Elephant Debate Not a Ploy to Reintroduce Culling, Says Mabunda

Date: October 14, 2004

Source: BuaNews Pretoria

Author: Sharon Hammond

SOUTH AFRICA--The upcoming Great Elephant Debate is not a ploy to reintroduce elephant culling, insisted chief executive of South African National Parks David Mabunda today.

He said the event, scheduled for 19 to 21 October, simply aimed to open debate and identify ways in which to manage elephant populations.

"It would be naive to expect a perfect solution from a once-off workshop," he said.

He said there would be further discussions after the main workshop to work out a draft elephant management framework.

The final draft will then be submitted to environmental affairs and tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk by April next year, after which it will be published for public comment for 30 days.

Mr Mabunda said recent public meetings about the matter indicated a huge gap between state conservation authorities, animal welfare and rights groups, as well as communities bordering the game reserves.

He said neighbouring communities were especially neglected in these meetings.

"These are the very people whose lives and livelihoods are at stake as a result of living in close proximity with elephants," he said.

He said the Great Elephant Debate would include scientists, academics, NGOs, communities adjacent to parks, private nature reserves, provincial conservation authorities, and transfrontier neighbours Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Lesotho.

SANParks placed a moratorium on elephant culling in 1995, resulting in a burgeoning elephant population that is placing enormous stress on the biodiversity of game reserves.

There are roughly 12 000 elephants in the Kruger alone, that reproduce at about 1 000 a year. Each elephant eats up to 150kg of vegetation in a day.

The debate, which will be held at Berg-en-Dal rest camp in the Kruger National Park, will discuss the effect of elephants on biodiversity, the conservation status and future of elephants in protected areas in southern Africa, ethical issues and the social impact of protected areas on neighbours.

The main topic will be the options for managing elephants, which include translocation, contraception and the most controversial, culling.

Culling is an emotive issue, because elephants have shown to have strong family bonds and long memories.

"Perhaps the solution will lie in ... multiple options applied over time to address immediate, medium and long-term objectives of maintaining viable elephant populations in the interest of bio-diversity," said Mr Mabunda.