Yep, I will whack one if the price is right. D

Hey, Botswana, ever heard of a SALE?

As in, INVENTORY REDUCTION, SURPLUS STOCK, WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY, WHATEVER?

Lower prices mean higher volume.

Put me down for a couple at the right price!

Sign me up for taking out 2,000.

How to Deal With 130 000 Elephants? Part 1

Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)

OPINION
August 13, 2004
Posted to the web 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.