Forest Elephants

African savannah elephants are one of the best known and most majestic symbols of Africa. Yet savannah elephants are only half of the story of the “African elephant”, for hidden among the trees in the vast forests of the Congo Basin and small forest fragments of West Africa live the other elephants - the “Hidden Giants”. African forest elephants, which made up about 1/3 of all Africa’s elephants in 1989, are much less well known. They are smaller than savannah elephants, have smaller straighter tusks, and due to their forest environment, are ecologically very different from savannah elephants. Their taxonomic status is debated amongst geneticists, and today all African elephants are lumped into the same species (Loxodonta africana) though the popular consensus is towards classing forest elephants as a separate species.
Once found throughout the forests of Central and West Africa, habitat loss and poaching since the beginning of colonial times have seen West Africa’s forest elephants dwindle to a few tiny populations restricted in small protected areas. The forest elephants of the Congo Basin have fared better, though road development and logging have caused widespread fragmentation of elephant populations, which, coupled with largely uncontrolled poaching, has caused populations across much of the Basin to plummet. The challenge facing the conservation movement in the Congo Basin is transforming the legally protected areas into fully functional, well-managed parks in which all natural resources, including forest elephants, are fully protected in practice as well as on paper.  This is a challenge for the coming decade as forest elephants continue to be routinely poached inside, as well as outside, some of the best protected parks in the forest. The world view is that “African elephants” are doing well, even too well in southern African nations where space is at a premium and elephants risk over-populating small protected areas. This is only half of the truth; in fact Central Africa remains a killing ground for elephants under the relentless pressure from the illegal ivory trade.

The Human Aspect
Central Africa, with the exception of Gabon and Cameroon, is among the poorest regions of Africa. Humans are eking out a living based on small-scale subsistence agriculture, fishing, and hunting, illegal poaching for the bushmeat trade and for ivory, or else work in industries based on commercial and usually unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, particularly timber. It is hard to muster support for elephants in a world where rural people are living from hand to mouth, and city dwellers are mostly living in or close to poverty.  In addition, forest elephants, like their savannah counterparts, sometimes raid farmer’s fields and even possibly ruin an entire year’s food supply in a night of activity. However forest elephants and elephants in general, are a critical part of human well-being almost everywhere. For local people in central Africa elephants provide huge “ecosystem services” to maintain forests, such as seed dispersal which “plants” the forest in a way no other animal can, cycling nutrients, and maintaining clearings and other habitats used by myriad other species.  Lose forest elephants and lose much of the intricate fabric of the Congo basin rainforest which sustains the great majority of local people of the basin, protects watersheds, and buffers the globe from climate change and other problems. Lose forest elephants and lose one of the major attractions for tourists in central Africa, with its potential to diversity national economies and provide jobs and security for local people. Lose forest elephants and lose the soul of the largest land dwelling animal on the planet and with it perhaps part of the human soul itself.

Dzanga Bai                                                                             © Andrea Turkalo/WCS