VOICE OF AMERICA
Five Southern African countries, which have more than half the continent’s elephants, conducted the first aerial census to determine the elephant population and how to protect it.
Light aircraft flew simultaneously across the plains of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe in a conservation region known as the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA).
KAZA is home to an estimated 220,000 elephants. The five countries want to know exact numbers and distribution patterns. Although elephant populations are increasing in the KAZA region, elsewhere on the continent numbers are decreasing due to loss of habitat and poaching.
More than 130,000 elephants are in Botswana, the most of any nation in the world. Kabelo Senyatso, Botswana’s National Parks and Wildlife director, said the census will be key to elephant management.
The data will help the five partner states manage land-use planning, human-elephant conflict, hunting and tourism, Senyatso said.
“It is important that as managers of the resource we have a clear understanding of where they are and how they are distributed across the landscape,” Senyatso said. “It is an exciting project, the first of its kind. We expect the data on the patterns to be analyzed starting early 2023 such that by quarter one of 2023, we would already be having preliminary data that we can share with the public and for our decision-making.”
“The results from this survey will become the cornerstone for the long-term protection and management of Africa’s largest trans-boundary elephant population,” said Nyambe Nyambe, KAZA executive director.