The man who saved African elephants in 1980s:

Dr. Richard Leakey and what Sri Lankan conservationists can adopt from his work

By Tharindu Muthukumarana-

Author of the award-winning book “The Life of Last Proboscideans: Elephants” tharinduele@gmail.com

Richard Leakey was an inspirational and courageous conservationist and I was privileged to meet him. He transformed the Kenyan Wildlife Service and valiantly spearheaded efforts to stop elephant poaching. Conservation has lost a true visionary.  – Prince William

“Ivory must be seen as only valuable if it is on an animal. It should not be ever seen as a valuable commodity for trade”. This was the very words of a man larger than a life by the name Richard Erskine Leakey. He passed away peacefully at aged 77 on January 2, 2022 at his home in Kona Baridi, Kenya. But his life was brewed with adventures. It is fair enough to say Leakey was an all-rounder as his walk of life composed as a paleoanthropologist, pilot, civil servant, politician, professor, philanthropist, author and above all a conservationist. His persona can be described as a straightforward-confident man with courage, integrity, accountability, rectitude, humanist, freethinker and something of a daredevil. That could be the very reason why Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie wanted to direct a movie about Leakey’s life.

I find his speeches mesmerising and always appealing to listen. If a Sri Lankan conservationist can relate to Leakey’s speaking skills it would be Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya. This is because they both talk to the point-straight forward and more realistic in their ideology.

He had authored about 12 books, on topics related to wildlife, memoirs, environment and paleoanthropology. Throughout his life he was showered with 15 honoris causa doctorates and more than 30 awards.

Coming from British ancestral lineage but continued way towards Kenya

Leakey was born on 19th December 1944 in Nairobi to illustrious parents Louis and Marry Leakey. His grandparents were British missionaries that arrived to Africa in early 20th century. Any person concerned about paleoanthropology knows Leakey’s parents- work on fossil discoveries of early humans. Louis being an alumnus from University of Cambridge, it was he who discovered the earliest human origins from Africa. Since then, Africa became the cradle of mankind. Prior to that it was thought to be Asia. Young Leakey learnt most of the fossil hunting techniques from his parents work which made him to become a paleoanthropologist.

Pretty much rewarding for doing research under scorching African sun

At age 23 in an expedition to Ethiopia’s Omo Valley he found two early Homo sapiens fossil skulls that were named as Omo I and Omo II. Dating to 160,000 years those were the oldest of the species found at that time and was the first find contemporaneous with Homo neanderthalensis. In 1968 Leakey was appointed Administrative Director of the National Museums of Kenya.

Once while flying to Nairobi, he discovered a place that was suspected to be a fossil-bearing sedimentary rock near Lake Turkana. From the late 1960s he led expeditions there together with a team of scientists and found more than two hundred hominid fossils of excellent quality. Another remarkable discovery happened in 1984 when Leakey’s team discovered a nearly complete skeleton of a Homo ergaster that was estimated to be died about 1.6 million years ago at age of 9-12. This specimen is the most complete early hominin skeleton ever found and was named as “Turkana Boy”.

He came to save elephants during the most needed time

In 1989 Leakey had a twist in his career when Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi appointed him as the Director of Wildlife Conservation and Management Department (WMCD) which was later renamed as Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). At that time, it was a bankrupt institution and this put a heavy challenge on Leakey’s shoulders. He had to start from scratch. At that time Kenya’s second largest foreign exchange earning was from tourism industry, exceeded only by coffee. So, the wildlife tourism played a crucial role. During the late 1970s to 1980s ivory poaching was a major threat to Kenya’s elephant population and this turned wildlife parks more of a war zone. It may be a researcher, tourist, conservationist or even an individual from an anti-poaching unit; they all face threat by the poachers. The anti-poaching units deployed by wildlife programme was very ineffective to take down poachers since they were ill-equipped, demoralised, ill-clothed and under paid. In 1979 the continental population of African elephants was estimated to be 1.3 million and by 1989 the figure was 609,000; over half of Africa’s elephant population was poached within a decade. If that rate is going to be continued the jeopardise African elephant population could be wiped off.

Thanks to Leakey he was able to raise $ 136 million from overseas and strengthen the anti-poaching units. Leakey authorised the anti-poaching units to shoot poachers on sight. He had to take even more bold decisions such as firing nearly 50% of the work force. Those dramatic changes did have a positive influence in terms of reducing poaching activities. Until Leakey’s time the orthodox was to sell confiscated ivories for other countries and used the beneficiary to the nation’s revenue. But Leakey decided to destroy the confiscated ivory in the presence of the public. He believed ivory trade should be stopped if elephants are to be saved. Somehow, he persuaded the President to burn the confiscated ivory stock that belongs to more than 2,000 elephants. Leakey pointed out that $ 3 million worth burned ivory, cost was an insignificant amount compared with country’s tourism industry, which makes $ 230 million a year and can be the largest foreign currency earner.

The ivory burning event captured the global attention and this gave an insight of the plight of the African elephant. In return it impacted profoundly to bring the ivory ban in the following year initiated by an international-multilateral treaty known as the “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora” (CITES). Leakey said “within six months the number of elephants been killed dropped from 3,000-4,000 per year to rate of 300 per year. In the following year, it went down to 30-40 per year”. If anyone is interested in learning more on Leakey’s mission to save the elephants, I would recommend to read Leakey’s book the “Wildlife Wars: My Battle to Save Kenya’s Elephants”.

Life after his resignation from government’s wildlife service

However, Leakey’s incorruptible attitudes displeased some of the government politicians and he even lost the support of the President. In 1993 the light aircraft piloted by Leakey crashed injuring both his legs which were amputated. For the rest of his life he had to navigate the influence of prosthetic legs. Leakey suspected of sabotage but there was no evidence. Some of government interference on KWS disgruntle Leakey and in which he decided to resign from KWS in 1994.

In 1995 Leakey decided to enter politics by setting up a new political party – the Safina Party. But his political career did not last long. In 1998 he was appointed as Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service. Later, in 2002, he became the professor of anthropology at Stony Brook University, New York. Four years after he establish a charitable organisation named Wildlife Direct. In 2015, President Uhuru Kenyatta gave Leakey a helm as chairman of board of KWS.

An example that Sri Lankan conservationists can consider to adopt

One message that we can take from 1970-1990 African elephant conservation issue is that “high scale awareness” plays a vital role in conservation projects. Research and policy making relatively to strategies proposed by researchers are also important. But if high scale awareness is absent such policies would be in vain. This was the thing that happened even in Africa before the 1989 ivory ban. In time of early as 1979 research by zoologist Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton proved that African elephant population was in a decline trend due to ivory trade. Nevertheless, due to lack of proper awareness there was a difficulty in saving elephants from poaching holocaust (more about this could be read in Hamilton’s book “Battle for the Elephants” co-authored with his wife Oria Douglas-Hamilton). When conservationists including Leakey, Hamilton and others embarked on a high scale awareness only the authorities came under right track in favour of conservation. Except for some loopholes in CITES treaty which caused the modern-day poaching crises; otherwise, it was massive victory.

In Sri Lanka, during 2006, an Elephant Conservation Policy (ECP), that even address human-elephant conflict (HEC) was made by a committee that was appointed by the government. The committee did consist of wildlife experts. The cabinet ministers gave approval for this policy and requested the policy to be implemented in September on same year. But until today the policy hasn’t been implemented fully which is the reason why for HEC keeps on increasing rather than getting mitigated. Political interventions are to blamed for not implementing it fully.

On the other hand, the average Sri Lankan believes that elephants should be conserved but unfortunately how many Sri Lankans are aware about the ECP? For sure not many. So, this is where a high scale awareness should come into action. If the Sri Lankan that believes in elephant conservation is also aware about the ECP then there is a high chance of it getting implemented fully.

As a final note, I would like to conclude with a popular English saying that says “pilots don’t die they just fly higher” so I would wish Leakey likewise!