Securing the Future of Elephants – Conservation remains key

Hwange – Deep in the thickets, in the middle of nowhere, Survivor Young and inexperienced in the bush, Nyasulu never imagined that his first day of work at his preferred job would be such a nightmare. He will always remember that day. Nyasulu, a new wildlife ranger, was properly inducted on a cold June 2015 day after being pursued by a bull elephant while on patrol.

Zimbabwe has the second largest population of elephants, in Africa.

Nyasulu recalls the day as a “induction ceremony” with great clarity. In the village, he had heard stories like these.

“I had never encountered that kind of situation before. The Gwangu Lodge location was where we were stationed. Elephants abound in the area. I was 21 years old and began working in the jungle that same month,” Nyasulu remembered, “We were patrolling as a team, with the elephant on the right and buffaloes on the left.”

“We suspected that lions had killed the elephant’s calf. The elephant started chasing after us trumpeting, one of the senior guys fell, that is when l realised this thing was really happening. The other guy then removed the jacket and threw it in the sky, then the elephant trumpeting stumbled onto the jacket assuming it was a human being, whilst we were running. We ran to the tarred road (Hwange National Park Main Camp-Mabale road),” said Nyasulu.

Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe’s largest protected area, spans more than 14,000 km2, the area size of Belgium.

With almost 45,000 individual elephants, the park has the second-largest elephant population in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Area (KAZA), according to the 2014 Pan African Elephant Survey.

Due to overcrowding, jumbos occasionally wander through Hwange’s villages and neighbouring suburbs. People are not oblivious of the difficulties they are having as a result of confrontations between elephants and humans, even if the world was celebrating World Elephant Day. Despite the confrontations, villagers told The Besana Mail that jumbos need more protection and that, with the correct resources in place, conflicts could be avoided.

“More significantly, we have learned to live with elephants, even if we have had conflicts in the past and now. Even though we lost, we use this day to remind ourselves and the government of our shared obligation to conserve elephants, particularly from poaching,” said Mduduzi Sibanda of the Mabale area in Dete.

World Elephant Day is observed annually on August 12 to raise awareness of elephant conservation and protection. The day’s goal is to raise awareness of Asian and African elephants’ grave threat to extinction. Numerous issues, such as habitat degradation, human-wildlife conflicts, and poaching for their ivory tusks, are putting elephants in risk.

Observance of the Day began on August 12, 2012. At the forefront were Canadian videographers Patricia Sims and Michael Clark, as well as the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand. The timing was chosen to align with the documentary “Return to the Forest,” which explores the reintroduction of captive elephants into the wild. Elephants are endangered by poaching, habitat degradation, conflict between humans and wildlife, abuse in captivity, and other climate change-related issues, which is why the celebrations are held.

The day offers a forum for associations, governments, and people to interact, exchange information, and take part in campaigns to safeguard elephants and their habitats.

The first steps in safeguarding elephants, according to conservationists, include enacting legislation to prevent poaching and the illegal ivory trade, protecting elephant habitats, enhancing care for captive elephants, and resettling captive elephants in sanctuaries.

“For the benefit of current and future generations, the event serves to increase awareness of the importance of elephants to our ecosystem and the need to protect them,” Carl Makamure, an ecologist, said, “It is a chance for people to come together and support these amazing species, sharing the determination to see them flourish.”

In order to raise awareness of the suffering that elephants endure in the ivory trade, some people painted their toenails grey as part of the day’s many events. Some people spent their time viewing videos about elephants and reading books about them. Seeing elephants in the wild is considered to be one of the finest opportunities to learn more about these amazing creatures and the threats they face.

The Hwange district is also home to Panda Masuie, a wildlife sanctuary that is jointly run by Wildlife Is Life and the Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe with support from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Since the beginning of this partnership, significant resources and work have been invested in solving significant conservation concerns, such as poaching and wildfires, in order to preserve and restore the forest. Because of their efforts, zebras, lions, elephants, and other species can now roam freely throughout the reserve without worrying about human threats.

The annual waterhole game census is conducted every October during the full moon and at the end of the dry season. Rangers and volunteers monitor waterholes across Panda Masuie for a full day, counting the number of animals that come to drink.

According to Panda Masuie’s administration, the count is an essential starting point for planning and overseeing the conservation of elephants and their habitat as well as for evaluating the condition of the reserve’s wildlife populations.

According to Philip Kuvawoga, Director of Landscape Conservation at IFAW, having accurate and reliable data helps decision-makers make long-term, well-informed decisions about wildlife and landscape resources.

“Sustained, deliberate efforts to restore habitat and guarantee the maintenance of viable populations in healthy ecosystems are the reason for the thriving elephant population and the rise in other wildlife in the forest reserve. We are ecstatic that our combined efforts and monetary investments are now paying off,” Kuvawoga remarked.

Panda Masuie provides secure habitat for the 330,000 or more savannah elephants roaming the KAZA TFCA, the biggest contiguous population of elephants in the world.

According to the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Zimbabwe is home to more than 80% of the Lower Zambezi’s endangered elephant population. Regretfully, compared to 2001, there were 36% fewer elephants worldwide in 2014. The population drop strongly suggests that elephant poaching has become a hotspot in this area.

According to AWF, if illegal ivory hunting keeps up its current pace, elephant numbers in this area will be exterminated over the next thirty years.

The government of Zimbabwe views elephants as a keystone species ecologically, a valuable natural resource that supports conservation and rural development, and an integral part of the country’s legacy, according to Fulton Mangwanya, director general of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

To conserve elephants at levels that will enable them to contribute to the conservation of biodiversity, national development and Zimbabwe’s cultural heritage ZPWMA signed the Zimbabwe Elephant Management Plan in 2021.

Mangwanya stated, “The Government acknowledges and values the significant responsibility carried by those who dedicate themselves to conserving and managing elephant populations and their habitats in Zimbabwe by signing this updated Action Plan for Elephant Conservation and Management in Zimbabwe.”

Mangwanya emphasized in his remarks on the Elephant Management Plan that it is both a national and international responsibility to sustainably manage the elephant population for the sake of Zimbabweans and those living outside its borders.

The 2014 national elephant census anticipated between 76,000 and 93,000 elephants. Unsurveyed small villages probably have thousands more elephants, according to ZPWMA. The country’s elephant population consists of four populations. Other species have been negatively impacted by the overabundance of populations in the North Western and South Eastern regions.

Elephants are considered a keystone species and one of the main ecological engineers in savannah ecosystems, particularly when found in large numbers in restricted locations.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports that over 42,100 species are at risk of extinction. On the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the African savannah elephant, Loxodonta Africana, is classified as Endangered, and the African forest elephant, Loxodonta Cyclotis, is classified as Critically Endangered.