How African Elephants Fight Climate Change

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Historically about 1.1 million African forest elephants once roamed the central African rainforests.
Deforestation and poaching have diminished their population to less than one-tenth their former number.
Forest elephants likely face extinction unless action is taken.
African forest elephants are little known outside central Africa; there is virtually no ecotourism in the central African rainforests for geographic and political reasons.

As they forage and move through rainforests, elephants thin out young trees by stepping on some and consuming others, dramatically reducing vegetation density.
The remaining unbroken trees gain much better access to water and light, enabling them to grow taller and larger.
Wherever forest elephants roam, they promote the growth of larger, taller trees, enhancing the forest’s carbon storage capacity.

Biologists estimate that a recovery of African forest elephants to former population size and range would increase carbon capture by 13 metric tons (1 metric ton = 1,000 kg) per hectare (10,000 square meters).
The former range of African forest elephants was 2.2 million square kilometers.
Each square kilometer comprises 100 hectares.
Forest elephants are now at about 9 percent of their pre-poaching population.
Carbon capture from a recovery of these elephants could be equivalent to more than 6,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per square kilometer.
That amount of carbon dioxide captured equals the carbon captured by over a quarter of a million trees, or 14 times what is captured by trees in New York City’s Central Park.
Using the average market price of a metric ton of carbon dioxide—just under $25 in 2019—the total present value of the carbon-capture services of African forest elephants is over $150 billion.
Dividing the total value of the service by the current population implies each elephant is responsible for service worth more than $1.75 million.
The ivory of an elephant killed by poachers fetches only about $40,000.

The authors developed a framework for natural resource valuation that directly addresses the collective action problem in environmental protection.
Key rationale:
- Market-value measurements of services (recreation, tourism, carbon sequestration) allow dollar-to-dollar cost-benefit comparisons analogous to other assets.
- Present-monetary-value estimates of ecosystem services can motivate investment when they exceed the cost of preservation.
- Monetary valuations make the benefits concrete and can inspire behavioral responses that lead to investment and ownership.
Valuations that are actionable are based on believable stories about how assets generate cash or income and credible projections summarized in present monetary value.

Valuing natural resources and establishing a legal framework that appoints stewards and defines rights and obligations enables win-win opportunities among government, the private sector, local communities, and global partners.
Economic benefits from natural resources can be claimed and distributed to create incentives for public-private partnerships supported by nongovernmental organizations and global institutions.
Example instrument: debt-for-nature swaps (United Nations Development Programme Financing Solutions for Sustainable Development initiative)
- Under such contracts, lenders agree to reduce a developing economy’s debt or debt payments in exchange for a commitment to protect specific natural resources.
- Many countries that host forest elephants are highly indebted and could benefit from debt-for-nature swaps.
- The amount of debt relief is determined by the value of the elephants’ services, using market prices.
- Savings from debt relief would be devoted to elephant conservation and could facilitate public-private partnerships to build markets (tourism, insurance) around investing in and protecting elephants.
Nongovernmental organizations and international financial institutions could provide capacity development for public-private partnerships and insurance markets centered around natural resources.
Valuing nature for its benefits can support a virtuous cycle directing investment and enterprise toward regenerative and sustainable outcomes.

Population context noted in the article:
- It took more than 50,000 years for world population to reach 1 billion people.
- Since 1960, successive billions have been added every one to two decades.
- World population was 3 billion in 1960; it reached 6 billion around 2000.
- The United Nations projects the world population will surpass 9 billion by 2037.
- The population growth rate has been slowing from peak annual rates in excess of 2 percent in the late 1960s, to about 1 percent currently, to half that by 2050.
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates that destruction of nature can have macrocritical global impacts, underscoring the need for a course correction.
Vibrant, intact ecosystems (including healthy populations of forest elephants, great whales, mangroves, and sea grass) illustrate how valuing and investing in nature can:
- Generate a more sustainable blue-green economy,
- Help mitigate climate change,
- Realign economies toward inclusive and nature-friendly economic growth.

How African Elephants Fight Climate Change — IMF F&D, September 2020