FRIDAY,
18 AUGUST 2006: Thirteen of the world’s leading
elephant scientists will meet in Cape Town on
22 August to submit their views to the Minister
of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, Marthinus
van Schalkwyk, on the need for further research
into the ecology of elephants.
This follows his statement in
September last year that the Cabinet has instructed
him to develop policy guidelines for the management
of South Africa’s burgeoning elephant population
in national, provincial and private parks.
The second Elephant Science
Round Table (SRT2 ) follows a similar discussion
in January this year when the scientists told
the Minister and senior officials of his department
that there is no compelling evidence to suggest
the need for immediate, large-scale reduction
of elephant numbers in the Kruger National Park.
The Minister convened the panel
after scientists from SANParks recommended that
elephant populations should be reduced (see report
at www.sanparks.org) through translocation, contraception,
range expansion and culling.
Participants in SRT1 did, however,
agree that in some protected areas, some intervention
might be necessary to manage elephant density
distribution and population structure. In areas
of significant size and diversity where some risk
could be accommodated, “deliberate, bold actions”
were required.
The concept of “active adaptive
management” (i.e. learning by doing) would be
helpful in reducing management uncertainties in
complex systems. Adequate monitoring and feedback
loops should be part of such a process.
In the meantime, he said he
would have to develop policy guidelines based
on the best scientific information currently available,
along with other factors such as ethical and social
considerations, indigenous knowledge, environmental
and tourism impacts.
In parallel with the SRT process,
the Department has engaged with a large number
of stakeholders. Hundreds of submissions have
been received from around the world.
According to Mava Scott, acting
head of communications at the Department, the
scientists attending SRT2 are being asked to assume
for the purpose of the round table discussion
that the Minister intends to adopt this consensus
stakeholder view as a policy guideline and to
provide advice on the following questions:
• What scientific interventions are required for
the implementation of an adaptive management research
programme in the near future?
• How would a multi-stakeholder research programme
be set up and administered?
• How would it work in practice?
• How much will it cost - and over what time period
should it operate?
• Who should monitor the process and how would
the “learnings” be absorbed into elephant management
policy and practice?
Scott said that specialists
in the Department were making good progress with
drafting of the Norms and Standards for Elephant
Management, which would hopefully be published
for public comment before the year-end and the
contribution from the SRT2 would enhance the process.
Note to Editors:
Participants in SRT2 are:
DR BRIAN HUNTLEY (FACILITATOR) - Director, South
African National Biodiversity Institute.
PROFESSOR NORMAN OWEN-SMITH - Research Professor
in African Ecology at the University of the Witwatersrand.
PROFESSOR RUDI VAN AARDE - Professor of Zoology
and Director of the Conservation Research Unit
in the Faculty of Natural & Agricultural Science,
University of Pretoria.
PROFESSOR GRAHAM KERLEY - Director, Terrestrial
Ecology Research Unit, Department of Zoology,
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
DR HECTOR MAGOME -Head of Research, South African
National Parks
DR IAN WHYTE - Research Manager: Large Herbivores,
South African National Parks.
DR. DAVID CUMMING - Tropical Resource Ecology
Programme, University of Zimbabwe.
BRUCE PAGE - Lecturer in Ecology in the School
of Conservation and Biological Sciences, University
of KwaZulu-Natal.
PROFESSOR ROB SLOTOW - Professor, School of Conservation
and Biological Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
DR BOB SCHOLES - Systems Ecologist, Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research.
DR HOLLY DUBLIN - Chair, Species Survival Commission,
IUCN - The World Conservation Union.
DR IAIN DOUGLAS HAMILTON - Chief Executive of
Save the Elephants
PROFESSOR KEVIN ROGERS - Professor of Ecology
in the School of Animal Plant and Environmental
Science at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Mava Scott
