In African wildlife parks where elephant numbers are suffering due to poaching, tourist numbers are suffering too, according to the first continent-wide survey measuring the effects of poaching on tourism.

Although the financial motivations for ivory poaching are understood, the economic benefits of elephant conservation are not.

Poaching has kept some tourists away, and African economies stand to lose $25 million a year in tourism revenue, according to new estimates published in the journal Nature Communications.

Elephant conservation in protected areas has positive economic returns comparable to investing in education and infrastructure, according to research from the University of Vermont, University of Cambridge and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Poachers kill about 20,000-to-30,000 African elephants a year. From a tourism perspective alone, increased elephant conservation is a wise investment by governments, the study said.

“The economic argument is providing information so that governments can understand that in certain places conservation is actually a real net gain to revenue,” said Brendan Fisher, a University of Vermont economist and co-author of the study, in a Travel and Leisure interview.

Researchers used statistical modeling to quantify how tourists valued elephants and how much time and money they were willing to spend seeing them on a trip. In parks where elephant populations dipped, research suggests the number of tourists could fall too.

Fisher estimated that for every $1 spent on conservation in East Africa, $1.78 was earned in tourism revenue.

“If conservation is seen as being a costly endeavor to the government, it’s probably going to fall down the priority list,” he said. “Most of the countries where we have elephant populations, a lot of them are in sub-Saharan Africa and they don’t have tons of revenue around to invest in conservation.”

There have always been strong moral and ethical reasons for conserving elephants, said Dr. Robin Naidoo, lead wildlife scientist at WWF and lead author on the study. “Our research now shows that investing in elephant conservation is actually smart economic policy for many African countries.”

The illegal ivory trade is funded by global organized crime syndicates and fueled mainly by demand in China and elsewhere in Asia, Phys.org reported. In just the past 10 years, African elephants have declined more than 20 percent.

“We know that within parks, tourism suffers when elephant poaching ramps up,” said said Andrew Balmford, study co-author from the University of Cambridge Department of Zoology. “This work provides a first estimate of the scale of that loss, and shows pretty convincingly that stronger conservation efforts usually make sound economic sense.”

Elephant conservation in East, West, and South Africa compares favorably with rates of return on investments in areas like education, food security and electricity, said Dr. Brendan Fisher, an economist at University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics.

In central Africa, researchers say the economics are less favorable. Elephant tourism isn’t a lucrative industry,e elephants are more scattered and
harder to see in the jungles where they shelter. Different avenues of logic are necessary to inspire the protection of elephants in the forests of Central Africa, UPI reported.

A variety of wildlife and conservation groups are trying to protect elephants, but they need the support of African governments. Convincing governments to combat poaching threats often requires making an economic case for investment.