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Fish and Wildlife Service Awards $1.2 Million for African Elephant Conservation
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded $1,277,921 to support 25 new grants and supplement four existing grants for the conservation of elephants in 15 African countries in 2007, Director H. Dale Hall announced today.  Partners' contributions raised the total amount for elephant conservation to more than $4 million.
 
The grants support field projects in Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The funding will support a diverse range of activities to improve elephant survivorship, including collaring individual elephants to better understand their seasonal movements, supporting antipoaching efforts (using foot patrols, vehicles, and aircraft), creating environmental education packages for teachers to use in rural schools, and mapping habitat use by local people and their livestock in order to implement more sustainable land use plans.  In addition, funding was allocated to three projects that provide assistance in all 37 African elephant range states.

Elephant numbers plummeted during the last century from an estimated 10 million animals to fewer than 500,000 by 1989.  Congress responded that year by passing the African Elephant Conservation Act, which in turn established the African Elephant Conservation Fund.  The Fund is authorized to receive $1.4 to $5.4 million annually.

The African elephant is one of two surviving genera of the Elephantidae family that once roamed many parts of the earth.  Recent genetic studies show that African elephants are actually comprised of two distinct species, Loxodonta africana (commonly referred to as savanna elephants) and Loxodonta cyclotis (commonly referred to as forest elephants).  Although more closely related to extinct mammoths, the African elephants' nearest and only surviving relatives are the Asian elephants, Elephas maximus.  Elephants are herbivores, capable of eating both grass and woody vegetation, and formerly occurred in a range of habitats throughout Africa, including tropical rainforests, montane forests, semi-arid savannas, and arid deserts.  Elephants live in family units dominated by female matriarchs and have complex social networks.  They communicate using ultralow frequency sound, much of it below the range of human hearing.

Since 1989, elephant populations have recovered in some countries while in other countries elephant numbers are still in decline due to poaching and habitat loss.  Some elephant populations in southern Africa are steadily increasing, but lack the habitat to migrate or shift their range in response to their needs for food and water.

The African Elephant Conservation Fund is administered by the Service's Wildlife Without Borders Program. The funds were established by Congress to provide international assistance for conserving species that face a variety of threats, including poaching, illegal trafficking, human conflict, habitat loss and disease.
A complete list of the elephant conservation grants and summaries follows, below.
For more information about the Service's international programs, visit http://www.fws.gov/international/dicprograms/wwbp.htm.


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The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.

US Fish and Wildlife Service Division of International
 
 
 

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