African Elephant Specialist Group report /Rapport du Groupe de Spécialistes de l'Eléphant d’Afrique

Abstract

Time seems to gallop by faster nowadays! It will be two years in September/October 2020 since the Chair of the Species Survival Commission of the IUCN, Jon-Paul Rodriguez appointed us to co-Chair the African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG/ or here referred to as ‘The Group’). We would like to specially appreciate our membership for the volunteer dedication and commitment in driving the agenda and the mission of our specialist group, which is to “to promote the long-term conservation of Africa's elephants throughout their range”. We indeed enjoy working with you as a team.  Well done and keep it up!

In this Issue of Pachyderm we report on new activities and provide an update on some of the activities we reported on in the previous Pachyderm issue 60.  The new activities include the 8^th AfESG members’ meeting, contribution of the AfESG to the African Elephant Action Plan’s potential review process, strengthening of membership and establishment of task forces and working groups, the AfESG’s participation and contribution at CITES CoP18, and synergies with relevant institutions, among others. The updates are on the African elephant database (AED), Red Listing process and taxonomy.  We also comment on the effects of Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic to the conservation of elephants.