Elephants are a keystone species, which means they play a pivotal role in engineering the structure of plant and animal communities within their habitats. Ideally this is beneficial to the environment, but when populations are too dense and migration is restricted, habitat degradation takes place. As Malawi is a densely-populated agro-based country, lacking the necessary ecological corridors that allow for natural migration, elephant populations within protected areas need to be carefully managed to mitigate adverse effects on both the habitat and the surrounding local communities.
Liwonde National Park, located in southern Malawi, is considered to be a ‘source population’ for elephants. With approximately 563 elephants living within the park, space and availability of natural resources is near to capacity.. The increasing density of this population is causing degradation of wildlife habitats and intensifying human-wildlife conflict, largely deriving from crop-raiding elephants.
In Malawi a unique scenario of ‘source populations’ exists with Kasungu National Park providing a viable ‘sink’ habitat for surplus elephants. The park forms part of the species natural range area containing sufficient resources to support a large herd of elephants and other animals. In the 1970s approximately 1,200 elephants populated Kasungu; prior to the translocation, only about 120 remained. IFAW, in partnership with DNPW, has supported Kasungu since 2015 to address law enforcement, wildlife crime, infrastructure and capacity within the park, making this park now safe for the elephants to be reintroduced.
