Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

26 October 2024

3-minute read

Shaun Hensman has been involved in the protection of elephants since 1998. His passion for wildlife started when as a young boy, his father, a farmer in Zimbabwe, managed to save 12 elephants when they were forced off their farm. Shaun says that in Africa, elephants are confined to a bare 6% of the land that they used to have four to five hundred years ago, which is an issue for concern when it comes to conservation.

With the vast majority of the 1.4 billion people in Africa living below the bread line and a projected population growth of up to 4 billion in coming years, a massive amount of pressure on will be put on wildlife as people need to eat in order to survive. The polarization of wildlife conservation is because of promotion, money and the egos that are involved in it. There are disagreements across countries in managing elephant and wildlife populations, especially as human population has taken over all the best land for agriculture, livestock and cities. Conservationists are pushing to create spaces for wildlife, aiming for 30% space for wildlife in the world.

There are a diverse set of issues facing wildlife conservation in Africa today and moving into the future; as the word has gotten smaller. These include:

• Illegal trade as whatever is done to prevent poaching of elephants in Africa might have a direct impact on, for example, elephants in Asia.
• Most animals are confined in the worst quality land that cannot even support farm animals or agricultural practices.
• Climate change impacts greatly on the environment – a mere change of 1 degree Celsius can cause changes in habitats which leads to the wildlife that was supported by those habitats being diminished. Climate change also leads to huge floods and big droughts across the world, which is a cause for concern amongst conservationists.
• Illegal poaching of wildlife which is a form of theft.
• Human-elephant conflict as many humans have moved into wildlife spaces and vice versa.

Viable options for managing the wildlife population in SA with non-lethal solutions to protect both elephants and people need to be put in place. Recently in Nongoma in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, a herd of elephants escaped, causing several families in the surrounding area to flee and evacuate their homes. We need to ensure that we have wildlife for our children in the future. This can be achieved by:

• Opening fences and allowing wildlife to move into spaces that weren’t previously available to them.
• Translocation, where herds of elephants are captured and put into trucks and shipped around to other conservation areas.
• Contraception to stop elephants breeding but this is not the preferred method as it interferes with the family structure.
• Support of conservation organizations.
• Organized hunting as it contributes to conversation by paying in and managing elephant populations.
• Culling to take out a number of animals to bring the numbers down to a sustainable level.

Everybody wants wildlife in the future including the hunters and the wildlife reserve managers who want to cull the elephant population. Shaun says that the public need to “look at the bigger picture” and not consume small clips and items on social media. When supporting charitable wildlife causes, think before you throw money at anything. Find out where the money is going to and who will benefit from it. Understand that there are always 2 sides to a story. People often think “emotionally” and lack “common sense” when it comes to wildlife conservation.

Listen to the full interview with Ml Muhammad Kara and Ml Ibrahim Daya on The Weekend Breakfast Program.