CONSERVATION: NATIONAL ELEPHANT HERITAGE STRATEGY GAZETTED

CONSERVATION: NATIONAL ELEPHANT HERITAGE STRATEGY GAZETTED

• 29 May 2026
• Environmental Law
• SA Legal Academy

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment has published a 10-year national elephant heritage strategy intended to provide guidance on managing a collective herd estimated to stand at approximately 44 thousand in 2024. This is noting not only the importance of associated economic opportunities and ‘responsible use’ but also the significance of elephants ‘as an essential part of the country’s cultural and spiritual fabric’.

The overarching objective of the new national strategy is to give practical effect to aspects of various policy and strategy documents with implications for elephant management. Links to two of these documents are provided at the end of this report.

In addition, the new strategy’s executive summary and covering notice allude to the likely review of various management instruments with the aim of aligning them with what is now envisaged. Links to most of the documents concerned are also provided at the end of this report.

• national elephant heritage strategy (replaced a few hours later, although it is not clear why) 
• policy documents the implementation of which is expected to be facilitated by the new strategy:
  • the 2023 White Paper on conservation and the sustainable use of South Africa’s biodiversity
  • government’s 2023 policy position on the conservation and sustainable use of the country’s elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros populations , and
  • a national biodiversity economy strategy, ‘with specific reference to the African savanna elephant’ (yet to be finalised but released in draft form in March 2024 for public comment).
• Management instruments to be aligned with the new strategy and therefore possibly requiring review: 
  • the 2023 elephant management norms and standards
  • the 2014 elephant research strategy 
  • a national elephant meta-population plan (the preparation of which is apparently still a work in progress)
  • the 2024 ‘non-detrimental finding for elephants’
  • the 2010 ‘elephant red list assessment’, and
  • ‘reserve-level elephant management plans’.

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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