In 1990, there were 55 000, and the official view - in the Elephant Management Plan of 1991 - was that their number should be kept at 60 000, requiring the "removal" of 3 000 per year to sustain it.

We probably have 130 000 elephants living with us, now, mainly in the north.

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How to Deal With 130 000 Elephants? Part 1

Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
OPINION
August 13, 2004
Patrick Van Rensburg

We probably have 130 000 elephants living with us, now, mainly in the north. That's more than any other country has, anywhere on earth. There's one of them for every 4.5 square kilometres, overall, against about 3 people for every square km. In the north, at 123 000 odd, their density is much higher than nationally. In 1990, there were 55 000, and the official view - in the Elephant Management Plan of 1991 - was that their number should be kept at 60 000, requiring the "removal" of 3 000 per year to sustain it.

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) is now developing a (clearly overdue) new elephant management policy and has been looking at issues, options and recommendations related thereto. In fact, what it is busy with is what it calls the third report of the project to review the Elephant Management Plan of 1991, following the "Inception Report and the Stakeholders' Workshop Report". In this third report, it is noted that, "No control measures have actually been taken". This seems to reflect a reality that elephant management is a highly contested issue, more especially because - as the Report notes - "Only about 28 percent of the elephant population is found in national parks".

One of the major factors related to contestation of culling, for example, is that "the international public do not understand the issues that result from large elephant populations". There could be threats of economic sanctions if large scale culling was undertaken.

"No species, other than man, can modify habitats as rapidly and extensively as elephant", writes Graham Child, who was responsible for some years for elephant culling in Zimbabwe. "At a safe carrying capacity, elephants may act as a pruning agent and benefit biological diversity by opening up and altering the age structure of plant communities, but once numbers exceed this level, overpopulation impacts seriously on habitats. By virtue of their dominance as herbivores, elephant damage has a cascading effect through the ecosystem; degradation is not a uniform process, but is accompanied by deterioration past a series of critical thresholds over which recovery is often, at best, problematical in the short to medium term".

In its latest report, the DWNP acknowledges that any earlier beneficial effects of elephant presence have now been overtaken by the near disappearance along the Chobe River of woodland including riparian forest. "Habitat changes may have had secondary effects on other species; bushbuck in Chobe declined considerably over twenty years".

Ultimately, the Report suggests, "it might be expected that affected habitats will become less able to support the elephants themselves - as numbers continue to increase without any apparent moderation of rate while habitats are deteriorating simultaneously.

"There is a very real danger of a sudden population crash as in the Tsavo ecosystem in Kenya. A mass die-off would have very serious aesthetic, ecological and economic consequences, as it did in Kenya. Whether or when a population crash is going to occur, however, cannot be forecast."

The DWNP report was preceded by:

l direct consultations with communities living within the elephant range

l a workshop at which stakeholders directly but variously involved with elephants were able to voice their opinions, concerns and objectives regarding elephants

l study of literature on the subject of elephant ecology, biology, disease management, Community-Based Natural Resource Management legislation, Botswana Government policies and social development

l a workshop attended by experts in various relevant fields to discuss the technical aspects of elephant management options

Background information is provided on the following themes:

l numbers and trends

l loss of range and habitat

l cross-border populations

l habitat change/loss of bio-diversity

l human-elephant relationships

l general public attitudes

l sustainable utilisation

l trade in elephant products

l economic factors in elephant management

l illegal hunting

These issues will be looked at next week, but it is important to look back at what the objectives of the 1991 Elephant Management Plan were:

l Manage elephants on a sustainable multiple-use basis in accordance with the 1986 Wildlife Conservation Policy and the 1999 Tourism Policy.

l Maintain elephant populations at their 1990 level by removing annual increment.

l Maintain elephant occupied woodland in acceptable state, subject to climatic influence.

l Reduce elephant populations if research and monitoring indicate unacceptable changes to elephant habitat.

l Maintain biodiversity and essential life support systems in the national parks and game reserves.

l Reduce conflicts between elephants and humans.

l Support and undertake elephant population and elephant habitat research and monitoring programmes. Seek amendments to the 1989 CITES resolution such that Botswana's elephants will revert to Appendix 11

There was some success in achieving these objectives, ie:

Progress was made in the sustainable multiple use management with the reintroduction of safari and citizen hunting, with low annual quotas. In 1997, Botswana and other southern African countries were successful in their bid at CITES to have their elephants down-listed to Appendix 11. Some ivory sales have taken place. Habitat research and monitoring has been carried out and continued elephant population monitoring has successfully demonstrated the increase in populations.

However, elephant populations have not been kept at their 1990 level. Woodlands within the elephant range were not maintained in an acceptable state (defined as the 1990 state). It is not possible to state whether bio-diversity and essential life support systems have been maintained, as a baseline for this was not established. Conflict between elephants and humans continue at an unacceptable rate.

What is worrying is that the elephant population was allowed to double in 14 years.

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