Elephant Poaching Hurts Africa’s Tourism

African tourism is taking a hit due to the elephant-poaching crisis. A new study in the journal Nature Communications shows the poaching issue has a huge impact on public relations, to the tune of $25 million in tourism revenue for African nations dealing with the problem.

“While there have always been strong moral and ethical reasons for conserving elephants, not everyone shares this viewpoint. Our research now shows that investing in elephant conservation is actually smart economic policy for many African countries,” said Dr. Robin Naidoo, lead wildlife scientist, World Wildlife Federation and lead author on the study.

The researchers said this is the “first continent-wide assessment of the economic losses the current elephant poaching surge is inflicting on nature-based tourism economies in Africa.”

It’s estimated 20,000–30,000 African elephants are killed each year in the illegal ivory trade, fueled primarily by demand in China. Africa’s elephant populations have declined by more than 20 percent in the past decade.

“We know that within parks, tourism suffers when elephant poaching ramps up. This work provides a first estimate of the scale of that loss, and shows pretty convincingly that stronger conservation efforts usually make sound economic sense even when looking at just this one benefit stream,” said study co-author Professor Andrew Balmford, from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology.