
other wildlife all over the planet.
Encroachment by overpopolating humans outweighs all other influences
to such an extent that they are as a dorp of pi$$ in the ocean.
Dale<somebody had to say it>
And isn't it tough because the preserves can't manage the herds anymore because they no longer have an income from the sell of ivory from culls and naturally deceased animals?
Elephants are very destructive to their habitat. They need a massive amount of acreage per member of the herd....or intense management. Nearly every renewable resource requires intense management, and that resource is what usually pays for it.
Those who care that much about the elephant should make donations to the preserves in Africa to help care for them and maintain habitats.
One issue that many people ignore is the right of the African natives to manage their renewable resources the way they see fit.
If responsible management of elephants was allowed, ivory and other elephant products was responsibly harvested in conjunction with that management, and the bodies charged with their management were powerful enough to deal harshly with poachers and illegal activity, it would guarantee the survival of the elephants.
Here is an intelligently written essay on the very complex matter, dated 2001 but still relevant.
www.utdallas.edu/~kruti/managing_elephants_in_africa.pdf
Here is the summary, unchanged from that essay.
"Sitting in an air-conditioned environment, it is easy for the environmentalists to say that African Elephants must be preserved for the good of the world, which in itself is not a wrong sentiment, but in practical contexts it is important to consider the various factors that go hand in hand with the actual preservation of these gentle creatures. For one, indiscriminate and cruel poaching methods can be easily avoided by making fewer but stronger rules against it. This would also affect the animal psychology and they can be more peaceful in their own environments. Co-existence of the various species of animals, including human beings in the vast wilderness of Africa is not as impossible as we have begun to deem it to be. After all it is a ‘survival of the fittest’ world, and human beings have far since realized that they can be the fittest only if the environment around them is conducive to it. If the elephants become an important economic source, there is no need for concern about their extinction because rationality dictates that they will be able to survive the indiscriminate slaughter by selective few.
On a more sociological front, we can see that once the African tribes are given the exclusive rights to preserve and manage the elephants, their dealings with respect to elephants will be more protective and personal. The intruders can be easily dealt with once they realize that elephants as a resource is theirs to maintain and if profits are shared they will simply start diminishing.
Thus in my opinion, the African tribes should be given the exclusive managing rights to the elephants in Africa and further ideological pursuits by people who do not even live in that environment should be discouraged strongly to avoid various social costs to the African economy as a whole."
