The future of African elephants is threatened as a result of illegal hunting for their tusks and body parts, the trafficking and sale of ivory, and the sharp rise of conflict between humans and elephants through an escalation of competition for space and resources.
But, by ending the ivory crisis, promoting human-elephant coexistence, and protecting elephant landscapes, African elephants’ chances for survival will dramatically improve.
To achieve this, the Elephant Crisis Fund (ECF) identifies and supports the most effective projects and partners in Africa, and in ivory consuming nations, to end the ivory crisis and secure a future for elephants. The ECF exists to fuel their efforts, encourage collaboration, and deliver rapid impact on the ground.
The Elephant Crisis Fund (ECF) launched in 2013 and is a joint initiative of Save the Elephants and the Wildlife Conservation Network. It invests in organizations, big and small, to ensure that elephant populations across Africa are able to thrive without threat from ivory poaching and conflict with humanity. Over 10 years of impact we have witnessed a profound transformation in the plight of elephants, with rampant poaching reduced across much of the continent, but escalating conflict between elephants and people in the face of ever-increasing agricultural expansion and infrastructure development into elephant habitat.
In 2024/2025 we will continue to support partners to address these threats, through both funding and technical support from STE’s teams of experts. We will expand support for effective coexistence methods, utilizing STE’s Human-Elephant Coexistence Toolbox, and for longer-term approaches to coexistence through land use planning to keep elephant corridors open and communities safe. We will continue supporting key elephant strongholds and vulnerable on-the-edge populations, with an increasing focus on technical support from STE’s elephant tracking experts. We will also continue to fund efforts to dismantle criminal networks and to better understand the changing nature of the ivory trade. To date, the ECF has committed nearly US$37 million to 527 projects in 44 countries across 118 organizations. Please see our 10-Year Anniversary Report and 2024 mid-year newsletter for further details and recent updates from the field.