28-11-2005
A coalition of local and international experts, Elephants Alive, today presented South Africa's Minister for Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), Marthinus van Schalkwyk, with comprehensive new evidence to inform his pending decision on elephant management.
Under severe pressure from various quarters to reintroduce elephant culling in the Kruger National Park, van Schalkwyk was offered a lifeline for the country's elephants. After killing more than 14,000 elephants under a misguided management regime which focused on carrying capacity for three decades, but suspended in 1995, SANParks hopes to once again turn the Kruger National Park (KNP) into a killing field.
Examining SANParks' justification for culling, Elephants Alive representatives explained how SANParks' proposals were untenable from a scientific, economic, legal and ethical standpoint.
Dr Keith Lindsay, a seasoned elephant ecologist, representing UK based wildlife charity Care for the Wild International, outlined how SANParks remained stuck in an archaic management paradigm, rooted in farming practices. "Most international and South African scientists agree that there is absolutely no reason to assume that the Kruger's elephants are posing a threat to biodiversity, and therefore there is no need to cull them. By trying to maintain the characteristics of a landscape formed under the absence of elephants due to overexploitation in the late 1800s, South Africa is facing an impossible task. The international scientific community, and increasingly South African scientists, agree that that elephants are part of the Kruger, but don't threaten its biodiversity," says Lindsay.
Elephants Alive launched its report outlining the details of it multi-faceted arguments against culling in Capetown today. The report is intended to enhance the scientific debate around biodiversity conservation and the role of elephants in the KNP. In doing so, it provides a historic context of biodiversity management in the Kruger National Park and its effects on the Park's biodiversity, including elephants, and offers multi-pronged scientific arguments that set out why culling of elephants is not needed. Furthermore it presents details of why the basis for SANParks' recommendations for culling are scientifically unsound and misleading and details of how the interpretation of the precautionary principle chosen by SANParks is selective and incorrect, as well as an economic analysis of potential community benefits through culling, which are negligible. In contrast, the potential risks to South Africa's tourism industry if elephant culling is resumed are enormous. Elephants Alive also proposed a viable plan of action which sets out non-violent short and long-term conservation measures for the Kruger National Park.
"We are confident the Minister has been provided with valuable insights which will enable him to make an informed decision and thereby not go down in history as the minister who reintroduced elephant culling," says Xwe's Michelle Pickover.
Dr Barbara Maas, "Even those firmly wedded to the concept, fashionable in some circles, that wild animals must pay their way, will surely concede that this is exactly what the Kruger's wildlife, including elephants have done for South Africa. For those of a different persuasion, Matthew Scully's words will serve: "In the carnage and terror they have endured, elephants have already "paid their own way" - with a security deposit for decades to come. And the ones left have plenty of value just as they are, without a need of men with guns and machetes to give it to them."
"The eyes of the world are on South Africa" said Will Travers, CEO of the international wildlife charity, Born Free Foundation. "Mr van Schalkwyk has a leading role to play, and must make decisions based on the evidence provided by all stakeholders. We believe the evidence that has been provided today is compelling".
15-3-2006
South Africa, which has recently been considering elephant culling as an option for management of its elephant population, has announced that it will postpone making a decision on culling for 18 months.
This announcement follows a number of meetings, involving various stakeholders, experts and elephant scientists on this controversial issue. Born Free's Chief Executive Officer, Will Travers, attended one of these meetings in November 2005.
Increasingly, culling is being proposed as a method of wild elephant management. The Born Free Foundation believes that elephant culling is an unnecessary and inhumane elephant management tool. We believe there to be viable, non-lethal and humane alternatives to culling, including expansion of habitat, contraception and translocation. Born Free welcomes this decision by the South African government, and hopes it will enable full consideration of these alternatives.
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