Elephant conservation and corruption beyond the ivory trade

African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are in decline through illegal killing for ivory, with estimated reductions in approximately 75% of 306 studied populations (Wittemyer et al. 2014). The legal trade of ivory from natural mortality and problem animal control has been suggested as a way to reduce illegal killing because it can provide a direct and regular source of funding to elephant in Africa (Stiles 2004), people who currently depend on overstretched government budgets and grants from international donors to support their work. Such international trade has not taken place since 2008, but several African countries have been stockpiling their ivory in expectation of future sales, and many countries outside Africa have legal domestic markets for ivory certified as antique or coming from these legal stockpiles. Bennett (2015) argues that such trade is counterproductive should be banned because current legal domestic markets have been subverted by corruption and are allowing the laundering of illegal ivory and because reducing this corruption to acceptable levels within the next few decades is impossible. impact of corruption on conservation outcomes is often ignored, so we welcome Bennett’s article for highlighting the issue. However, singling out the ivory trade gives the impression that it is uniquely affected by corruption. We argue that corruption potentially undermines every aspect of elephant conservation and there is no evidence that any approach is more or less susceptible. Thus, the long-term future of elephants requires conservationists to learn lessons from other sectors to and tackle this problem.