No one seems to know, or at least be willing to share, how many elephants remain in Kasungu. Prior to the translocation, 29 of the animals were equipped with tracking collars, but it\u2019s unclear whether anyone is still receiving the data. Rudi van Aarde, a researcher from South Africa\u2019s University of Pretoria who oversaw the collaring effort, died in 2023. A postdoctoral researcher in van Aarde\u2019s former group told me by email that he was not allowed to talk to the media about anything Kasungu related, including whether the elephants were still being tracked.<\/p>\n
Answers to questions like this could soon be coming out in court, though. In December 2024, Leigh Day, a law firm in the United Kingdom, initiated a group action suit against IFAW. The suit alleges, among other things, negligence, private and public nuisance, and breach of constitutional rights. Leigh Day is currently representing 10 community members seeking damages, and others may join as the case moves toward court. In a press release, IFAW called the allegations \u201cfalse and unfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labuschagne hopes that IFAW will both be held responsible for the damage already caused and be required to fund permanent solutions that protect both the communities and the elephants. Such solutions would, first and foremost, include fencing the entire park and setting up a permanent patrol by community members. Additionally, he wants a new board to supervise the flow of development-aid funding to local management and a thorough game count to determine how many of the translocated elephants still survive today.<\/p>\n
Even if the situation is resolved in Kasungu, though, the impact of the translocation will be enduring. Communities have been traumatized, people have been killed, and thousands now view conservation efforts like this one with animosity. An untold number of elephants have also suffered and lost their lives. An aerial survey last November commissioned by IFAW did not find a single elephant, according to someone familiar with the survey.<\/p>\n
Malawi, in a way, is a harbinger of what is likely to come for many other parts of Africa: development pressures constraining nature into ever-smaller pockets and space running out for elephants. It might be time to consider other options for conserving and restoring elephant populations. Whatever the path managers choose to take, though, presenting a vision to potential funders of an Africa where elephants and other wildlife roam completely free is becoming increasingly untenable. As Thouless of Save the Elephants says, \u201cone has to be realistic about where this is achievable and not try to impose one\u2019s own mythologized dream on real African people struggling to survive and make a living.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing does seem clear: If we want to live in a world where humans and wildlife can peacefully and fruitfully coexist in places as complicated as Malawi, then we will need to work all the harder to find solutions that genuinely serve the best interests of all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No one seems to know, or at least be willing to share, how many elephants remain in Kasungu.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-105559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}