Updating IUCN’s African Elephant Database

African Elephant Database and African Elephant Status Report

Supported by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

Research

Project Type

Regional

Project Scope

Africa

Country/Region

4 Years

Project Length

June 25, 2021

Start

September 15, 2025

Completion

100%
Global Biodiversity Framework
Halt Extinction
Plan and Manage all Areas to Reduce Biodiversity Loss
Strengthen Capacity Building
Sustainable Harvesting and Trade of Wild Species
Sustainable Development Goals
Life On Land

Africa

Project Summary

The African Forest Elephant and African Savanna Elephant have both experienced severe declines in recent years due to ivory poaching and habitat loss. Because of this, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has change the elephants’ statuses to Critically Endangered and Endangered, respectively.

The critical state of both specie and the importance of their protection necessitate monitoring to view the efficacy of certain conservation practices as well as to alert the public as to the crashing decline of species populations.

To achieve this feat, this IUCN-US funded project works to update the African Elephants Reports and Databases using current information from IUCN expert groups as well as advanced technologies that can increase the cost and labor efficiencies of these resources.

The project takes 3 Phases to update IUCN’s African Elephant Database. Phase I focused on modernization, including upgrading the African Elephant Database’s application to make it easier to maintain and enhance it long-term. Updates reduce overall cost and resources to maintain the database through advanced technologies. Phase I is now complete, and Phase II and III are currently in progress.