Namibia’s elephants covers 9% of KAZA population

The elephant population in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) is estimated to be 227 900, with 21 090 in Namibia.

This is according to the long-awaited transboundary aerial survey of the KAZA elephants which was launched today in Livingstone, Zambia.

The 300 page report was made available yesterday for the first time and shows that there are 65 025 elephants, Angola 59 83 and Zambia 3 840 elephants.

However the survey results showed a high mortality rate of elephants with a carcass ratio of 10.4% to live elephants. A total of 26 641 elephant carcasses were discovered.

The survey was undertaken by the five KAZA partner countries – Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe – and with support from WWF and other partners. Representing Namibia at the launch yesterday was deputy tourism minister Heather Sibungo.

Zambia tourism minister and chair of KAZA, Rodney Sikumba said that the first flight for the survey took off in August.

On 22 August last year, the first two flights took to the skies in Zimbabwe, marking the start of the flying component of the KAZA Elephant Survey.

Flying was completed on 28 October last year, resulting in a total of 700 hours of flying spread over 68 days spent collecting data.

He said that the methodology, scale, and scope of the survey were the first of their kind, with coordinated flying covering almost 60% of the 520 000 square kilometres of the KAZA landscape.

Namibia contributes about 14% of this area.

“Today is not only a launch of the report, it is a celebration of what we have accomplished,” said Sikumba.

Data analysis was finalised in March this year, culminating in a comprehensive technical report documenting the implementation process and outcomes of the survey, which was completed in May this year.

Following consultation with the African Elephant Specialist Group, an independent review of the technical report was undertaken by three leading experts who submitted their report to the KAZA secretariat.

Darren Potgieter KAZA survey coordinator explained in his presentation although previous surveys have been done in the different countries it did not explain the movement of elephants between the countries in KAZA

He said KAZA wide it is the first time that elephants were surveyed and it was synchronised, coordinated and standardised.

He further explained that after every single flight quality assurance were done which included how flights were conducted, to make sure quality data were coming in.

He also pointed out the level of transparency and collaboration that were done between the partner states.

“These surveys are conducted in the dry season when visibility is better. We managed to finish the survey before any major rainfall could disrupt any movements of elephants.”

Going through the results Potgieter said the high mortality rate raises a red flag and could be due to aging, disease, habitat loss drought and poaching. He however added that most of the carcasses found were old.

“On the whole the elephant population appears stable. However there is heterogeneity in elephant population trends across KAZA.””

Potgieter said that the survey covered 310 865 square kilometre, with 195 flights that were made by, 47 field staff and 26 671 individual observations made.

He said that the 2022 KAZA Elephant Survey was a remarkable achievement, since it was the first time that Africa’s largest elephant population was surveyed in a single, fully coordinated exercise.

Many more analysis can be done on the data, said the African Elephant Specialist Group.

Brief reflections were given by each partner state on what they survey means for their country. Sibungo said she cannot wait to learn more about the findings in the report that has finally realised.

She said that many elephants in KAZA are found outside of protected areas, where they destroy crops, lives and compete for resources.

“Human-wildlife on the increase as the population of elephant is also increasing. We have resolved to undertake a number strategic measures to address this.”