Our Goal

A world where people and ecologically functioning populations of wild elephants can co-exist and thrive across the elephants' range.

To get there, we employ five major strategies:

• Prevent illegal killing.
• Protect elephant habitat.
• Monitor elephant numbers, poaching rates, and threats to elephant habitat at key sites in Africa and Asia.
• Reduce ivory trafficking.
• Reduce the demand for ivory.

What's at Stake?

Elephants play a critical role as ecosystem engineers, maintaining mineral-rich clearings in the forest, on which many other species rely, and providing a way for important soil nutrients to be spread around at a continental scale. As seed dispersers, they also help maintain the largest tree species, which happen to be the most important for carbon sequestration.

On Our Strategies

Prevent Illegal Killing

Illegal hunting to feed the ivory trade is an enormous threat, with some 100,000 elephants across Africa killed illegally between 2010 and 2012 — or one every 15 minutes. We work with governments and other partners to enforce the laws by training rangers, deploying SMART (an open-source software system that improves anti-poaching efforts and overall law enforcement in conservation areas), developing intelligence networks, and working with judiciaries to ensure that arrests result in due-process prosecutions.

Monitor Elephant Numbers and Poaching Rates at Key Sites in Asia and Africa

When it comes to monitoring elephant populations, we are an acknowledged world leader. This monitoring is vital to conservation efforts, informing us and our partners whether our efforts to protect elephants and their habitat have been successful or need to be modified. We also use the data gathered to influence elephant conservation policy.

Reduce Ivory Trafficking

In countries along the trade chain, where ivory trafficking is especially prevalent, we strive to improve the work of the judiciary and enhance the capacity of local enforcement units, including customs. We help governments inventory and secure ivory stockpiles, often by destroying them to ensure that the ivory cannot re-enter the illegal trade.

Reduce Demand for Ivory

The WCS China Program works to engage with existing or potential ivory consumers there, aiming not only to raise awareness but to change behavior. We are also working with Chinese academics, government agencies, and other policymakers on the driving factors behind the ivory trade, with the aim of providing an evidence base and solutions to help inform ivory trade policy improvement in the country. In May 2015, WCS collaborated with Beijing Customs and WildAid, to convince travelers at the Beijing Capital Airport to pledge to “Bring no ivory home." This followed a similarly successful pledge drive at Guangzhou Airport in 2014.