by NKHENSANI NKUNA
POLOKWANE, (CAJ News) – SOUTH African National Parks (SANParks) celebrated World Elephant Day at Kruger National Park’s Mopani Conference Centre, under the theme “Personifying Prehistoric Beauty, Theological Relevance, and Environmental Importance”.
The international annual event is dedicated to the preservation and protection of the elephants.
According to JP Louw, Head of Communications at SANParks, the organisation applies itself on how to maintain, restore or modify natural habitats that support and enhance the health, diversity and productivity of the ecosystem.
Louw said the approach supported the animal’s wellbeing and reduced human wildlife conflict and promoted community beneficiation while maintaining the resilience of the ecosystems.
South Africa has about 44 000 elephants within the country’s boundaries and the population has been increasing in the last century.
“SANParks manages about 75% of elephants in the country in five national parks. The Kruger National Park has about 30 000, while 800 are in elephant parks, 600 are at Mapungubwe National Park, under 400 in Marakele National Park and one at Garden Route National Park. Elephants are important in the ecosystems as they contribute to the bush thinning, felling trees and influencing fire patterns,” he said.
With elephants increasingly using human habitat landscapes, planning any action surrounding human and elephant conflict is critical.
Louw said there were different mechanisms used to mitigate the conflict, which included chasing elephants out of human areas, fencing them out of sensitive areas, creating barriers such as ditches and also closing human-made waterholes.
He said the conservation problems surrounding elephants were different from those of the early 1900s, where back then the greatest challenge was the depletion of the population and how to recover it, and today it is about maximising the socio-ecological role of elephants, while minimising the cost to the wellbeing of people and nature.
– CAJ News