## How African Elephants Fight Climate Change ## Source details **Canonical URL:** [How African Elephants Fight Climate Change](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/09/how-african-elephants-fight-climate-change-ralph-chami) ## Other formats - [Markdown version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/09/how-african-elephants-fight-climate-change-ralph-chami/index.md) - [Structured JSON version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/09/how-african-elephants-fight-climate-change-ralph-chami/index.json) - [Bundle manifest](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/09/how-african-elephants-fight-climate-change-ralph-chami/bundle-manifest.json) ## Bibliographic details - Authors: RALPH CHAMI, CONNEL FULLENKAMP, THOMAS COSIMANO, FABIO BERZAGHI - Published: September 1, 2020 - DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0395-6 --- ### African forest elephants and their conservation status - 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. ### Ecological role: elephants as environmental engineers - 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. ### Quantitative impacts on carbon capture - 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. ### Valuation framework and investment incentives - 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. ### Policy instruments, institutional arrangements, and economic opportunities - 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. ### Broader context and policy implications - 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* --- _Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/09/how-african-elephants-fight-climate-change-ralph-chami_