Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

[ ] 38 Protecting Mali’s elephants Wildlife in or near conflict zones is particularly vulnerable to poaching. Armed groups can take advantage of the political instability and fragile state of law and order to engage in wildlife crime. Species such as elephants and rhinos can quickly become currency to fund armed conflict due to the enormous value commanded by ivory and rhino horn in illegal markets. The situation in Mali was particularly dire. Mali’s elephants are Africa’s northernmost herd, adapted to survive in harsh desert conditions. But they were being slaughtered in staggering numbers as ivory traffickers took advantage of a security vacuum in the region. By early 2016, the situation had deteriorated so dramatically that it was possible that all of the country’s elephants could be wiped out by the end of the decade. The GEF is working to meet the challenge of elephant conservation in northern Mali. The GEF’s objective is to protect Mali’s elephants in key sites and enhance the livelihoods of the local communities that live along the migration route to reduce human-elephant conflict by, for example, strengthening the legislative framework and national capacity to address wildlife crime, and protecting elephants from poaching and securing seasonal migration routes and key habitat. Shutterstock