Decisions made in the next ten days will determine the fate of the African Elephant. It sounds dramatic, and it is.

Currently, there is a group of people gathered in Geneva, representatives from countries across the globe, who hold great power. This gathering is the meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP18), also known as the World Wildlife Conference.

But before we dissect the current conference, let’s wind back the clock, because history matters here. A century ago the African elephant population was estimated to be greater than 10 million, albeit already hugely reduced from the time when Europeans first arrived on the continent. Over the following decades the killing continued, and by 1979 the continental population was further reduced to an estimated 1.3 million.

CITES was established in 1973, becoming the global entity to control and regulate the international trade in elephant ivory that was driving much of the slaughter. For twenty years, from 1977 to 1989, the trade in ivory was allowed but regulated by CITES, yet the killing continued. As a result, in 1989 CITES moved the African elephant onto Appendix 1, affording the species the strictest CITES protection, resulting in the international ivory trade becoming illegal.

As the CITES protection took effect, some elephant populations started to recover. However, certain countries, including South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe continued to lobby for permits to sell ivory, arguing that the resulting income is necessary for supporting conservation efforts.

A ‘one-off’ sale of ivory was first allowed in 1999; 34 tons of stockpiled ivory sold by Namibia and Zimbabwe to Japan. Following this ‘success’ southern African countries continued to lobby for further sales, and against very strong advice from conservationists, a second larger sale was permitted in 2008. This involved a sale of approximately 107 tons to Japan AND China. Alarm bells rung worldwide.

What followed was a dramatic surge in poaching, as the ‘legitimized’ ivory trade led to an increase in demand for elephant ivory as well as a cover for poaching and illegal trafficking. An estimated 100,000 elephants were killed between 2010 and 2012 alone.

Since then, the world has come together to stop the poaching of elephants, to great effect. The work on demand-reduction in China, combined with China’s commitments to end the ivory trade, has resulted in an estimated 65% drop in the wholesale price of ivory in Chinese markets from 2014 to 2017. This reduced economic incentive, combined with greater investments in anti-poaching and elephant protection, has controlled poaching to some extent. Indicators tracking poaching rates in Africa suggest that poaching peaked in 2011 and declined until 2017 when it stabilized.

Despite the continued threat represented by poachers, African elephant populations are beginning to recover once again. But, because history tends to repeat itself, there is a group of countries that continue to pursue the permission to sell ivory, despite the evidence of the dramatic negative effects. This week, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe will once again be advocating for changes to the CITES laws, allowing them to trade raw ivory for commercial gain.

Despite the various experiments, it is now obvious that there is no way to effectively regulate the trade in ivory, such that the impact on living elephant populations is minimized. The ivory trade cannot work, and Big Life stands strongly with the Kenyan delegation that is working with other states to effectively propose a complete ban on all forms of ivory trade across the world.

These are enormous decisions that have the potential to shape the future of the African elephant. We hope that CITES acts in support of conservation this week, using its great power and responsibility to help ensure the survival of wildlife worldwide.

Thank you to all of our supporters who make our work possible! If you are looking for one more way to support and spread awareness about the work we do, check out Big Life’s new collaboration with Popsockets. 50% of the sale of every phone grip on Big Life’s charity page (link below) will be donated to Big Life, helping to fund our conservation efforts.

Happy shopping for a cause: Big Life Popsockets

When a lioness named Nelowua’s satellite tracking collar stopped moving for a week, we knew that something was either really wrong or really right. She was dead, or had given birth.

Her last location was deep inside thick bush, preventing easy access on foot. We waited a few days, and small movements meant that she was still alive. But we had a to wait a few months to finally see what Nelowua was hiding.

There was much excitement last week as we sifted through a night of camera trap photos, to find an image of Nelowua with three tiny cubs in tow. This is her second litter in two years, and some of you might remember a similar story of her going ‘missing’ in September 2017.

These three young lions have been born on community land, and there will be challenges ahead, but Big Life and our partners are working hard to make sure that they survive them. Thanks to initiatives such as Big Life’s Predator Compensation Fund, which protects lions from retaliatory killing following livestock depredation, their chances are certainly better now than they were a decade ago.

Our lion conservation partners Lion Guardians have measured a QUADRUPLING of the core Amboseli lion population over the last decade, and illegal killing of lions is virtually non-existent. To put this success in perspective, over the last two decades the Africa-wide lion population is estimated to have declined by greater than 40%, and these magnificent cats only roam in 6% of their historic range.

Amboseli is proof that lion populations can and will recover if they are protected and given the opportunity to breed. Lions are receiving unprecedented attention through the recent re-release of ‘The Lion King’, and continental initiatives such as the Lion Recovery Fund (of which Big Life is proud to be a grantee). Now is the time to act and there is certainly hope, represented by these three new cubs, on this year’s World Lion Day.

Thank you as always, for your support. 

The service is being led by seven people, all wearing white coats. Two hundred people sit in the pews, all waiting expectantly. But on this occasion it’s not for help of the spiritual kind. This is a pop-up clinic.

Maasailand is vast, and much of it is empty. Villages are often remote and their inhabitants live without many of the basic services that much of the world takes for granted, such as accessible healthcare.

What does this have to do with a conservation nonprofit, you might ask. Big Life Foundation is a holistic conservation organization, and this means that our fundamental approach is to work with communities to achieve conservation goals. But why would humans pursue a conservation goal, if other basic needs are unmet?

They won’t, and this is one reason why we are partnering with the Kajiado South Sub-County government Department of Health, with support from CHASE Africa, to provide community members with access to basic healthcare. This is achieved through mobile pop-up clinics that visit a different community each month, backpack nurses who visit remote locations on a motorbike in between the clinics, and a team of 14 Community Health Volunteers, whose role is to sensitize their communities on the importance of family planning for family health, women's rights, and sustainable use of resources.

In the last 18 months, these simple outreach methods have provided primary healthcare and medication to 2,802 people, immunizations to 516 children, de-worming tablets to 4,184 people, and family planning options (including referrals to local clinics) to 735 women.

We’re proud to have been a part of helping so many people already, but this project is still in its infancy, and the need is huge. We’re hoping to increase this community support over the coming years to benefit more people over a greater area where we work, and with your help, we can accomplish this goal. Because we believe that it is not a question of helping wildlife OR people, but wildlife AND people.