How to create an environment to sustain our elephants

In previous posts, we have focused a lot on the sustainability of Jabulani – the lodge. Although this is crucial, our sustainability philosophy extends beyond the lodge. Jabulani is famous for rescuing a herd of elephants in 2002 from an elephant-back safari operation in Zimbabwe. These elephants were to be culled during the country’s land reform process. The herd was brought to South Africa and introduced to Jabulani, the little elephant that started it all.

Since then, four claves have been born to the greater herd, and two orphan elephants have been introduced. Over time, the herd has gradually increased, with no sign of slowing down.

As the elephants can’t walk more than a few hours from the central homestead where they reside at night, a few challenges have arisen.

Elephants, the Great Ecosystem Engineers

Elephants are generally referred to as ecosystem engineers because of their significant role in modifying and shaping the landscape.

Elephants often push over and uproot trees. These decomposing trees, in turn, create a new habitat for small mammals and thousands of insect species. Elephants strip trees of their bark – after which the tree usually dies. They clear overgrown areas with thick strands of encroaching small trees, making these areas more accessible to other animals. During this clearing event, the soil’s surface will be littered with small branches. These scattered branches and the elephant dung create a microhabitat ideal for seed germination. As elephants travel, they spread seeds, often introducing much-needed plant diversity in previously mismanaged areas.

Elephants are a big part of why we see vast and open landscapes filled with perennial grass communities and large trees dotting this landscape.

However, because of factors such as the limited size of our herd’s home range, previous agricultural activities, and selective overgrazing, the land is threatened with degradation and needs intervention.

A Holistic Environmental Management Plan

This intervention comes in the form of a holistic environmental management plan that aims to systematically rehabilitate the affected areas and protect them from degradation in the future, keeping in mind the ever-increasing size of the herd. At its core, this plan includes but is not limited to techniques for combatting large erosion networks to prevent the loss of valuable topsoil, planning and revising road networks and associated infrastructure and, most importantly, techniques that will revive the basal grass layer essential for ecosystem well-being.

The plan also includes strategies to protect too many existing large trees from being pushed over by the herd. The remaining large trees are critical for the functioning of core ecosystem services such as the hydrological cycle, pollination, micro-habitats for smaller members of the ecosystem, and shading animals from the sun.

Through the insightful implementation of this plan, we aim to create an environment that can truly sustain not only this herd of flagship species but also every other member of this complex and ever-changing ecosystem over the next few years.