KAZA launches US$3m elephant survey
BUSINESS REPORTER
The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) has unveiled a US$3m aerial survey which will inform decisions on the sustainable management of elephant population in the bloc.
This is the first ever KAZA-wide coordinated aerial survey of elephants. The survey, which runs for four months and begins in July to August next year, will be conducted in KAZA members—Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
In a joint statement Thursday, KAZA-TFCA partner States said the survey is also one of the action points of the 2019 Kasane Elephant Summit and a directive by its Heads of State.
“The elephant population of KAZA represents more than 50% of the remaining savanna elephants (Loxodonta Africana) found in Africa, a species recently listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as globally Endangered,” the partner States said in a joint statement.
The KAZA elephant population is the largest contiguous transboundary elephant population in the world, inhabiting KAZA’s diverse landscape which is home to an estimated population of two million people, and has a geographic scope of approximately 520 000km².
The survey will be coordinated by the KAZA Secretariat in close collaboration with designated teams in each of the Partner States and will be based on the recently revised Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants aerial survey standards, the States said.
“As KAZA Partner States and Coordinating Ministries, we reaffirm our commitment to the joint pursuit of science-led conservation practices driven by a firm belief that accurate and reliable data is the foundation to making informed strategic decisions about the long-term protection and management of Africa’s largest transboundary elephant population.,” the partners said.
The survey is seen as a demonstration of partners concerted efforts to implement the KAZA Treaty, which calls for regionally integrated approaches towards harmonising policies, strategies, and practices for managing shared natural resources straddling the international borders of KAZA partner States.
