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.
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:
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.
