The Geopolitics of Animal Welfare.

ELEPHANTS; ANIMAL welfare; HUMAN-animal relationships; SUSTAINABILITY; WILDLIFE conservation; GEOPOLITICS; POOR people; POACHING prevention

Graph An elephant grazes next to the southwestern boundary fence that separates Kruger National Park from densely populated villages and towns. In the last decade, elephant numbers in the Greater Kruger[22] have made a "dramatic recovery"[23] after elephants were virtually extinct in the 1900s due to uncontrolled hunting.[24] The Greater Kruger comprises a relatively open ecological system, including the Kruger National Park and a network of provincial, private, and community-owned reserves. In 2022, South Africa's Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DEFFE) approved an annual hunting quota of 150 elephants, representing 0.005% of the elephant population in the Greater Kruger. Elephants in South Africa are "better protected and far more intensely managed than elsewhere,"[25] breeding more quickly, living longer, and using landscapes more intensely.[26] Despite African savanna elephants being classified as critically endangered, the increase in the size of the Greater Kruger's Savanna elephant population - currently roughly 35,000 - is the highest ever recorded.[27] Given the concurrent growth in human and elephant population numbers, it comes as no surprise that conflict between humans and elephants are also on the rise,[28] adding to local people's costs of living with wildlife, particularly elephants.[29] However, elephants can also provide "tangible benefits to humans, such as meat and money, from tourism and hunting."[30] The challenge facing park managers in the Greater Kruger is more poignant than ever: balancing the ecological, economic, and social costs and benefits of a thriving elephant population adjacent to millions of impoverished people. [Extracted from the article]

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