AS KENYA in a very public display of revulsion to poaching, it is clear the world has failed elephants spectacularly.
Mass poaching, often by paramilitary groups using poison and automatic guns, continues unabated. Moreover, haven’t been definitively outlawed and legal hunts are still allowed in parts of Africa.
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The , plus the protection policies of individual countries, and the efforts of researchers and conservationists appealing to existing laws haven’t been enough to halt the march towards extinction.
Studies indicate that, across Africa, . This tragedy goes beyond individual deaths. It is an attack on elephant “society” – I would say a genocide – and it should be treated as such.
Elephants, which are capable of rationality and self-awareness, are not only worthy of protection as individuals but as a “people”. , like ours, are tuned for elaborate societies and relationships. Their complex organisation is based on females living in units that travel together, using well-developed forms of communication, and on males in loose-knit “bachelor” groups where adults guide the young.
Older females are the overall leaders, acting as hubs to connect many groups and as reservoirs of vital knowledge, such as where to find scarce food and water.
Poaching can rip apart this society, leaving elephants more vulnerable than ever.
State-sanctioned “cullings” in the 1970s and 1980s . Social links and stored knowledge were disrupted and surviving elephants , such as persistent fear, abnormal startle response, dejection and hyper-aggression. Asocial behaviour in young elephants also rose.
The international community must intervene before it becomes too late. But how?
Philosophers Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka “sovereign” territories, where they might live a self-determined life. It is time to try this for elephants. Of course they would be unable to defend such territories, so elephant “nations” would have to be protectorates.
To protect humans, we have devised global institutions under which countries administer territories with an obligation to protect inhabitants. Why can’t progressive African states carve out elephant territories within their boundaries, assuming a similar responsibility towards them, under UN supervision and backed by international law?
Tackling poachers could then involve all nations, not just those on the front line.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Elephants under fire”
