Elephants without borders thrills
08 April, 2009

GABORONE - The documentary film Elephants Without Borders (EWB) is a masterpiece that gives an insight into the vulnerability of the earth's giants in relation to humans.

The documentary, which was premiered at Mogoditshane on Friday is a challenge to humans to ensure free movement of animals while at the same time conserving important natural resources.

Botswana's foremost conservationist, President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama was attended the launch alongside some members of the cabinet to experience the thrilling piece of work produced by Dr Michael Chase.

The film has already been nominated for the Oscars of Wildlife Awards and the International Wildlife Film Festival.

Elephants Without Borders, a non-profit-making organisation based in Kazungula manages its projects and activities in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Environment minister, Mr Kitso Mokaila spoke highly of the film saying it will give vital information to decision makers on the elephant distribution and abundance.

"As a country we have made strides in coming up with policies that have seen to the preservation of our natural resources to a point where some populations especially those of the elephants, have reached a challenging number", stated Mr Mokaila.

The essence of the film as stated by Dr Chase is to illustrate the importance of preserving biodiversity and healthy landscapes for the elephants.

EWB strives to identify ancient migration routes of the northern Botswana's increasing elephant population, which is now estimated at 150 000, the largest on the African continent.

According to the film, there are calls from experts to take drastic measures to cull as many as 60 000 elephants, a move believed would result in a balance between human and elephant conflict.

In this film, Dr Chase uses GPS to collect information that will be used to create safe wildlife passages across the political boundaries.

An elephant bull named Max and later a female named Bontle adorned with sophisticated satellite data-gathering collars, covered 13 500 and 13 800 square miles respectively.

This according to Dr Chase was considered crucial information as it illustrated the scope of their rangelands from season to season. Consequently the information was seen as an indication of just how much of the wilderness these giants require.

Through their wanderings it was discovered that their movement was at the same time blocked by human development.

As Dr Chase observed Botswana's elephants are surrounded by fences and people and countries that are growing at a fast pace on the other hand surround Botswana's wilderness.

Now, the question he raises is what can humans do to release the bottlenecks created by people, which so greatly hamper the movement of these elephants.

His solution, he says lies in Angola, a country believed to have had the largest population of elephants, way back in 1975.

Dr Chase has observed elephants that have travelled huge distances crossing the Chobe River to return to their ancestral lands in Angola, hence his proposal of a system of safe corridors to enable them to return to their ancestral home.

The question that Dr Chase raises now is exactly where should these corridors be located? The film ends with Dr Chase having collard yet another bull believed to be making its way to Angola.

Information collected would be used to draw up the corridors as proposed by Dr Chase.In his view, there is need to ensure that elephants have the freedom of Africa and argues that elephants and people can learn to live peacefully together.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Botswana Tourism Board (BTB), Ms Myra Sekgororoane noted that the board has a keen interest in associating with anything that tends to market Botswana to the outside world.

She stated that the film was yet another great tool at their disposal aimed at selling the country to other nations.BOPA

If the Chobe Park was not grossly overpopulated, and the elephants there had not eaten themselves into a starvation vs. dehydration dilemma (how far are the feeding grounds from the river, lately?), maybe the elephants wouldn't be desperately trying to go back to Angola...

Just my 2 cents.