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:
1. DR BRIAN HUNTLEY
(FACILITATOR) - Director, South African
National Biodiversity Institute.
2. PROFESSOR NORMAN
OWEN-SMITH - Research Professor in
African Ecology at the University of the
Witwatersrand.
3. PROFESSOR RUDI VAN AARDE -
Professor of Zoology and Director of the
Conservation Research Unit in the
Faculty of Natural & Agricultural
Science, University
of Pretoria.
4. PROFESSOR GRAHAM KERLEY -
Director, Terrestrial Ecology Research
Unit, Department of Zoology, Nelson
Mandela Metropolitan University.
5. DR HECTOR MAGOME -Head of
Research, South African National Parks
6. DR IAN WHYTE - Research
Manager: Large Herbivores, South African
National Parks.
7. DR. DAVID CUMMING - Tropical
Resource Ecology Programme, University
of Zimbabwe.
8. BRUCE PAGE - Lecturer in
Ecology in the School of Conservation
and Biological Sciences, University of
KwaZulu-Natal.
9. PROFESSOR ROB SLOTOW -
Professor, School of Conservation and
Biological Sciences, University of
KwaZulu-Natal.
10. DR BOB SCHOLES - Systems
Ecologist, Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research.
11. DR HOLLY DUBLIN - Chair,
Species Survival Commission, IUCN - The
World Conservation Union.
12. DR IAIN DOUGLAS HAMILTON -
Chief Executive of Save the Elephants
13. PROFESSOR KEVIN ROGERS -
Professor of Ecology in the School of
Animal Plant and Environmental Science
at the University of the Witwatersrand.
