Ivory is big business, and in some parts of Africa elephants have been hunted almost to extinction in the quest for it. The losses to African economies have been catastrophic. Now there is an international ban on the trade and conservation is. the principal goal. This should be a matter for rejoicing, but nothing is quite so simple. The authors of this book have looked at the overall statistics, including those for countries where the elephant population is stable. They have considered the multiplicity of economic and social functions fulfilled by ensuring that elephant herds survive, tourism, a variety of ecological purpose. and, finally, as a source of ivory. They show how the careful management of elephants as a resource can best serve African interests. This book is at the cutting edge of economic thinking and provides a model for the consideration of the difficult relationship between people and wildlife. Originally published in 19990

Ivory is big business, and in some parts of Africa elephants have been hunted almost to extinction in the quest for it. The losses to African economies have been catastrophic. Now there is an international ban on the trade and conservation is. the principal goal. This should be a matter for rejoicing, but nothing is quite so simple. The authors of this book have looked at the overall statistics, including those for countries where the elephant population is stable. They have considered the multiplicity of economic and social functions fulfilled by ensuring that elephant herds survive, tourism, a variety of ecological purpose. and, finally, as a source of ivory. They show how the careful management of elephants as a resource can best serve African interests. This book is at the cutting edge of economic thinking and provides a model for the consideration of the difficult relationship between people and wildlife. Originally published in 19990

Half of Tanzania's elephants have been killed for their ivory since 2007. A similar alarming story can be told of the herds in northern Mozambique and across swathes of central Africa, with forest elephants losing almost two-thirds of their numbers to the tusk trade. The huge rise in poaching and ivory smuggling in the new millennium has destroyed the hope that the 1989 ivory trade ban had capped poaching and would lead to a long-term fall in demand. But why the new upsurge? The answer is not simple. Since ancient times, large-scale killing of elephants for their tusks has been driven by demand outside Africa's elephant ranges - from the Egyptian pharaohs through Imperial Rome and industrialising Europe and North America to the new wealthy business class of China. And, who poaches and why do they do it? In recent years lurid press reports have blamed mass poaching on rebel movements and armed militias, especially Somalia's Al Shabaab, tying two together two evils - poaching and terrorism. But does this account stand up to scrutiny? This new and ground-breaking examination of the history and politics of ivory in Africa forensically examines why poaching happens in Africa and why it is corruption, crime and politics, rather than insurgency, that we should worry about.

Describes the illegal trafficking of elephant ivory and rhinoceros horns and the implications for these endangered animals.

The eminent China scholar delivers a landmark study of Chinese culture’s relationship to the natural environment across thousands of years of history. Spanning the three millennia for which there are written records, The Retreat of the Elephants is the first comprehensive environmental history of China. It is also a treasure trove of literary, political, aesthetic, scientific, and religious sources, which allow the reader direct access to the views and feelings of Chinese people toward their environment and their landscape. China scholar and historian Mark Elvin chronicles the spread of the Chinese style of farming that eliminated elephant habitats; the destruction of most of the forests; the impacts of war on the landscape; and the re-engineering of the countryside through gigantic water-control systems. He documents the histories of three contrasting localities within China to show how ecological dynamics defined the lives of the inhabitants. And he shows that China in the eighteenth century was probably more environmentally degraded than northwestern Europe around this time. Indispensable for its new perspective on long-term Chinese history and its explanation of the roots of China’s present-day environmental crisis, this book opens a door into the Chinese past.

The economic prosperity of two nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century New England towns rested on factories that manufactured piano keys, billiard balls, combs, and other items made of ivory imported from East Africa. Yet while towns like Ivoryton and Deep River, Connecticut, thrived, the African ivory trade left in its wake massive human exploitation and ecological devastation. At the same time, dynamic East African engagement with capitalism and imperialism took place within these trade histories. Drawing from extensive archival and field research in New England, Great Britain, and Tanzania, Alexandra Kelly investigates the complex global legacies of the historical ivory trade. She not only explains the complexities of this trade but also analyzes Anglo-American narratives about Africa, questioning why elephants and ivory feature so centrally in those representations. From elephant conservation efforts to the cultural heritage industries in New England and East Africa, her study reveals the ongoing global repercussions of the ivory craze and will be of interest to anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, and conservationists.

RealWorld Evaluation: Working Under Budget, Time, Data, and Political Constraints addresses the challenges of conducting program evaluations in real-world contexts where evaluators and their clients face budget and time constraints. The book is organized around the authors’ seven-step model that has been tested in workshops and practice environments to help the evaluation implementers and managers make the best choices when faced with real world constraints. The Third Edition includes a new chapter on gender equality and women’s empowerment and discussion of digital technology and data science.

Whales and elephants are iconic giants of the marine and terrestrial animal world. Both are conspicuous representatives of wildlife conservation. The issues of whaling and the ivory trade are closely linked, both legally and politically, in many ways; some obvious, and some surprising. The treatment of both whales and elephants will be politically and legally contentious for years to come, and is of great significance to conservation in general. This book examines the current state of international environmental law and wildlife conservation through a comparative analysis of the treatment of whales and elephants. In particular, it describes the separate histories of international governance of both whales and elephants, presenting the various treaties through which conservation has been implemented. It is shown that international environmental law is influenced and shaped by important political actors – many with opposing views on how best conservation, and sustainable development, principles are to be implemented. Modern environmental treaties are changing as weaknesses and loopholes are exposed in older, and possibly outdated, treaties such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW). Such weaknesses can be seen in the efforts made by some states to circumvent or weaken CITES and the International Whaling Commission and to resume commercial whaling, and further in the efforts of countries to resume trade in ivory. The argument is made that the Convention on Biological Diversity could be used to begin reconciling opposed views and to focus conservation efforts. The argument is made that effective conservation of species cannot be achieved through individual treaties, but only through a synergistic approach involving multilateral environmental agreements – 'ecosystems of legal instruments'.