Resource wars and conflict ivory: the impact of civil conflict on elephants in the Democratic Republic of Congo--the case of the Okapi Reserve

Abstract

Human conflict generally has substantial negative impacts on wildlife and conservation. The recent civil war (1995-2006) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) resulted in a significant loss of wildlife, including elephants, due to institutional collapse, lawlessness and unbridled exploitation of natural resources such as minerals, wood, ivory and bushmeat. We used data from distance sampling surveys conducted before and after the war in a protected forest, the Okapi Faunal Reserve, to document changes in elephant abundance and distribution. We employed Generalized Additive Models to relate changes in elephant distribution to human and environmental factors. Populations declined by nearly fifty percent coinciding with a major increase in elephant poaching as indicated by reports of ivory trade during the war. Our results suggest that humans influenced elephant distribution far more than habitat, both before and after the war, but post-war models explained more of the variation. Elephant abundance declined more, closer to the park boundary and to areas of intense human activity. After the war, elephant densities were relatively higher in the centre of the park where they were better protected, suggesting that this area may have acted as a refuge. In other sites in Eastern DRC, where no protection was provided, elephants were even more decimated. Post-war dynamics, such as weakened institutions, human movements and availability of weapons, continue to affect elephants. Survival of remaining populations and recovery will be determined by these persistent factors and by new threats associated with growing human populations and exploitation of natural resources. Prioritizing wildlife protection, curbing illegal trade in ivory and bushmeat, and strengthening national institutions and organizations in charge of conservation will be crucial to counter these threats.

Figure 1. Map of the Okapi Faunal Reserve with sampling locations.

A. Boundaries of the reserve, roads, main towns, park headquarters and sampling locations. B. Geographic location in Central Africa.

Figure 2. Poaching operations, bushmeat and ivory markets and poaching intensity in the RFO, 2002–2003.

Number of poaching operations observed (left map), number of bushmeat markets observed (middle map) and estimation of elephant hunting intensity (right map).

Figure 3. Elephant density surface maps for 1995 and 2006 derived using Ordinary Kriging.

A. Dung density surface (dung per hectare) in 1995. B. Dung density surface (dung per hectare) in 2006.

Figure 4. Gam plots of the effect of each smoothed variable on estimated dung densities.

The gam plots show the nature of the modeled relationships between the smoothed predictor and the dependent variable. The effect of the predictor on the dependent variable is shown on the y-axis for different values of the predictor (x-axis). Estimates are shown by the solid line and 95% confidence intervals by the dashed lines. A rug plot just above the X-axis indicates the density of observations.