Which Ingredient Is Missing From Nigeria’s Recipe to Save Its Elephants?

At an elephant sanctuary on the banks of the River Kwai, a musician played his piano and the elephants responded. One, he reported, stayed for Beethoven but left when the piece was by Schubert.

Whereas Thailand’s elephants were in the news several years ago, Semafor recently alerted us to the plight of Nigeria’s. In both countries, the elephant is an endangered species.

Nigeria’s Elephants

Seeing elephant numbers decline from 1200-1500 30 years ago to 300-400 now, conservationists worry about extinction, especially for the 100 savanna-dwelling elephants that remain. Responding, during August 2024, the country launched a 10-year Elephant Action strategic plan.

Their problems are the same everywhere. They include ivory trade poaching, climate change, and the development that devastates habitats. In addition, the human elephant conflict that happens when elephants ravage crops is a growing problem as is the forest loss caused by urbanization and expanding a transportation infrastructure. High at 3.5%, Nigeria’s rate of forest loss constrains migration, breeding, and finding food.

The Elephant Action Plan summarized what needs to be done:

Our Bottom Line: The Tragedy of the Commons

We have a tragedy of the commons when a public resource is overused or abused. Because the land and water and animals have no private owner to oversee them and because the tradeoff can be costly, we jeopardize the commons. The result is polluted air, overfished oceans, and diminished wildlife populations.

Political scientist Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) won the economics Nobel Prize for her approach to the tragedy of the commons. Calling it the problem of the commons, she said communities do voluntarily get together when they share the same goals. Her examples ranged from not overgrazing a pasture in Switzerland to maintaining a neat refrigerator at work.

Elinor Ostrom:

Dr. Ostrom was a wise, “no-nonsense” scholar. Editing the National Elephant Action Plan, she would probably have explained the benefits of a “bottom-up” solution that came from the local villagers.

My sources and more: For some facts (not confirmed) on elephants and music, this article was my source. Then, moving on to Nigeria’s elephants, thanks to Semafor for alerting me and the Conversation for more of the facts. However, if you want all of the facts, do look at Nigeria’s “National Elephant Action Plan.”