Carter has parted ways with many environmentalists by favoring an easing of the seven-year ban on selling ivory. An endangered-species conference modified the ban in June, allowing three countries to sell stockpiled ivory. Carter argues that permitting limited trade is only fair to countries with healthy elephant populations --and will help ensure compliance with regulations to sustain the herds. Most activists say ivory sales will just encourage more poaching.

If that happens, Carter will no doubt redouble his efforts to combat the illegal trade. Even at 70, he shows no signs of losing dedication to his cause. He lives something like his beloved Jewish scholars, who studied day and night, shunned money and were supported by the community. Carter doesn't have a home and collects no paycheck. He stays in a spare room at a friend's house in Lusaka. When he won one of this year's Goldman

Environmental Prizes--along with a $75,000 check from a San Francisco foundation--he gave the money away to groups and individuals supporting conservation. "He's not at all interested in personal possessions. He lives out of a suitcase and owns a few books, that's all," says Ros Reeve, an activist in Kenya who has worked with him. Carter's mission and his zeal are apparently all he needs. "If I don't work," he says, "I'm dead."

--Reported by Peter Graff/Nairobi