ban on elephant culling lifted
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:45 am
this from our local morning newspaper ...
i live about a ninety minute drive from the addo elephant park and i am appalled that these magnificent animals are once again in the hunters sights ...
when will we ever learn?
Ban on elephant culling lifted – but only as a last resort
A NEW policy for managing South Africa‘s elephants lifts the 17-year-old moratorium on culling jumbos – but emphasises that this measure will be approved only as a “last resort.
Announcing the final norms and standards for elephant management at a briefing in Pretoria yesterday, Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said his department recognised the need to maintain culling as a management option.
“But we have taken steps to ensure this will be the option of last resort, acceptable only under strict conditions.
An application to cull has to be justified in terms of a detailed application by the landowner, noting how and why the number of jumbos is in conflict with the land use. It has to explain how all other options – range manipulation, translocation and contraception – have been tried unsuccessfully. And it has to be signed off not only by the authorities, but also by a recognised elephant expert.
The new policy is the culmination of an exhaustive process involving input from a large cross-section of interested parties. It is due to be gazetted on Friday and to become effective on May 1.
Reduced to 200 animals at the start of the 20th century, South Africa‘s elephant population now stands at about 20000. The government placed a moratorium on elephant culling in 1995, following a public outcry over a cull in the Kruger National Park.
One of the biggest culls of elephant took place in the Eastern Cape when hunter Major PJ Pretorius was hired by the government to rid the Addo area of jumbos that were clashing with pioneer citrus farmers. He killed 120 between 1919 and 1920 before the cull was stopped. The park was declared in 1931 with 11 elephants left.
Professor Graham Kerley, head of the Centre for African Conservation Ecology at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, and the CSIR‘s Dr Bob Scholes, two of the country‘s jumbo specialists, who headed scientific input on the new policy, were invited by the minister to help communicate it to the media at yesterday‘s Pretoria briefing.
Speaking from Pretoria after the briefing, Kerley said the Addo Elephant National Park had been the one protected area specifically referred to by the minister as needing careful elephant management.
“It is well documented that Addo has a particularly large number of plant species, some of which are restricted to a small area in the park, and these species are under pressure from the elephants.
“But the park is expanding and the next expected land purchase step will effectively halve the density. Culling is not a necessity at this stage.
The final norms and standards also prohibit the capture of elephants from the wild for commercial enterprises “like elephant-back safari industries or circuses. Even orphan animals that cannot be rehabilitated to the wild must be released into “bona fide sanctuaries. Elephants can also not be imported or exported, limiting the jumbo resource still further for these operations.
Elephant Tourism Association chairman Greg Vogt said his organisation was satisfied with the new policy as it reflected their own thinking on the issue.
i live about a ninety minute drive from the addo elephant park and i am appalled that these magnificent animals are once again in the hunters sights ...
when will we ever learn?
Ban on elephant culling lifted – but only as a last resort
A NEW policy for managing South Africa‘s elephants lifts the 17-year-old moratorium on culling jumbos – but emphasises that this measure will be approved only as a “last resort.
Announcing the final norms and standards for elephant management at a briefing in Pretoria yesterday, Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said his department recognised the need to maintain culling as a management option.
“But we have taken steps to ensure this will be the option of last resort, acceptable only under strict conditions.
An application to cull has to be justified in terms of a detailed application by the landowner, noting how and why the number of jumbos is in conflict with the land use. It has to explain how all other options – range manipulation, translocation and contraception – have been tried unsuccessfully. And it has to be signed off not only by the authorities, but also by a recognised elephant expert.
The new policy is the culmination of an exhaustive process involving input from a large cross-section of interested parties. It is due to be gazetted on Friday and to become effective on May 1.
Reduced to 200 animals at the start of the 20th century, South Africa‘s elephant population now stands at about 20000. The government placed a moratorium on elephant culling in 1995, following a public outcry over a cull in the Kruger National Park.
One of the biggest culls of elephant took place in the Eastern Cape when hunter Major PJ Pretorius was hired by the government to rid the Addo area of jumbos that were clashing with pioneer citrus farmers. He killed 120 between 1919 and 1920 before the cull was stopped. The park was declared in 1931 with 11 elephants left.
Professor Graham Kerley, head of the Centre for African Conservation Ecology at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, and the CSIR‘s Dr Bob Scholes, two of the country‘s jumbo specialists, who headed scientific input on the new policy, were invited by the minister to help communicate it to the media at yesterday‘s Pretoria briefing.
Speaking from Pretoria after the briefing, Kerley said the Addo Elephant National Park had been the one protected area specifically referred to by the minister as needing careful elephant management.
“It is well documented that Addo has a particularly large number of plant species, some of which are restricted to a small area in the park, and these species are under pressure from the elephants.
“But the park is expanding and the next expected land purchase step will effectively halve the density. Culling is not a necessity at this stage.
The final norms and standards also prohibit the capture of elephants from the wild for commercial enterprises “like elephant-back safari industries or circuses. Even orphan animals that cannot be rehabilitated to the wild must be released into “bona fide sanctuaries. Elephants can also not be imported or exported, limiting the jumbo resource still further for these operations.
Elephant Tourism Association chairman Greg Vogt said his organisation was satisfied with the new policy as it reflected their own thinking on the issue.
