Background to the Majete Elephant Translocation Project

The Majete Wildlife Reserve is a 700 km 2 wilderness in the Shire Valley and the site of an innovative wildlife rehabilitation project. A reserve devastated by poachers is being rebuilt. The Majete area was introduced to the Western world by the explorer, missionary and campaigner against the slave trade, Dr. David Livingstone. In 1859 he established a small camp at Matithi, the present day headquarters. When Majete was proclaimed as a sanctuary by the Colonial Government, almost a century after Livingstone’s stay, wildlife was abundant. By 1990, however, most had been exterminated.

The western sector of Majete is a series of rugged hills that form the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley . From these heights the landscape slopes gently eastwards to the Shire River . A prominent feature, the pyramid-shaped Majete Hill, stands isolated in the middle of the wilderness and can be seen from all sides. The hill country is covered by tall miombo woodland, dominated by deciduous Brachystegia species and clumps of bamboo, with long grass in the valleys. Towards the Shire River the vegetation is mixed Acacia and Combretum woodland and savannah with grassy glades and patches of thicket. Baobab trees, groves of Ilala palms, and tall white-stemmed Sterculia are conspicuous. The narrow floodplain is covered by short hippo-lawns and thickets.

Majete is surrounded by settlements and agriculture. To the west and south the fertile Mwanza Valley , under the traditional authority of Chief Chapananga, is densely settled and cultivated.

The Namitsempha area to the north, under Chief Kanduku, is also densely populated. Majete was always a magnet for hunters from these areas, and their impact on game numbers was devastating. Black rhino, buffalo, eland, impala, zebra, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest and lion were eliminated by 1985. The elephant population, estimated to number nearly 300 by Brian Sherry in 1987, was hunted to extinction during the closing years of the Mozambique civil war when thousands of refugees flocked into Malawi .

By 1992 the last elephant had been shot. Sable antelope were gone by 1998, while numbers of kudu, waterbuck, reedbuck, bushbuck, hippo and warthog were much depleted.

The loss of the wildlife of Majete occurred when the field rangers of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) were unable to take on gangs of poachers armed with superior weapons. It was a case of automatic Kalashnikov AK-47’s against much older magazine rifles. But the shortcomings were also rooted in the institutional problems inhibiting the ability of the DNPW to protect and manage the reserve. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, and it lacks capacity, resources and equipment in the conservation field. Government priorities are of necessity focused on people’s needs.

The African Parks Foundation – a non-governmental organization with offices in The Netherlands and the United States - concluded an agreement with Government in 2003 to take responsibility for Majete. A local company, African Parks (Majete) Ltd, was set up to rehabilitate, develop and manage the Reserve. The objectives are to rebuild and conserve biodiversity and contribute towards sustainability by maximizing revenues from tourism and natural resource utilization. A well managed reserve provides employment for local people and other opportunities, and is also an attractive destination for donor funding. However, Majete has little potential for tourism unless viable wildlife populations are restored.

The project envisages the translocation of 70 elephants to Majete. Fifty of these will come from the Liwonde National Park and 20 from the Mangoche area. Liwonde is situated about 250 km by road north of Majete, with Mangoche a further 50km to the north on the shores of Lake Malawi (formerly Nyasa).

The Liwonde elephant population numbers over 500 animals and is growing . As can be expected they are having a noticeable effect on the vegetation of the park, which is only 550 km2 in area. The fever tree forests along the banks of the Shire River , in particular, are clearly under pressure. There can be no doubt that a reduction of about 10% of the Liwonde elephant population will be beneficial to the vegetation of the park.

The Mangoche elephants are typical of threatened and remnant populations scattered across Africa . They occupy an unprotected range where they compete with a growing human population for living space, and depend on the same waterholes as peasant farmers. They raid crops and kill people – to the extent that they are regarded as a menace. The elephants are consequently harassed and poached, and many carry gunshot and snare wounds. Their numbers are steadily declining. They cannot be protected in the Mangoche area; this is far beyond the current capacity of an overstretched DNPW to achieve. If they cannot be moved to Majete, they are doomed to extinction.

It is planned to move 14 adult or independent bulls ranging in age from about 20-45 years from Liwonde, with the rest being breeding herds consisting of females, calves and sub-adult males. There are no longer any bulls in Mangoche older than about 20 years, they have all been killed. So the animals taken from that area are expected to be breeding herds only. The total package of 70 animals amounts to a viable elephant population, with a relatively normal age and social class distribution. These elephants are also genetically the appropriate animals for Majete, as they would have been linked in historical times.

The logistical requirements are indicated by experience in the Kruger National Park , where the majority of all African elephant translocations have been done. Only two adult bulls can be moved at a time in specially designed trailers, and 6-10 family group animals at a time in a mass crate. To move 14 bulls will require seven operations, and 56 family group animals will require about 6 operations giving a total of about 13 operations.

Each operation will begin at dawn, and should be completed by nightfall of the same day. The targeted elephants will be located by helicopter and darted close to the ground team with their recovery vehicles in a pre-selected area. There are no roads on the west bank of the Shire, so rough access tracks will have to be made for the trucks and trailers. The journey from Liwonde to Majete will take about six hours, and from Mangoche a few hours longer.

with several electrified wires carrying 6000-8000 volts. The purpose is for the elephants to become familiar with the shocking prospects of an electrified fence. The elephants quickly learn not to touch the wires and when they are released, usually the next day, will generally not interfere with or break through the electrified, but less robust boundary fence of the reserve.

The duration of the entire exercise, if each operation extends over two days as envisaged, is 35 days. The translocation must be done during the dry season when vehicles can move over the floodplains without getting bogged down, and when ambient temperatures are relatively low. The suggested period is from 03 July - 07 August 2006 .

The elephants that are moved from Mangoche will be stressed and aggressive, and not at all suitable to the needs of tourism. It will be necessary, therefore, to gradually accustom them to vehicles and people that are not intent on killing or harassing them. To achieve this it is proposed that a team of field rangers will try and contact these elephants every day, approach them within safe limits, and gradually calm them down and habituate them. This process has been done before with great success. In the Addo Elephant National Park of South Africa, a herd of harassed man-killers were calmed down in two years, and today they are among the most tourist friendly elephants in Africa .

The current field rangers of Majete have no experience of working in the proximity of elephants, or of approaching them. So they will have to be trained for the job of elephant habituation.

The translocated Mangoche elephants, in particular, will require close monitoring as will the entire population once they are released from the 14 000 ha area into the reserve. The monitoring will be simplified and made more efficient by fitting radio transmitter collars to the breeding herd matriarchs or other cows, as well as to a selection of bulls. The position of the collared animals can then be established at any time by the field rangers.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide major support for the development of Majete Wildlife Reserve. Their interest in Majete is rooted in the opportunities that such a project offers for the integration of conservation objectives with local community involvement. In addition to funding a community outreach programme, USAID has also committed to the operational costs of the elephant translocation and field ranger training. This guarantees that the elephant translocation project will go ahead. What remains now is to secure funding for monitoring the elephants and for continuing with the erection of a boundary fence around Majete.