Natural Selection’s commitment to elephant conservation was highlighted recently in its blog, The Botswana Elephant In The Room, which covers its support of Elephants For Africa (EFA) and the work the organisation does with regard to conservation and human-wildlife conflict mitigation.  

According to the blog, African savannah elephants are currently classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with global populations having declined by 60% in the last 50 years. However, the largest concentrations of the mammals can be found in Botswana, where the populations have been stable and are increasing.

To prevent human-wildlife conflict in the area and to sustain the conservation efforts, Natural Selection has been funding EFA’s elephant-proof fencing initiative. This involves combining 62 small-scale farms in Moreomaoto village, which is in one of the highest conflict areas, into one communal plot and erecting 7km of electric fencing around the area.

Natural Selection also recently supported an EFA collaring project, during which 10 bull elephants were collared in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park.  

This will not only help gather insight into the movements of elephants in human and wild landscapes, but will also record elephant movements consistent with feeding and other activities through accelerometers in the collars. 

After two years, EFA hopes to have an extensive database that will assist in assessing areas of ecological importance to elephants, locations where they are likely to come into conflict with people and the areas they use to migrate to and from the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park.