A REVIEW OF THE STATUS OF FOREST ELEPHANTS LOXODONTA-AFRICANA IN CENTRAL-AFRICA

The status of elephants Loxodonta africana in the central African forests in 1989 is reviewed. These elephants accounted for about one-third of the continental total. However, there are few data on numbers, for only one of the six countries in the region has been censused. The estimates for the other countries came from a limited set of dung-counts or a model based on those dung-counts. Poaching for ivory was widespread in four of the six countries, but the lack of census data makes it difficult to assess its impact. The distribution of elephants was determined by the intensity of poaching, the distribution of roads and settlements, and the distribution of secondary forest. Ivory exports from central Africa accounted for about one-third of the continental total in 1979-1988, but this included an unknown proportion of ivory from savanna elephants. While poaching is the most urgent short-term threat, the problems posed by expanding human activities in the forest zone need to be addressed by national elephant conservation plans. The main constraints on elephant management are the general lack of information on basic forest elephant biology, the weakness of government wildlife departments, corruption, the vast areas to be covered, the difficulty of access to remote forests, and the impossibility of surveillance from the air.