Elephant Crisis Fund

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The ECF is helping prevent the ivory crisis and ensuring elephants are no longer under threat.

It is run by Save the Elephants and Wildlife Conservation Network. The ECF, launched in 2013 supports projects across Africa and in ivory consuming countries which aim to stop the killing of elephants, prevent the trafficking, and put an end to the buying of ivory. Funding is given with minimal bureaucracy and no administrative deductions to allow donors to have maximum impact, and for partners to act quickly and effectively. To date, the ECF has supported 310 projects from 88 organisations across 40 countries each vetted for their efficiency and impact. With the continued generosity of our donors, the best ideas and most urgent actions to end the ivory crisis and ensure elephants are no longer under threat receive the support they need so that Africa remains wild with elephants.

10/15/2026

A few highlights from the recent Wildlife Conservation Expo in San Francisco!

Top of the list was seeing our late founder, Dr Iain Douglas-Hamilton, honoured by Wildlife Conservation Network CEO Jean-Gaël Collomb. His tribute celebrated Iain's trailblazing science, infectious optimism and belief in collaboration – values that helped shape the Expo from its very first gathering in 2002.

Our team then took the stage for the African Savannahs session, bringing Iain's legacy and Save the Elephants' work to life. From the seeds he planted to the conservation efforts they continue to inspire, we're working to give elephants a voice in Kenya and across Africa.

Our Elephant Crisis Fund team also joined the WCN Funds panel, exploring how conservation funds operate, how grants are managed, and the power of collaboration to protect wildlife and the landscapes they depend on.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined our talks and visited our booths, and congratulations to WCN on a fantastic 25th Expo!

Watch our team on stage: https://bit.ly/4yirOCP

- Jean-Gaël Collomb's tribute to Iain: 8:06–10:29
- African Savannahs session: 15:52–32:48
- WCN Funds panel: 6:00:00–6:45:20

10/09/2026

Authorities have seized 446 large pieces and 950 small pieces of ivory at Laem Chabang port in Thailand.

The ivory was found hidden inside wooden pieces in two shipping containers that arrived from Zambia last week. The shipment had been declared as processed timber. Customs officers targeted the containers after intelligence was shared by ECF grantee the Wildlife Justice Commission. Investigations into the wider trafficking network are ongoing.

This is the third major ivory seizure in Southeast Asia in recent months, following August’s seizure of 1,193kg at Quy Nhon port in Vietnam, where three suspected high-level traffickers were arrested, and the seizure of 1,755kg in Laos that same month, alongside the arrest of a suspected high-level trafficker and 10 others.

Watch the news report: https://bit.ly/4B237gM

📸 Thai Customs, Siam News and Department of National Parks Thailand

09/25/2026

Update on the case of Yunhua Lin, one of the most prolific and high-profile wildlife traffickers ever prosecuted in Southern Africa: the Malawian State has discontinued corruption proceedings against him, and he has been released from prison, just days after the High Court rejected his bail application and ordered him to remain on remand, citing a well-established flight risk.

The corruption charges stemmed from allegations that Lin bribed prison officials to facilitate movements outside custody while serving his 14-year sentence for wildlife crime and money laundering. The Malawian Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee says it was not informed of the decision to discontinue the case, and the circumstances are expected to face further scrutiny.

This is a disappointing turn in a case that had shown real signs of institutional accountability. Corruption is the principal driver of wildlife crime and outcomes like this undermine efforts to tackle it.

09/22/2026

What better way to celebrate Elephant Appreciation Day than with this newly captured camera trap image of a forest elephant in the Niger Delta - one of Nigeria's smallest and least-understood elephant populations.

We are proud to be supporting Asime James Oba, an early-career Nigerian conservationist, who has been quietly exploring this challenging landscape since 2024, working with local community volunteers. With ECF funding, Asime is now expanding his camera trap network, to understand how many elephants remain, the threats they face, and how to build local awareness and protection.

📸 Asime Oba

09/07/2026

This is what ECF's network looks like in one room - 18 partners from both sides of the Zambezi, brought together by Dr Lucy King for a regional gathering in Victoria Falls. Grateful to our partners Connected Conservation for hosting us and along with Ecoexist, CATS-Conservation And Tourism Society, Alinea Network Organisation, Elephant Connection and Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust for sharing maps, comparing notes, and talking honestly about what's working on the ground.

Elephants cross borders. So must our thinking. Moments like this are how ECF-funded projects build the joined-up, regional solutions that coexistence really requires.

09/02/2026

Can a hand-built gabion wall, raised by the community itself, keep elephants out?

Early signs from Kenya are promising! The Eco Jipe team has just finished building the wall, one of only two prototypes of its kind in Africa, over ten days using local materials and labour. The eight-metre long and three-metre tall structure sits around the school's water well - part of the Jipe School Human-Elephant Coexistence and Food Security Model.

Stay tuned as the final stage tests the wall's effectiveness at keeping elephants out. We at the Elephant Crisis Fund are proud to support this, trials like this help inform the effectiveness of HEC deterrents across the continent.

09/01/2026

Boma National Park in South Sudan is vast, remote, and hard to monitor on the ground, which is why aerial wildlife surveys are one of the most effective tools for tracking the animals that call it home. We're proud to help support this kind of wildlife monitoring in Boma alongside African Parks and the Government of South Sudan.

A recent flight turned up a first-ever sitatunga sighting since 2022, plus elephant, buffalo, shoebill, hippo, hartebeest, and lion, with plenty of young animals spotted too - a strong sign for the health of this ecosystem.

08/18/2026

Vietnamese authorities have seized 1,193kg of elephant ivory at Quy Nhon port - the largest ivory seizure recorded globally since 2024. The 221 pieces were discovered hidden in secret compartments inside wooden crates, in a shipment which apparently originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, before passing through the Republic of the Congo and on to Asia. Some arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing. Vietnam remains one of the world's major hubs for illegal wildlife trafficking. https://bit.ly/4wCYHcO

📸 Alex Hofford

08/12/2026

This , we are celebrating Africa's elephants, the extraordinary range of places they call home, and the partners and people working to protect them.

From Congo's forests to the desert edge of Namibia, to the wetlands of South Sudan's Sudd, elephants have adapted to almost every landscape the continent offers. Some populations thrive within well-protected ranges, while others contend with poaching or shrinking habitat, and each landscape brings its own story of resilience.

The ECF supports partners across this whole spectrum, from multinational bodies to grassroots initiatives, providing funding, technical support, and connections between people working towards one shared goal: a secure future for Africa's elephants.

📸 Frank af Petersens, Courtesy of Panthera, Courtesy of Tsavo Trust, Courtesy of EHRA and Chris Thouless.

08/03/2026

What happens when a community gets the right tools?

On the Charara boundary in Zimbabwe's Middle Zambezi Valley, crop-raiding incidents dropped from 74 in April 2025 to just 5 in April 2026. Across the first half of the year, human-elephant conflict in the Chiufe and Vuti communities fell from 139 incidents to 77. 🙌

The difference? Chilli. 🌶️

With support from the Elephant Crisis Fund, The Zambezi Society and local communities molded 4,000 chilli bricks and have already put over 3,000 to use, a simple, low-cost deterrent that elephants steer clear of. Alongside 14km of maintained fencing, it's giving farmers a real chance to protect their harvest without harming the wildlife they share the land with. 🐘

Proof that the right tools, in the right hands, change outcomes.

📸 Collin Tapi and Isaac Siakakaye

Address

209 Mississippi Street
San Francisco, CA
94107

Telephone

(415) 202-6380

Website

http://elephantcrisisfund.org/

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