23 Aug 2018

Botswana is committed to working with other elephant range states through the Africa Elephant Action Plan to address the illegal off-take of  elephants, particularly in central and western Africa, which has led to their near extinction in some countries.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Mr Thato Raphaka said this during the national elephant action plan technical workshop held in Gaborone recently.

He revealed that work had been undertaken in the past to develop elephant management plans,  and that the first plan was approved in 1991 when the elephant population was considerably less than today.

In 2003, he said efforts were made to review the 1991 elephant conservation and management plan which distinguished management priorities for different parts of the elephant range rather than treating the elephant population as a whole.

Mr Raphaka explained that different strategies were identified for different geographical areas within Botswana based on the management objectives for those areas.

He said the approach ensured  the country remained as flexible as possible to respond to the different challenges confronting Botswana in managing such a large elephant population and the attendant challenges.

He said the current National Elephant Action Plan (NEAP) came at a time when much had changed both locally and internationally as witnessed through a rise in human-wildlife conflict.

He also noted that demand for land for pastoral and arable agriculture had increased.

“This has presented regional and international challenges for Botswana as a range state that sits at the heart of the sub-regional elephant range as elephants roam across international boundaries. It is estimated that the Okavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area which includes Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe is home to more than 250 000 elephants. The creation of such areas is to facilitate the expansion of the elephant range,” he said.

“It has already been observed that elephants in northern Botswana are re-colonising parts of their former range in neighbouring countries such as Angola. This has the potential of easing pressure on parts of their range in northern Botswana where numbers have increased to the point where they are affecting their environment,” Mr Raphaka added.

Other factors such as protracted droughts as a result of changing climate patterns have also resulted in elephants and other wildlife species moving greater distances to access resources needed for their survival, he said.

These, Mr Raphaka noted, had led to an increase of poaching of elephants which in turn had led to greater international efforts to combat illegal wildlife trade.

Botswana, working with some other elephant range states, had been instrumental in the formation of the Elephant protection initiative in 2014.

Mr Raphaka said “it is estimated that there are 145 000 elephants in Botswana, and the range changes seasonally in response to water availability.”

Furthermore, he said conflicts between elephants and people were increasing as both human and elephant populations increased and expanded.

The conflicts include human fatality/injury, crop raiding and property destruction, and measures to reduce these conflicts such as electric fencing and the use of other deterrents such as chilli peppers were used to address the conflicts, he explained. ENDS