IUCN SSC African Elephant Specialist Group

Savanna elephants in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya © Shifra Goldenberg
The African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG) promotes the long-term conservation of Africa’s elephants through science-based guidance and information sharing.

What we do

The African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG) is an integral part of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). We mainly provide technical input to help decision makers, scientists, and wildlife managers for African elephant conservation by providing:

Savanna elephants, Samburu, Kenya © Lucy King

News and latest updates

Forest elephant in Conkouati-Douli National Park, Republic of Congo © Hilde Vanleeuwe

Expertise for conservation strategies and management plans, publishing Pachyderm, and maintaining the African Elephant Library.

Elephant Database

Updates on the numbers and distribution of both species of elephants on the African continent, available on the African Elephant Database.

Billy the forest elephant, Lopé National Park, Gabon © Fiona Maisels

Tools and advice on managing human-elephant conflict to help coexistence. Please see the:  Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Library Resource; Save the Elephants’ Human-Elephant Coexistence Toolbox 2023 Edition 2.

Reports

African elephant Status Report 2024 AfESR 2024

Learn about our work and results in 2023: 2023 AfESG Annual Report

Previous annual reports: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2016-2017

CITES National Ivory Action Plans (NIAPS)

NIAPS

African elephants on the IUCN Red List

AfESG assesses the two African elephant species for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species to inform conservation efforts. The Red List Authority Coordinator is Kathleen Gobush.

Elephant-related events:

Please email the secretariat at afesg@iucn.org with information about any other upcoming events dealing with elephant conservation.

  • The 20th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP20) is scheduled to be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from Monday 24 November to Friday 5 December 2025.

Our donors