A bottle of special milk for a baby elephant in Zambia

One of the rescued baby elephants in the elephant orphanage in Zambia is called Lani. The little elephant girl came to the station in December 2018. Her poor health suggested that she had been wandering around alone for a long time. Her sad story can only be guessed at: her family was probably killed by poachers too. The global trade in precious ivory continues. Many poachers are after the elephants' tusks. Like Lani, many baby elephants in Zambia lose their herds and are left to fend for themselves. Lani is taken in at the Game Rangers International (GRI) orphanage, receives medical care and is nursed back to health with special milk. If all goes well, she can be released back into the wild in a protected area in a few years.

These developments have dramatic consequences: elephants are now rarely or no longer found in many African countries. The African elephant (Loxodonta africana) is now listed as endangered on the Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN, 2019). In 1989, the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) banned cross-border trade in ivory. This decision was subsequently hotly debated. In 1999 and 2008, the trade in tusks from stocks was permitted again. Various international resolutions call on all governments to stop the ivory trade. These include resolutions from the European Parliament, the World Conservation Congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the United Nations. But ivory continues to be traded in Asia and Europe. For example, the EU approves trade in ivory acquired before 1990 (Der Spiegel, 2018). However, it is almost impossible to check the age of the ivory and certificates are sometimes forged. Ivory is often passed off and sold as antique. The survival of African elephants remains at risk.