The greatest setbacks to his work occurred in 2002 and 2008, when CITES permitted “one-off” sales of seized ivory stockpiled by the governments of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, kick-starting a return of uncontrolled illegal poaching. He estimated that between 2010 and 2012, more than 100,000 African elephants were illegally killed.
His response was to work with celebrities and press in China, the main market for ivory, to win hearts and minds and help to get the word out about the impact of the trade on elephants. This contributed to the growing awareness which in 2015 led to President Xi Jinping of China and President Barack Obama of the US agreeing to end the ivory trade. “The impact is already being felt,” Douglas-Hamilton told an interviewer in 2017. “Two years ago, ivory was at the astronomical level of $2,000 a kilogramme. By December 2015, the price for ivory had halved. It has gone down even further since.”
Douglas-Hamilton advised many international conservation bodies, and he and his wife Oria wrote two award-winning books, Among the Elephants (1975) and Battle for the Elephants (1992), and made several television films. Among other awards, he won the 2010 Indianapolis Prize, one of the world’s leading awards for animal conservation, and was appointed CBE in 2015.
Despite continuing threats to elephant populations, Douglas-Hamilton remained an optimist: “I find the people I have met very easily moved when they learn of the plight of elephants. I have seldom found people who are heartless or don’t give a damn.”
His wife and daughters survive him.
Iain Douglas-Hamilton, born August 16 1942, died December 8 2025
