African Wildlife & Environment Issue 77 FINAL ISSUE

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

Balancing the dimensions – the tricky issue of management Unsurprisingly, the people living near the Boteti are frustrated; their main request was that the Park fence be reinforced. Given that the river is the boundary and people also need access to the river, they want the fence to be reinforced on the Park’s side of the Boteti River.Yet, as the elephant study showed, this river is a critical resource for elephants, so any fence blocking their access to the river is likely to be broken down by elephants desperate to quench their thirst. The government suggested moving the boundary of the Park such that the Boteti is within the Park and human communities are fenced out and therefore safe from elephants. Yet the river is a key source of water for these farming communities, so they were unwilling to give up their land and this critical resource to the Park. Considering this local situation gives us an idea of the complexity involved in managing elephants, and all other animal species that conflict with humans. While the area around the Boteti is a hotspot for human-elephant conflict, it is certainly not the only one in the country. If trying to please its citizens while simultaneously conserving its large elephant population was the only struggle the Botswana government had to deal with, that would be difficult enough. Recent media furores over their decision to allow elephant hunting [https://www.nationalgeographic. com/animals/2019/05/botswana-l i fts-ban-on- elephant-hunting/] and some mysterious (likely

the boundary fence of the Park was in severe disrepair so the elephants regularly crossed the river into the farming areas and back into the Park. The researchers wanted to know how the presence of elephants impacted the people living along the Boteti River. They went deeper than the usual tallying up of elephant damages (e.g. destroying crops or breaking fences) and also asked their 61 respondents about the impact of elephants on their personal security and freedom, physical and mental health, and relations with their families and the government. They found that 72% of their respondents felt unsafe around elephants and that the presence of the elephants limited their freedom of movement, especially at night. Even more worryingly, 90% reported that the damages caused by elephants to crops threatened their food security. Food is expensive in Botswana relative to the earning power of rural people, so not having a good yield from their crops means that these subsistence farmers may not have enough to eat, as their sources of cash income are limited. Nearly two- thirds (63%) of interviewees said that their access to water was hampered by the presence of elephants at the Boteti River. While limiting their access to food and water was a clear physical health concern, a quarter of the interviewees also reported an intense fear of elephants – thus affecting their mental health.

These children in Botswana are part of the programme called Coaching for Conservation where they learn about wildlife conservation while playing soccer and other games

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