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The Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and Environment received a briefing from the Deputy Minister and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment on the draft National Elephant Heritage Strategy for South Africa. The Deputy Minister, Mr Narend Singh, informed the committee that one of the resolutions of the Elephant Indaba in August was the alignment of the draft National Heritage Strategy for South Africa for 2025-2035.

The draft strategy highlights the need for adaptive skills capacity, for alternative funding resources; for the unlocking of small medium micro enterprises opportunities for services provision; and more importantly to promote economic value chains for communities to utilise elephant products.

The Deputy Minister told the committee that there are over 40 000 elephants in South Africa and 34 202 of these are on state-owned land. The draft National Elephant Heritage Strategy was worked on extensively with several stakeholders, including the government, non-governmental organisations, game reserve owners, tourist companies, traditional leaders and communities residing on the same land as the elephants.
 
The committee noted that over-population of elephants has a significant impact on the environment in which they live, such as the depletion of trees and the relocation of other animals which leave the area in search of food. Elephants are often classified as damage-causing animals once they exceed an ecologically sustainable population.

In welcoming the draft National Elephant Heritage Strategy, the committee cautioned the department on its implementation. The committee requested the department to emphasise ensuring that communities deeply affected by this matter are not excluded during consultations, as they live in fear in some parts of the country.
 
The committee also heard that some people are ready to take the law into their own hands to cull the elephants, as they feel that government is not acting fast enough. The committee noted that the Madikwe Game Reserve has a population of 1 660 when it should not exceed 500 elephants. This is negatively affecting the other species in the reserve.

The committee heard from the department that it has initiated a process to consult relevant stakeholders on the development of norms and standards for the management of elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros. This consultation process will assist in the development of a formal problem statement and concept document, both of which will inform the preparation of the initial socio-economic impact assessment.

The department envisages developing the draft norms and standards during the 2026/ 27 financial year. The committee cautioned the department to ensure that all stakeholders are engaged when drafting the norms and standards and that no affected stakeholders should be left out of this process.

Issued by the Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, Nqabisa Gantsho