De Beers and the NPO Peace Parks Foundation have begun to transport 200 elephants from De Beers’ Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (VLNR) in South Africa to Mozambique. According to a press release, the 1,500 km trip is taken as part of a “major conservation initiative to protect the welfare of wildlife in South Africa and help restore Mozambique’s elephant population”.
The VLNR can accommodate around 60 elephants, but there are currently more than 270 elephants on the reserve as a result of natural population growth, De Beers says. In contrast, the wildlife populations in Zinave National Park in Mozambique has been “critically depleted” after 15 years of civil war in the country. Approximately 60 elephants will be transported in July and August. The rest of the elephants will be transported next year.
De Beers added that Peace Parks Foundation will assist the miner “with the translocation, ensuring the elephants’ social groups aren’t disturbed and that they flourish in their new habitat through ongoing monitoring of their wellbeing and enhanced protection efforts”.
