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| | | | PROGRAMME INFO | | | |
| | | Nature offers a window on global natural history. Each week Mark Carwardine rubs shoulders with animals and experts, providing a unique insight into the natural world, the environment, and the magnificent creatures that inhabit it.
nhuradio@bbc.co.uk | | | | | LISTEN AGAIN 30 min | | | |
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"What I enjoy most about Nature is the incredible variety of subjects. One week we could be fishing for zooplankton off the coast of Iceland and the next we could be hunting for fossils in Dorset. We're also very fortunate in meeting many of the world's experts - all of whom are really passionate about their subjects. It's good being able to bring all of these experiences into one programme that truly explores the natural world."
Mark Carwardine |
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|  | | | African Elephant |
Empathy and Ivory
Conservationists are worried that a recent decision to sell off stockpiles of ivory could spell disaster for wild African and Asian elephants. At the meeting of CITES, the Convention for the Importation and Trade in Endangered Species, in November 2002, a majority of the 160 nations represented voted to allow South Africa, Namibia and Botswana to sell 60 tonnes of legally-held ivory.
In Nature this week, Mark Carwardine examines the repercussions of that decision and explores the conditions that will attach to the sales.
Trade in ivory is illegal, but continues to supply the demands of markets in the Far East where the substance is highly valued . The one-off sales by the three countries are subject to conditions which specify that destinations and supervision of the ivory must be strictly observed and catalogued, but even so, conservationists are certain that sales will fuel an increasing demand for ivory.
The particular conditions that worry Paula Kahumbu of the Kenya Wildlife Service are those that specify that sales should not have an impact on wild elephant populations . She believes that poaching will inevitably increase, putting strains on her department’s budget , and further reducing wild elephants. She also tells Mark that scientific monitoring of the effects of poaching is extremely difficult as we have no reliable baseline data to work from. Counting wild elephants is very difficult even in the savannahs and in forests is practically impossible. Dung counts there have a wide margin of error and she estimates that populations of forest elephants could have declined by 60% before that decline is noticed.
Monitoring forest elephants, which are now believed to be a separate species, may be may simpler by listening to their calls. Katy Payne, author of Silent Thunder, has worked extensively on the infrasonic calls of savannah elephants, that is those calls which are too low for the human ear. In the forests of the Central African Republic, she and colleagues from the Bioacoustic Research Programme at Cornell University, have set up the Elephant Listening Project. By identifying the sex and age of the elephant calls, it’s possible to detect the social structure of elephants groups hidden deep in the forest without seeing them. This project may be the best way to monitor populations of elephants in these poverty-stricken and often war-torn countries.
But Katy believes that there is a further compelling reason to conserving elephants. In her wide experience of studying them, she has observed many examples of compassion and self-awareness which, she maintains, places them in the same category as great apes, whales and dolphins and even humans. Therefore, she and some other conservationists think that there should be a moral dimension to any strategy to conserve elephants.
For Paula Kahumbu, that will depend on how the West views Africa’s efforts at using its natural resources…she believes that if the world wishes to save wild elephants, it should contribute to their conservation. | | |
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