By: Eugene Lapointe
President IWMC-World Conservation Trust
Former Secretary General of CITES (1982-1990)

The key to preserving elephants is the preservation of social order.  That challenge may well be the most important function of any government.  Without social order, preservation of wildlife including keystone species such as elephants and of wild places is not possible.

Where social order is maintained, social unrest is prevented.  Where social order is absent, chaos, violence and war result. 

In the 21st Century many governments fail to address this basic concept.  They are overburdened with administrative, financial and other infrastructure shortcomings and, too often, they lack the economic strength or collective will (or both) to adequately resolve the problems plaguing society, particularly in emerging nations. They fail miserably to provide appropriate measures to deal with the most basic function needed to improve the human condition, namely the alleviation of poverty.

Eliminating poverty is the most critical and most fundamental condition necessary for global social and environmental harmony.  Impoverished people are desperate people.  They cannot afford to care about the environment or their fellow humans because their every thought is geared toward survival of themselves and their families. 

Only when the basics of food, shelter, medical care, safety for themselves and their children are met that any culture can then afford to turn its attention toward embracing equally noble values such as developing an environmental ethic, rejecting the intolerance of discrimination, or adopting a mindset toward wildlife and neighboring cultures of live and let live.

The argument can and will be made that African cultures prior to European colonization lacked any semblance of wealth, yet had virtually none of the environmental problems that plague that continent today.  But, that position verifies this paper’s premise.

Absent the trappings of modern consumerism or even modern healthcare, Africa’s cultures, unburdened by European values and social overseers, enjoyed immense wealth.  From the great cultures of the Egyptian and Islamic African empires to those basic hunter/gatherer communities that shared veldt and forest with Africa’s wildlife, they enjoyed the wealth that comes with freedom, self-determination, and social justice.  Their wealth came from the earth and rich traditions passed from generation to generation.

Today, much of the poverty endemic to African cultures comes directly from trying for generations to force-fit European ways onto African culture.  Such attempts tear the very fabric of African culture. 

Elephants die.  Everything dies.  But dead elephants provide a wealth of tangible resources: ivory, leather, meat.  Today, the governments of range states that have labored to conserve healthy elephant populations are prohibited from recycling the resources from dead animals in order to help those that are alive.  They are barred from using these funds to protect habitat, to generate economic opportunities for their people and to conserve the vital diversity of their national eco-systems.

IWMC – World Conservation Trust fully supports the sustainable use of nature’s resources in endeavors that are both environmentally compatible and culturally enriching.  For that reason IWMC can and will support controlled trade in elephant products by range nations such as Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.  Their experience could be the model for other African nations.

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