The status of Asia’s forgotten elephants

Asian elephants are facing a growing crisis. Despite commitments by governments to address threats posed to the species, including habitat loss and fragmentation, human-elephant conflict and poaching and illegal trade, wild populations have fallen to around 40,000 individuals, representing a 15 per cent decline since previous surveys. Captive numbers remain high at approximately 13,000, creating risks of laundering illegally sourced wild-caught elephants and their parts into the legal trade system.

Illegal trade in elephant skin and other parts continues to surge online, while monitoring of MIKE sites has ceased due to funding gaps. EIA urges Parties at CITES CoP20 to renew and strengthen key Decisions, tighten registration requirements, and maintain reporting obligations to safeguard Asia’s forgotten elephants.