Save the Elephant, Save the World

The title of this article was inspired by the first season of the NBC TV Series Heroes, premised on “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World”. The cheerleader is part of a wider team of heroes who by working together can save the world. Stepping back from our screens into the real world, the cheerleader is the African Forest Elephant which is part of a much wider team of other “keystone” species. A keystone species is one which has a disproportionate effect on its ecosystem, providing the foundation for new habitats for other species to thrive. The premise of this article is if we are serious about saving our world then we need to save nature’s “super heroes”: the elephant along with its team of keystone species.

If we continue using filmographic analogies then I would argue that for too long we have been taking the blue pill instead of the red pill from Morpheus in the movie “The Matrix”. By taking the blue pill we continue to remain in contented ignorance. However, the cost of maintaining this matrix illusion is becoming too high as the reality of our world is increasingly coming to light.

This reality is one where global temperature is rising, ecosystem destruction both on land and in the ocean is increasing and we are seeing the man-made sixth mass extinction of species. According to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) the planet’s wildlife population has plummeted by 68% since 1970. One of them, according to the IUCN, is the African Forest Elephant which has recently been recognised as an independent species but also as one that has perhaps only 10 years left before going extinct: “The number of African Forest Elephants fell by more than 86% over a period of 31 years, according to the assessments”.

You may rightly ask yourself how have we got here? Since the 1960s the world has seen unprecedented economic growth with GDP growing by more than 5,000%. Nations’ success has been measured by GDP, where the general rule of thumb is the faster GDP rises the better an economy is said to be performing. However, with economic growth comes increased resource depletion and production of greenhouse gases leading to our present climate crisis and ecosystem destruction. This leads us to question whether infinite economic growth is possible on a planet of finite resources?

We need a way of measuring economic success that considers its impact on climate change and biodiversity, instead of considering them as externalities. “The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review” commissioned by the UK’s HM Treasury in 2019 reinforced that very point. It documented how our economic models have not assigned the correct value to the ecosystem services that the natural resources we depend on for development provide. In other words, the raw materials used to produce the device on which you’re reading this article aren’t properly accounted for in our development model.

To tackle these challenges, governments, firms and households around the world have rushed to the “panacea” of carbon offsets, mainly through planting trees. Projects like the Trillion Trees is a testament to that. Planting trees plays an important part in fighting climate change but unfortunately has limited to no impact on ecosystem destruction and on the sixth mass extinction.

As such, planting trees is but one item from a set of tools we use for developing a holistic and comprehensive solution to bringing balance back to our planet. Enter the African Forest Elephant. They are often called ecosystem engineers, as the conservationist, Ian Redmond calls them, the great gardeners of the rainforests. By their sheer size and incredible appetite these elephants have a natural tendency of thinning out the forest by destroying smaller saplings and shrubs.

This thinning process means that the remaining trees have less competition for light, water, nutrients and space: “These changes favour the emergence of fewer and larger trees with higher wood density. Such a shift in the African rainforest’s structure and species composition increases the long-term equilibrium of aboveground biomass” – source: Nature Geoscience “Carbon stocks in central African forests enhanced by elephant disturbance”. This peer reviewed, scientific research concluded that forests with elephants capture 7% more carbon, or 60 tonnes per hectare, than those whose elephants have been either killed or driven out.

Building on that 7% differential of carbon capture by forests with elephants compared to those without led Ralph Chami, Assistant Director at the IMF, to model the value forest elephants provide in terms of carbon sequestration services at $1.75m per elephant over their 60 year lifespan. A value that is substantially higher than the $40,000 a dead elephant is worth for its ivory.

The irony is that we now have a market for dead elephants but not for those that are living — even though the living elephants are worth 44 times as much as those that are dead. In reality, elephants are worth far more than simply the $1.75m in carbon sequestration services they provide. The IMF didn’t value the other ecosystem services provided by forest elephants as markets don’t yet exist for them. For example, it didn’t value the impact elephants have in maintaining healthy functioning forests in countries such as Gabon. These forests play an important role of evapotranspiration which is the sum of water evaporation from rainforest entering the atmosphere, in terms of rainfall, temperature and water security in the Congo Basin. In doing so they ensure stability, agricultural productivity and resilience for populations not just in Gabon but in the entire region.

Professor Lee White, Minister of Water, Forests, Sea, the Environment, charged with Climate Change and Land-use planning for the Gabonese Republic, recently stated in “The Africa Report” that losing these elephants would result in “losing the Congo Basin rainforests, releasing 80 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere and tipping the planet towards a plus 5 degrees C future. The insecurity, human migration and loss of ecosystem services that would occur as deforestation increases in pace and the Congo Basin forests dwindle, and with them the rainfall they generate locally and regionally, would fuel a continental crisis spilling over into Europe and the Middle East. It takes us beyond a tipping point where ecological and climatic catastrophes will cascade out of control globally.”

As in the Heroes series, the cheerleader is part of a wider team of heroes who endeavour to save the world. The forest elephant is one of many other keystone species that work tirelessly in providing us ecosystem services that fight both climate change and protect our biodiversity. They provide balance to a world that we have put out of balance. As we approach COP26 in Glasgow this November, perhaps it is time for us to take the red pill to face the reality of the situation that we have created and start valuing and building markets around the ecosystem services provided by keystone species before we drive them into extinction.

Walid Al Saqqaf
https://www.linkedin.com/in/walid-al-saqqaf/
CEO and co-founder, Rebalance Earth
https://www.rebalance.earth/

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Save the Elephant, Save the World

The title of this article was inspired by the first season of the NBC TV Series Heroes, premised on “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World”. The cheerleader is part of a wider team of heroes who by working together can save the world. Stepping back from our screens into the real world, the cheerleader is the African Forest Elephant which is part of a much wider team of other “keystone” species. A keystone species is one which has a disproportionate effect on its ecosystem, providing the foundation for new habitats for other species to thrive. The premise of this article is if we are serious about saving our world then we need to save nature’s “super heroes”: the elephant along with its team of keystone species.

If we continue using filmographic analogies then I would argue that for too long we have been taking the blue pill instead of the red pill from Morpheus in the movie “The Matrix”. By taking the blue pill we continue to remain in contented ignorance. However, the cost of maintaining this matrix illusion is becoming too high as the reality of our world is increasingly coming to light.

This reality is one where global temperature is rising, ecosystem destruction both on land and in the ocean is increasing and we are seeing the man-made sixth mass extinction of species. According to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) the planet’s wildlife population has plummeted by 68% since 1970. One of them, according to the IUCN, is the African Forest Elephant which has recently been recognised as an independent species but also as one that has perhaps only 10 years left before going extinct: “The number of African Forest Elephants fell by more than 86% over a period of 31 years, according to the assessments”.

You may rightly ask yourself how have we got here? Since the 1960s the world has seen unprecedented economic growth with GDP growing by more than 5,000%. Nations’ success has been measured by GDP, where the general rule of thumb is the faster GDP rises the better an economy is said to be performing. However, with economic growth comes increased resource depletion and production of greenhouse gases leading to our present climate crisis and ecosystem destruction. This leads us to question whether infinite economic growth is possible on a planet of finite resources?

We need a way of measuring economic success that considers its impact on climate change and biodiversity, instead of considering them as externalities. “The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review” commissioned by the UK’s HM Treasury in 2019 reinforced that very point. It documented how our economic models have not assigned the correct value to the ecosystem services that the natural resources we depend on for development provide. In other words, the raw materials used to produce the device on which you’re reading this article aren’t properly accounted for in our development model.

To tackle these challenges, governments, firms and households around the world have rushed to the “panacea” of carbon offsets, mainly through planting trees. Projects like the Trillion Trees is a testament to that. Planting trees plays an important part in fighting climate change but unfortunately has limited to no impact on ecosystem destruction and on the sixth mass extinction.

As such, planting trees is but one item from a set of tools we use for developing a holistic and comprehensive solution to bringing balance back to our planet. Enter the African Forest Elephant. They are often called ecosystem engineers, as the conservationist, Ian Redmond calls them, the great gardeners of the rainforests. By their sheer size and incredible appetite these elephants have a natural tendency of thinning out the forest by destroying smaller saplings and shrubs.

This thinning process means that the remaining trees have less competition for light, water, nutrients and space: “These changes favour the emergence of fewer and larger trees with higher wood density. Such a shift in the African rainforest’s structure and species composition increases the long-term equilibrium of aboveground biomass” – source: Nature Geoscience “Carbon stocks in central African forests enhanced by elephant disturbance”. This peer reviewed, scientific research concluded that forests with elephants capture 7% more carbon, or 60 tonnes per hectare, than those whose elephants have been either killed or driven out.

Building on that 7% differential of carbon capture by forests with elephants compared to those without led Ralph Chami, Assistant Director at the IMF, to model the value forest elephants provide in terms of carbon sequestration services at $1.75m per elephant over their 60 year lifespan. A value that is substantially higher than the $40,000 a dead elephant is worth for its ivory.

The irony is that we now have a market for dead elephants but not for those that are living — even though the living elephants are worth 44 times as much as those that are dead. In reality, elephants are worth far more than simply the $1.75m in carbon sequestration services they provide. The IMF didn’t value the other ecosystem services provided by forest elephants as markets don’t yet exist for them. For example, it didn’t value the impact elephants have in maintaining healthy functioning forests in countries such as Gabon. These forests play an important role of evapotranspiration which is the sum of water evaporation from rainforest entering the atmosphere, in terms of rainfall, temperature and water security in the Congo Basin. In doing so they ensure stability, agricultural productivity and resilience for populations not just in Gabon but in the entire region.

Professor Lee White, Minister of Water, Forests, Sea, the Environment, charged with Climate Change and Land-use planning for the Gabonese Republic, recently stated in “The Africa Report” that losing these elephants would result in “losing the Congo Basin rainforests, releasing 80 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere and tipping the planet towards a plus 5 degrees C future. The insecurity, human migration and loss of ecosystem services that would occur as deforestation increases in pace and the Congo Basin forests dwindle, and with them the rainfall they generate locally and regionally, would fuel a continental crisis spilling over into Europe and the Middle East. It takes us beyond a tipping point where ecological and climatic catastrophes will cascade out of control globally.”

As in the Heroes series, the cheerleader is part of a wider team of heroes who endeavour to save the world. The forest elephant is one of many other keystone species that work tirelessly in providing us ecosystem services that fight both climate change and protect our biodiversity. They provide balance to a world that we have put out of balance. As we approach COP26 in Glasgow this November, perhaps it is time for us to take the red pill to face the reality of the situation that we have created and start valuing and building markets around the ecosystem services provided by keystone species before we drive them into extinction.

Walid Al Saqqaf
https://www.linkedin.com/in/walid-al-saqqaf/
CEO and co-founder, Rebalance Earth
https://www.rebalance.earth/

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