Objectives

The Wildlife Conservation Society's 96 Elephants campaign — named for the number of elephants killed in Africa every day for their ivory — focuses on securing effective U.S. federal and state ivory bans; bolstering elephant protection with additional funding for conservation; and educating the public about the link between ivory consumption and the elephant poaching crisis.

Strategy and Execution

WCS's 96 Elephants campaign brings together the public, partners, thought-leaders, and change makers to leverage our collective influence to protect key elephant populations and reduce ivory trafficking and demand.

Together with 225 partners, including the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and many other NGOs, governments, celebrities, and corporate partners, we have promoted key awareness raising and advocacy efforts. The campaign has utilized different engagement efforts including #elphies, JoinTheSTAMPede videos, elephant origami to break a Guinness World Record, ivory crushes in NYC and around the world, and other digital marketing strategies.

The creativity, flexibility, niche marketing efforts, and clear legislative goals have led to a wide range of successes:

• 1.4 million messages have been sent by 862,000 constituents in support of elephants. 96 Elephant supporters have petitioned for U.S. ivory bans at the federal and state levels, for legislation that would stop wildlife trafficking, and for other key legislative and consumer advocacy efforts. Online actions have been taken in all 50 states and in 194 countries. Ivory bans are now on the books at the federal level, and in NY, NJ, CA, HI, and WA.
• We are also supporting efforts for the closure of domestic ivory markets around the world. The motion to close domestic elephant ivory markets that was just adopted on September 10, 2016, at the IUCN World Conservation Congress was written by WCS/96 Elephants. This motion calls for all nations around the world to close their domestic elephant ivory markets and will now be on top of the agenda at the annual Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
• Over a million U.S. dollars have been raised online to support key elephant protection efforts in Africa.
• Millions have interacted with 96 Elephants content on social media (video views, shares, mentions) with over 1.2 billion potential impressions.
• The campaign and its partners have also had a significant impact on World Elephant Day. Before 96 Elephants got involved in making World Elephant Day a moment to celebrate elephants, annual mentions were under 30,000. That has increased ten-fold, with hundreds of thousands of mentions now happening consistently each year.
• WCS/96 Elephants issued a joint publication with IFAW: "Elephant vs. Mouse" showing the availability of ivory on Craigslist and how to flag it down.

Results

Helped to create, promote, and pass into law a Federal U.S. ivory ban

Helped to create, promote, and pass into law state ivory bans in NY, NJ, CA, HI, and WA.

Bolstered elephant protection in the wild by increasing support for park guards, intelligence networks, and government operations in the last great protected areas for elephants throughout the Congo Basin and East Africa. (WCS recently launched elephant protection programs in four new target sites: Ivindo National Park in Gabon; Okapi Faunal Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Ruaha and Katavi National Parks in Tanzania; and Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique. In these four sites alone, 44,000 elephants are at immediate risk.)

Funded high-tech tools in the field ranging from drones and sophisticated remote cameras that track poachers in real-time, to specially trained sniffer dogs to find smuggled ivory in ports and trading hubs.

Engaged the public through a series of actions including online petitions and letter writing campaigns enhanced through social media to support a U.S. moratorium on the sale of ivory, increase funding for elephant conservation, and spread the word about the elephant poaching crisis. WCS has helped to educate public audiences about the link between the purchase of ivory products and the rapid decline of elephant populations, and continues to build support for global ivory bans and other policies that protect elephants.

Media