Breaking the deadlock on ivory

Poaching for ivory has caused a steep decline in African elephant (Loxodonta africana, see the photo) populations over the past decade (1). This crisis has fueled a contentious global debate over which ivory policy would best protect elephants: banning all ivory trade or enabling regulated trade to incentivize and fund elephant conservation (2).The deep-seated deadlock on ivory policy consumes valuable resources and creates anantagonistic environment among elephant conservationists. Successful solutions mustbegin by recognizing the different values that influence stakeholder cognitive frameworksof how actions lead to outcomes (“mental models”) (3), and therefore their divergingpositions on ivory trade (4). Based on successful conflict resolution in other areas, wepropose an iterative process through which countries with wild elephant populationsmay be able to understand their differences and develop workable solutions in a less confrontational manner