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Goal: Fund collaring operations of last savanna elephants in DRC for its conservation. Type: Nature Based Solutions: Climate Keystone Species Conservation. Location: Upemba National Park (DRC). Organization: Forgotten Parks Foundation (Non-profit) UPEMBA Documentary Trailer

The Project

Katanga in the South of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was an elephant capital. Wildlife was abundant until the 1980s and then declined again in the 1990s and 2000s following political instability, wars and the resulting economic crisis and insecurity. Until the early 1990s, elephants migrated annually between Zambia and northwest of Lake Upemba, following the Lufira Valley. For years, it was believed that elephants had completely disappeared from the Katanga region.

Pilots were regularly flying the Katanga sky and never saw any elephants. However, information from remote villages reported the presence of these gentle giants and the damage they caused to crops. Since 2003, a local conservation organization in Katanga, named BAK, tried to locate these elephants, but it was only in July 2007 that they were able to confirm their presence with the first photos taken by one of the sector wardens of Upemba National Park (UNP). In October 2007, a first recognition flight took place and a herd of around 85 elephants was observed in the marshy areas north of the Lufira river close to Upemba National Park.

Ten years later and after extensive patrolling, rangers of Upemba National Park were able to observe around 150 elephants. This was the beginning of a race to try to protect the last population of the savanna elephants in the DRC. In April 2023, the existence of this last remaining pure savanna elephant population was confirmed during a visit of Chris Thouless (Elephant Crisis Fund).

This is a unique population, of national importance for the DRC, that needs to be protected. Collaring them will allow us to better understand and protect them from human pressure.

Main Threats:

• Insecurity: Armed militias roam around Upemba National Park (UNP) and often go inside the park to kill the elephants and sell the precious ivory on black markets.

• Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC): Elephants cause damages to both crops and human settlements, with direct financial impact on community members that often result in retaliatory killing of elephants. This conflict is one of the major obstacles to the sustainable conservation of elephants in UNP.

• Insufficient data collection and analysis: Understanding movement, distribution and abundance is key for the delivery of efficient conservation plans. Understanding the HEC issue is limited by the lack of systematic data collection; information is either not collected or not accurate.

This collaring mission will address these threats and challenges by establishing a system to monitor and track the elephants to protect them from human pressure and enable a pacific co-existence with the local communities.

Why is this a Climate Solution?

Elephants as Environmental Engineers

Elephants act as "environmental engineers" by creating disturbances in UNP Gallery Forests that promote carbon capture and storage. Through their feeding habits and movements, they knock over trees, trample vegetation, and create gaps in the forest canopy. This process, known as "elephant gardening," stimulates the growth of dense understory vegetation that absorbs and stores more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (1)

The increase in carbon storage caused by elephant activity is substantial. Biologists estimate that if the population of African elephants returned to its former population of 1.1 million species and recovered their historical range, it could increase carbon capture by an astonishing 13 metric tons per hectare.

Considering their former range of 2.2 million square kilometers, a recovery of these elephants could lead to carbon capture equivalent to more than 6,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per square kilometer. (2) (3)

A study projected the future path of carbon service production by African forest elephants using a spatially-explicit demographic model. If elephants were protected, their carbon capture services would be worth an estimated $35.9 billion and store 377 million tons of carbon across tropical Africa. Conversely, the continued poaching of elephants would result in a loss of $10-14 billion worth of carbon services. (4)

Grassland Carbon Sequestration

While the studies primarily focus on forest elephants, savannah elephants also play a role in carbon sequestration through their impact on grassland ecosystems. Grasslands store approximately one-third of the global terrestrial carbon stocks and can act as an important soil carbon sink. (5)

Elephants' grazing patterns, trampling, and disturbances can influence the processes of plant carbon inputs and microbial activity, contributing to soil carbon sequestration in grassland ecosystems.

The protection and conservation of elephants, both forest and savannah species, can significantly contribute to our efforts in mitigating climate change through their unique ability to promote carbon capture and sequestration in forest and grassland ecosystems.

References:

• Berzaghi, F., M. Longo, M. Ciais, et al. 2019. "Carbon Stocks in Central African Forests Enhanced by Elephant Disturbance." Nature Geoscience 12:725–29. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0395-6
• Chami, R., T. Cosimano, C. Fullenkamp, and S. Oztosun. 2019. "Nature's Solution to Climate Change." Finance and Development 56 (4): 34–38. https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-solution-to-climate-change-chami.htm
• Chami, R., C. Fullenkamp, F. Berzaghi, S. Español-Jiménez, M. Marcondes, and J. Palazzo. 2020. "On Valuing Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change: A Framework with Application to Elephants and Whales." Economic Research Initiatives at Duke Working Paper 297, Duke University. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3686168
• Berzaghi, F., Chami, R., T. Cosimano, C. Fullenkamp. 2022. “Financing conservation by valuing carbon services produced by wild animals.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119(22). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9295732/
• Bai Y, Cotrufo MF. Grassland soil carbon sequestration: Current understanding, challenges, and solutions. Science. 2022 Aug 5;377(6606):603-608. doi: 10.1126/science.abo2380. PMID: 35926033. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35926033/

Financials

Find in this link the overview of the total costs of the collaring operation, we don’t expect to fully fund it with this grant but a substantial contribution would make a great difference and enable us to engage more funders.

The Team

Christine Lain: Director FPF with 16 years of experience in conservation in Africa with a deep knowledge on african biodiversity gained at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Ruffin Mpanga Head of Biomonitoring with over 14 years of experience on wildlife conservation and veterinary studies. Plus Support Team. Tom Smeele Chief Financial Officer with 9 years of experience in sustainable finance, management and legal operations. Rodrigo Zapata Head of Innovation with 4 years of experience in sustainability, impact and new technologies applied to conservation. Manuel Weber Ecological Consultant with 4 years of experience in african wildlife conservation with a MSc in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich and a major in Ecology.

The Partners

African Parks Save the Elephants Elephant Crisis Fund Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Wildlife Conservation Network Wildlife Conservation Society