By Mbongeni Mguni
Botswana may have found a solution to its elephant overpopulation: it's going to encourage some of them to emigrate.
Botswana's tourism industry, which accounts for one-fifth of the economy, is heavily reliant on the world's largest elephant population, but the animals have become a political issue in recent years: there simply too many of them and they destroy crops and occasionally trample villages.
Elephants are a big tourist drawcard in Botswana, but overpopulation is now causing problems.Credit: Shutterstock
Now, elephants are beginning to migrate into neighbouring Angola and the governments of both countries are helping them do so by tearing down fences and also removing land mines left over from Angola's civil war.
Philda Kereng, Botswana's Environment Minister, however, conceded that the policy was a little more complicated than that: "We have to help Angola understand the value of elephants."
Botswana's 135,000 elephants mostly live in the 520,000 square kilometres that make up the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, which spans five countries and is home to almost half the world's African elephants.
Angola's elephants were pushed across the border by a decades-long civil war that ended in 2002. Illegal hunting elsewhere has also boosted Botswana's elephant population.
Before the war, Angola had about 100,000 elephants, compared to less than 10,000 today, according to researchers. Most lived in the lush south-eastern highlands, from which rivers feeding Botswana's Okavango Delta wetlands originate.
"Southern Angola has prime elephant habitat and, if conditions are safe for elephants, they will return to Angola in great numbers," said Mike Chase, the founder and director of research at non-profit Elephants Without Borders.
"It is natural for elephants to leave areas where numbers are high and seek out areas with fewer elephants for uncrowded access to food and water."
His organisation has tagged almost 150 elephants with satellite tracking collars to map their movements in Botswana and neighbouring countries. Chase said some are now returning to Angola.
"I am confident if afforded the right protection, elephant numbers in Angola's conservation areas could increase quickly," he said.
Angola has so far allocated $US60 million ($83.7 million) to remove land mines in the area, but more funding is needed for the removal of barriers such as livestock fences, the protection of migration corridors and the education of local communities, said Tamar Ron, a wildlife ecologist who has acted as biodiversity consultant to the Angolan government.
"Angola needs to prepare for the expected migration and repopulation of elephants and other wildlife into the country," she said.