Human–Elephant Conflict in Africa: The Legal and Political Viability of Translocations, Wildlife Corridors, and Transfrontier Parks for Large Mammal Conservation

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Notes

N. W. Sitati et al., Predicting Spatial Aspects of Human–Elephant Conflict, 40 J. Applied Ecol. 667–677 (2003).

R. E. Hoare, Determinants of Human–Elephant Conflict in a Land-Use Mosaic, 36 J. Applied Ecol. 689–700 (1999); R. E. Hoare, African Elephants and Humans in Conflict: The Outlook for Co-Existence, 34 Oryx 34–38 (2000); P. C. Lee & M. D. Graham, African Elephants, Loxodonta Africana, and Human–Elephant Interactions: Implications for Conservation., 40 Int’l Zool. Y.B. 9–19 (2006).

C. E. O’Connell-Rodwell et al., Living with the Modern Conservation Paradigm: Can Agricultural Communities Co-Exist with Elephants? A Five-Year Case Study in East Caprivi, Namibia, 93 Biol. Cons. 381–391 (2000).

L. E. King et al., Beehive Fence Deters Crop-Raiding Elephants, 47 Afr. J. Ecol. 131–137 (2009).

F. V. Osborn, Capsicum Oleoresin as an Elephant Repellent: Field Trials in the Communal Lands of Zimbabwe, 66 J. Wildlife Mgmt. 674–677 (2002).

M. D. Graham & T. Ochieng, Uptake and Performance of Farm-Based Measures for Reducing Crop Raiding by Elephants Loxodonta africana Among Smallholder Farms in Laikipia District, Kenya, 42 Oryx 76–82 (2008).

D. Balfour et al., Review of Options for Managing the Impacts of Locally Overabundant African Elephants (Species Survival Commission, African Elephant Specialist Group, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, 2007).

R. J. van Aarde et al., Culling and the Dynamics of the Kruger National Park African Elephant Population, 2 Animal Cons. 287–294 (1999).

S. L. Pimm & R. J. van Aarde, African elephants and Contraception [Brief communication–letter], 411 Nature 766 (2001).

C. Muir, Monitoring the Impact of the Mwaluganje Elephant Trans-Location, Kenya (Unpublished report to the Kenya Wildlife Service, Nairobi, Kenya, 2000); E. Wambwa et al., Resolving Human–Elephant Conflict in Luwero District, Uganda, Through Elephant Translocation, 31Pachyderm 58–62 (2001); H. T. Dublin & L. S. Niskanen, Guidelines for the in situ Translocation of the African Elephant for Conservation Purposes (Species Survival Commission, African Elephant Specialist Group, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, 2003), available online at http://www.african-elephant.org/tools/trnsgden.html (accessed 28 Jan. 2012); N. Pinter-Wollman et al., Assessing Translocation Outcome: Comparing Behavioral and Physiological Aspects of Translocated and Resident African Elephants (Loxodonta africana), 142 Biol. Cons. 1116–1124 (2009).

S. Metcalfe & T. Kepe, “Your Elephant on Our Land”: The Struggle to Manage Wildlife Mobility on Zambian Communal Land in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, 17 J. Env't & Dev. 99–117 (2008).

G. M. Harris et al., Rules of Habitat Use by Elephants Loxodonta africana in Southern Africa: Insights for Regional Management, 42 Oryx 66–75 (2008).

See the review of the contrasting approaches to elephant management among eastern and southern African countries in J. R. Berger, The African Elephant, Human Economics and International Law: Bridging a Great Rift for East and Southern Africa, Geo. Int’l Envtl. L. Rev. 418–470 (2001).

J. Blanc, Loxodonta africana, in IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2008), Version 2011.2, online at http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/12392/0 (accessed on 16 January 2012).

The Web site of the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is at http://www.cites.org. The site gives ready access to fully up-to-date copies of the text of the Convention and its appendices. The article under which trade in stockpiles can be authorized, Article V, is at http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/text.php#V (accessed 28 Jan. 2012).

Cameroon is a case in point. See Blanc, supra note 14.

Recent developments in the ability to extract DNA from ivory now allow law enforcement agents to determine the origin of ivory and establish its legality: S. K. Wasser et al., Using DNA to Track the Origin of the Largest Ivory Seizure Since the 1989 Trade Ban, 104 Proc. Nat’l Acad. Sci. 4228–4233 (2007); Samuel K. Wasser et al., Elephants, Ivory, and Trade, 327 Science 1331–1332 (2010).

For a non-technical introduction to attempts to save both species and landscapes across borders, see C. Fraser, Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution (2009). The main legal and policy norms that have constrained more effective trans-border management of species and habitats are reviewed in D. Hunter, J. Salzman, & D. Zaelke, International Environmental Law & Policy 1002–1231 (3rd ed., 2007).

R. J. van Aarde & T. P. Jackson, Megaparks for Metapopulations: Addressing the Causes of Locally High Elephant Numbers in Southern Africa, 134 Biol. Cons. 289–297 (2007); Harris et al., supra note 12.

Van Aarde et al., supra note 8.

V. Butler, Elephants: Trimming the Herd, 48 Biosci. 76–81 (1998).

G. A. Bradshaw et al., Elephant Breakdown, 433 Nature 807 (2005).

Van Aarde et al., supra note 8.

These are Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) glycoproteins.

R. A. Fayrer-Hosken et al., Immunocontraception of African Elephants—A Humane Method to Control Elephant Populations Without Behavioural Side Effects, 407 Nature 149 (2000).

A. K. Delsink et al., Regulation of a Small, Discrete African Elephant Population through Immunocontraception in the Makalali Conservancy, Limpopo, South Africa, 102 S. Afr. J. Sci. 403–405 (2006).

Only 73 elephants were studied by Delsink et al., supra note 26, of which only 28 were reproductively mature females. This population was confined to a closed reserve and habituated to vehicles.

A. P. Dobson, Effect of Fertility Control on Elephant Population Dynamics, 9 J. Reprod. Fertility 293–298 (1993).

Up to 75 percent of the females in Kruger National Park need to be treated over the course of 11 years to reach zero growth. Van Aarde et al., supra note 8.

Fayrer-Hosken et al., supra note 25.

Van Aarde & Jackson, supra note 19.

G. H. Kerley & A. M. Shrader, Elephant Contraception: Silver Bullet or a Potentially Bitter Pill?, 103 S. Afr. J. Sci. 181–182 (2007).

A. A. Perdock et al., Prospects for Managing African Elephant Population Growth With Immunocontraception: A Review, 42 Pachyderm 97–107 (2007).

For evidence from Kenya see P. Omondi et al., Managing Human–Elephant Conflicts: The Kenyan Experience, 36 Pachyderm 39–48 (2004). For evidence from Botswana, see Berger, supra note 13.

For example, orphaned elephants that are raised by humans and then released to the wild may become problem animals due to their high affinity to humans.

This reduction in elephant numbers at the translocation source is likely temporary, just as after culling, because population growth may accelerate and elephants from nearby regions may immigrate and replace the removed elephants.

Dublin & Niskanen, supra note 10.

Id., at 8.

M. E. Garai et al., Elephant Reintroductions to Small Fenced Reserves in South Africa, 37 Pachyderm 28–36 (2004).

R. Slotow & G. van Dyk, Role of Delinquent Young “Orphan” Male Elephants in High Mortality of White Rhinoceros in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa, 44 Koedoe 85–94 (2001).

R. Slotow et al., Older Bull Elephants Control Young Males, 408 Nature 425–426 (2000).

C. Coetsee, Elephant Translocations, 22 Pachyderm 81–82 (1996).

For outcomes of male translocations, see M. E. Garai & R. D. Carr, Unsuccessful Introductions of Adult Elephant Bulls to Confined Areas in South Africa, 31 Pachyderm 52–57 (2001); Slotow & van Dyk, supra note 40.

Wambwa et al., supra note 10; Coetsee, supra note 42; M. W. Litoroh et al., Two Successful Elephant Translocations in Kenya, 31 Pachyderm 674–75 (2001); P. O. M. Omondi et al., Recent Translocation of Elephant Family Units From Sweetwaters Rhino Sanctuary to Meru National Park, Kenya, 32 Pachyderm 39–48 (2002).

N. Pinter-Wollman et al., supra note 10.

Bomas are enclosures at the release site in which translocated animals are kept for a short period before further release into the park. See Dublin & Niskanen, supra note 10.

Pinter-Wollman et al., supra note 10.

Garai et al., supra note 39.

Muir, supra note 10; Pinter-Wollman et al., supra note 10.

N. Pinter-Wollman, Spatial Behaviour of Translocated African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) in a Novel Environment: Using Behaviour to Inform Conservation Actions, 146 Behaviour 1171–1192 (2009).

Id.

Id. at 1181.

N. Pinter-Wollman et al., supra note 10.

Id. at 1120.

Id. at 1121.

N. Pinter-Wollman et al., The Relationship Between Social Behaviour and Habitat Familiarity in African Elephants (Loxodonta africana), 276 Proc. Royal Soc. B 1009–1014 (2009).

Id.

Pinter-Wollman et al., supra note 10, at 1121–1122.

Dublin & Niskanen, supra note 10.

This is stated on the Web page of IFAW at http://www.ifaw.org/us/node/2211 (accessed 28 Jan. 2012).

Dublin & Niskanen, supra note 10.

Coetsee, supra note 42.

Wambwa et al., supra note 10.

According to Blanc, supra note 14, “The African Elephant has been listed in CITES Appendix I since 1989, but the populations of the following Range States have since been transferred back to Appendix II with specific annotations: Botswana (1997), Namibia (1997), South Africa (2000) and Zimbabwe (1997). These annotations have been recently replaced by a single annotation for all four countries, with certain specific sub-annotations for the populations of Namibia and Zimbabwe. … The sport hunting of elephants is permitted under the legislation of a number of Range States, and the following countries currently (2007) have CITES export quotas for elephant trophies: Botswana, Cameroon, Gabon, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.” 

Article III of CITES is explained at http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/text.php#III (accessed 28 Jan. 2012).

Dublin & Niskanen, supra note 10, at 34.

Id.

Id.

IUCN, Guidelines for Reintroductions, Prepared by the Species Survival Commission, Re-introduction Specialist Group (IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, 1998).

Y. Ishida et al., Reconciling Apparent Conflicts Between Mitochondrial and Nuclear Phylogenies in African Elephants, 6 Plos One doi: ARTN e20642 (2011).

See Pinter-Wollman, supra note 50, at 1179.

I. Douglas-Hamilton et al., Movements and Corridors of African Elephants in Relation to Protected Areas, 92 Naturwissenschaften 158–163 (2005).

Pinter-Wollman, supra note 50, at 1181.

Of all the implemented solutions to HEC listed by Omondi et al., supra note 34, none include wildlife corridors or efforts to increase elephants’ habitat size.

See the information online at http://www.mountkenyatrust.org/elephantcorridor.htm (accessed 28 Jan. 2012).

Van Aarde & Jackson, supra note 19.

L. Fahrig, Relative Effects of Habitat Loss and fragmentation on Population Extinction, 61 J. Wildlife Mgmt. 603–610 (1997).

Van Aarde & Jackson, supra note 19.

Id.

A. F. Bennett, Linkages in the Landscape: The Role of Corridors and Connectivity in Wildlife Conservation (IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, 1998, 2003), available online at http://app.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/FR-021.pdf (accessed 28 Jan. 2012).

Douglas-Hamilton et al., supra note 71.

A. P. Kikoti et al., Elephant Use and Conflict Leads to Tanzania's First Wildlife Conservation Corridor, 48 Pachyderm 57–66 (2010). See also http://www.mountkenyatrust.org/elephantcorridor.htm (accessed 28 Jan. 2012).

This is reviewed in van Aarde & Jackson, supra note 19.

H. C. Druce et al., The Response of an Elephant Population to Conservation Area Expansion: Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa, 141 Biol. Cons. 3127–3138 (2008).

This is similar to the time it takes elephants to acclimate to new social settings after a translocation. See Pinter-Wollman et al., supra note 10.

C. W. Epps et al., An Empirical Evaluation of the African Elephant as a Focal Species for Connectivity Planning in East Africa, 17 Diversity & Distributions 603–612 (2011).

W. Wolmer, Transboundary Conservation: The Politics of Ecological Integrity in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, 29 J. S. Afr. Stud. 261–278 (2003).

Id.

Id.

Id.

Metcalfe & Kepe, supra note 11.

Kikoti et al., supra note 82.

Wolmer, supra note 87.

Id.

Id.

Metcalfe & Kepe, supra note 11.

Kikoti et al., supra note 82.

Metcalfe & Kepe, supra note 11.