World Elephant Day 2023

August 2023

A time to celebrate elephants, this global movement offers a way to share and collaborate on conservation solutions to protect elephants and their habitats.

Since its founding in 2012 by Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand along with over 100 elephant conservation organizations worldwide, World Elephant Day has reached millions of people worldwide, who love and want to support and protect elephants.

World Elephant Day is dedicated to raising awareness about the critical issues faced by elephants and the fight for their protection and conservation. It highlights the challenges wild elephants experience; habitat loss, poaching for ivory, human-elephant conflicts, and the need for better conservation efforts.

The African Forest Elephant Foundation (AFEF) supports this important day every year, in an effort to raise awareness of the lesser known and critically endangered African forest elephant. It is a crucial day also, to recognise the tremendous efforts and risks taken everyday to protect these impressive animals from poachers in the wild. The AFEF's work actively supports Rangers through the 'Boots on the Ground' campaign, providing vital equipment and resources to ensure the success of these important patrols.

It is estimated that, every day, 100 African elephants are killed by poachers. The demand for ivory in African and Asian markets has led to the slaughter of thousands of elephants.

This World Elephant Day the AFEF is running a 'Move for Elephants' campaign to raise funds for projects protecting the African forest elephant and its habitat. So get your boots on and get moving!

Visit our page here and get involved. Keep up to date on our social media channels throughout the month.

Climate heros

Did you know? It is estimated that each forest elephant is responsible for a carbon capture potential of around $1.75 million (possibly up to $5 million at today's carbon credit value!). According to a 2019 study, each forest elephant helps increase the rainforests’ carbon capture by 9,500 metric tons of CO2 per square kilometer. This is equal to driving 2,047 gas-guzzling cars for a year.

Forest elephants are providing essential ecological services in these forests, helping us fight climate change. The ultimate climate hero!

Find out more in our upcoming blog on climate change and the role of the forest elephant.

Happy World Elephant Day! Donate today and make a difference.

Equipment successfully delivered to Ziama Rangers

Jan 15, 2019

The main objective of our project was to equip the rangers of Ziama in Guinea (West Africa) with high quality equipment to ensure that they are able to conduct their daily duties safely and effectively, thus ensuring the protection of Ziama’s last forest elephants, as well as their habitat.

The forest elephants in Ziama are the last remaining forest elephants in the Republic of Guinea. The eco-guards on the ground are the elephants’ last hope of survival in a region where resource extraction takes priority and poaching is rife. Protecting this group of forest elephants will be vital for the genetic biodiversity of forest elephant populations in the future.

We are now very pleased to announce that AFEF has successfully delivered boots, socks, backpacks and solar rechargeable flashlights to the rangers of Ziama.

Thanks to the generous donation from International Elephant Foundation, the Ziama rangers are now better equipped to carry out their daily duties more safely and effectively resulting in better protection of Ziama’s last forest elephants and their habitat.

Please see our photo gallery.

Poachers arrested in Dzanga Sangha

Nov 19, 2018

In August 2017 AFEF delivered 119 pairs of boots and 595 pairs of socks to the game rangers in Dzanga Sangha, Central African Republic, to help them better protect forest elephants and their habitat. Rangers in the Congo Basin work in very tough and dangerous conditions so it is vital that they have good quality equipment to ensure that they can carry out their work safely and effectively.

We are pleased to say that one year on, all the boots and socks are still being used and none of them have been reported broken. The rangers really appreciate the donation and are taking good care of the boots, which is fantastic news.

We are also pleased to announce that, on the night of 09 November 2018, the recently formed rapid response team arrested three elephant poachers, seizing one .375 calibre hunting rifle and two tusks while wearing the AFEF boots & socks. We are proud to see the continuous positive impact our project is having on the ground.

This is great news however there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure the long term survival of forest elephants in the Congo Basin. Regarding the long-term sustainability of this project, WWF-CAR have recently signed a number of MOUs, including one with Conservation Justice, an NGO that aims to protect elephants and other threatened species from poaching and wildlife trade by increasing the level of wildlife law enforcement and deterring potential elephant poachers and ivory traffickers from conducting these activities.

In addition, WWF-CAR are in the process of developing a community ranger network in Dzanga Sangha to ensure local community involvement and training to further protect the local fauna and flora from poaching, logging and illegal wildlife trade.

AFEF are continuing to work with WWF-CAR to help support this important work on the ground so please consider making a donation to help protect forest elephants in Dzanga Sangha as well as their forest habitat.