KNP_2015

A continental perspective on diminishing giants:

elephants and hardwoods

Michelle Henley

Peter Scott

Diminishing giants: Importance: Hardwoods & Elephants

Interactive importance Diminishing hardwoods: Continentally Mozambique Diminishing elephants: Continentally Mozambique Significance of diminishing giants Solutions

SIMILARITIES

Elephants Hardwoods

• Large in size

• Long lived

• Slow recruitment into older age classes

• Economic value to man: Fuel & Furniture Tusks, Tourism & Trophies

• Susceptible to over exploitation

INDIVIDUAL IMPORTANCE

Elephants

Hardwoods

Buffer climatic imbalances Nutrient pumps Prevent erosion and flooding

Keystone species Umbrella species

Path finders and makers

INTERACTIVE IMPORTANCE

Elephants

Hardwoods

Shelter & Shade Security Source of food: directly & indirectly

Fertilizing agents Seed dispersal agents

Vegetation modifying agents: structural & chemical

• Wood fuel (charcoal and firewood) demands 68% of deforestation in Africa

• Wood fuel constitutes up to 85% of household energy consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Wood fuel demands are growing by 3-4% per year because of:

- Increasing human populations

- Increasing poverty

- Changing climatic cycles

CONTINENT WISE

Diminishing Hardwoods

CHARCOAL

• cheapest fuel available per unit energy

• Africa consumes ½ the world’s production

• Charcoal use popular in urban vs firewood use in rural areas

• 1% in urbanisation 14% in charcoal demands

• By 2025 > 50% Africans will be urbanised

• Charcoal consumers use 4-6 X more wood than firewood users

• Charcoal demands causes the greatest loss of natural forests & woodlands selection for living old growth species

CONTINENT WISE

Diminishing Hardwoods

Charcoal = carbon + ash – H2O from wood by slow heating in the absence of oxygen BIOMASS PYROLYSIS

Wood selection Wood harvest & cross cutting Wood hauling to kiln site

Preparation of kiln site Earthing & ignition of kiln Charcoal harvesting & bagging

2013 Charcoal pit 2002 Charcoal pit Remaining landscape

Diminishing Hardwoods

Sabi Game Park

Incomati Conservancy

Diminishing Hardwoods MOZAMBIQUE

• 796 kilns in 1200 ha sanctuary • Interviews with charcoal producers • Potentially 15 920 kilns throughout

Incomati Conservancy (24 000ha) • Wood weight determined at kiln stacked

with Lonchocarpus capassa & Acacia xantophloea:

• 1.41 tons of wood per kiln • Potentially 22 449 tons of wood removed

from Incomati Conservancy since 2000 or 1497 tons/year

• Prices per bag of charcoal found to be 6x higher than they were four years ago increasing demand

• However, steady decline in the number of kilns per year within the study area as wood sources become depleted

• On arrival in 2000, Combretum imberbe already gone. Looked for Acacia nigrescens and Acacia xantophloea.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

1 2 3 4 5

Nu

mb

er o

f ki

lns

Year

2000-2002 2003-2005 2006-2008 2009-2011 2012-2014

MOZAMBIQUE

Diminishing Hardwoods

Diminishing elephants

•60% decline in elephant numbers over the past 10 years.

•80% of their remaining range falls outside of protected areas.

•SINCE 2010: The current estimated annual off-take of 7.3% is higher than elephants’ average annual reproductive rate of 4-6%.

•Between 2010-2012 over 100 000 elephants have been poached

CONTINENT WISE

Diminishing elephants

•Up to 35 000 poached per year

•Present continental decline > estimates leading up to the 1989 ivory ban ( 1.3 million 600 000)

•38-39 range states, now only in 37 (Sierra Leone lost all elephants in 2009), presence uncertain in Senegal, Somalia & Sudan

•Continue at present rate, no elephants in certain areas in 10 years time

CONTINENT WISE

30 years ago Today

2%

77%

22%

<2%

16% 28%

55%

Diminishing elephants Southern states last stronghold

CONTINENT WISE

Diminishing elephants

•50 000 in 1970 now only 19 600

•Poaching on an industrialised scale

•1500-1800 poached per year

•Between 2009-2013 Niassa’s population 20 374 12 029

•Between 2008-2011 Quirimbas NP population 2000 517

•48,7 % of the elephants spotted from the air have been carcasses

MOZAMBIQUE

Significance

of diminishing giants

-Biodiversity & ecosystem functions -Nutrient output -Biomass -Resets succession -Disrupts ecosystem structure -Emission of greenhouse gasses -Changes in water bodies & watershed properties -Destruction of soil structure, seedlings and root stocks -Economic loss -Social implications -Implications for the Kruger National Park

SOUTH AFRICA

77%

22%

16%

55%

Approximately 26 700 elephants in SA in 92 reserves SA holds 3.8% of continental population Last count in KNP 16 571, 3rd largest in southern Africa

Quantify effects on large trees: areas of usage elephants usage people and vice versa

Solutions

to diminishing giants

-National energy plans biodiversity and livelihood concerns

-Policies across nations wide scale illicit harvesting

-Charcoal licensing system value on raw material & sees charcoal as a commodity produced by human labour & skill

-Management and training regarding supply sources & market infrastructure

-Diversification of species used -Production of energy efficient kilns -Regeneration

CHINA BANS IVORY IMPORTS FOR 1 YEAR TO PROTECT ELEPHANTS

BEIJING (AP) — China imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports that took immediate effect

Thursday amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory has fueled poaching that

threatens the existence of African elephants.

Professor Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement planted over 51 million trees in Kenya!

THANK YOU