African elephants have less room to roam than ever before as expanding human populations convert land for agriculture, settlements and developments. The elephants’ range shrank from three million square miles in 1979 to just over one million square miles in 2007. Commercial logging, plantations for biofuels and extractive industries like logging and mining not only destroy habitat but also open access to remote elephant forests for poachers. Poverty, armed conflict and the displacement of people by civil conflict also add to habitat loss and fragmentation. All of these push elephants into smaller islands of protected areas and hinder elephants’ freedom to roam. (WWF)
-Human expansion
• Population growth
• Fencing off large areas changes migration routes, forcing elephants and humans to interact much closer than ever before, causing conflicts
- there are groups specifically focusing on training people how to handle Human/Elephant Conflicts.
- resource extraction poisons and destroys natural habitats
