Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE)

The overall goal of MIKE is to provide information needed for elephant range States to make appropriate management and enforcement decisions, and to build institutional capacity within the range States for the long-term management of their elephant populations.

More specific objectives within this goal are:

• to measure levels and trends in the illegal hunting of elephants;
• to determine changes in these trends over time; and
• to determine the factors causing such changes and to try and assess to what extent observed trends are a result of any decisions taken by the Conference of the Parties to CITES.

At many MIKE sites, survey teams are trained to monitor other large forest mammals such as great apes. For example, in the WWF-supported MIKE surveys of Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, bonobos were also counted.

The Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP) works to lift the imminent threat of extinction faced by the great apes – gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. These are found in 21 countries in Equatorial Africa and in 2 countries in Southeast Asia. 

Formed in 2001 as a project of UNEP and UNESCO, GRASP strives to create a successful partnership of range states, international conventions, non governmental bodies including WWF, scientists, zoos, charitable donors and commercial interests in a sustained campaign to protect not only the great apes, but also the ecosystems of which they are part.

Through high level technical visits, field projects and National Great Ape Survival Plan (NGASP) policy making workshops in African and Southeast Asian great ape “range states”, as well as political lobbying and awareness raising in donor countries, GRASP has made a strong case for the value it adds to great ape conservation efforts.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

The Wildlife Conservation Society is dedicated to saving wildlife and wild lands across the globe. From its roots at the Bronx Zoo, founded in 1895, WCS strives to realise this goal through a unique blend of experience through urban zoo management, exploration, field science, and long-term management commitment toward wild landscapes and threatened wildlife species.

The International Programme, with operations in Asia, Latin America, North America, and Africa, is committed to working toward conservation together with governments, donors, other international conservation organisations and local NGO’s, and at grass roots level. In Africa, WCS funds research, training and conservation in 20 countries and supports more African-based field scientists than any other conservation organisation.