American Scientist

January-February 2018

Volume: 106 Number: 1

Elephant numbers across Africa have dropped by as much as 60 percent since 2007. Increasing global demand for ivory, especially in China and elsewhere in Asia, has exacerbated elephant poaching in Africa and induced international outcry. This situation has prompted changes in wildlife conservation policy, often without locals’ knowledge or input. Botswana has remained a stronghold against the rise in ivory poaching. Although numbers of elephants are decreasing overall, in Botswana they are increasing or stable. The livelihoods of the people in the paths of growing numbers of elephants in Botswana are shaped by the animals’ presence. In “Living in an Elephant Landscape,” Jonathan Salerno, Lin Cassidy, Michael Drake, and Joel Hartter—a group of ecologists and geographers—talk about how wildlife conservation policy in the region currently affects locals, and how their voices could be better included in the policy-making process. (Cover photo LZT/Alamy.)