Africa’s great elephant divide: countries struggle with too many elephants – or too few
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Article summary: "Africa's great elephant divide" (The Guardian, January 2026)
The African elephant faces two completely opposite conservation crises on the same continent.
South Sudan: too few elephants
In the early 1970s, an English ecologist estimated there were about 133,500 elephants in what is now South Sudan. Today, the country's known elephant population is approximately 5% of that figure. In Badingilo National Park, a protected area of nearly 9,000 km², the situation became so extreme that by early 2025 just one bull elephant remained, so isolated that it moved with a herd of giraffes. The NGO African Parks manages 150,000 km² of land in the region under a 10-year government agreement, but faces overwhelming challenges: ongoing conflict, extreme poverty and rampant poaching. A hunter in a nearby village explained that he killed an elephant because he was hungry, receiving $50 per tusk, divided between five men. At the end of 2025, Badingilo's last elephant was killed by suspected poachers, along with one of its giraffe companions.
Zimbabwe and the KAZA region: too many elephants
About 3,200 km south, the opposite problem exists. In the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), which spans approximately 520,000 km² across five countries (Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and part of Angola), decades of successful conservation and law enforcement have led to high elephant numbers. About 60,000 of Zimbabwe's approximately 100,000 elephants pass through Hwange National Park during the dry season, roughly double the broader region's carrying capacity. Fransica Sibanda's husband was trampled by an elephant near their home. Colonial-era pumped waterholes in a naturally arid area disrupted migration patterns, concentrating herds. Governments are debating culling, trophy hunting, translocation, chilli fences and virtual fencing. Local communities feel outsiders do not understand the pressure. One resident said: "You can't sit in Paris and tell us what is happening in Zimbabwe."
The tension at the heart of conservation
The same species, on the same continent, generating completely opposite conservation challenges. This article raises questions about every topic we will cover today: Why should we preserve species and habitats? What strategies work? Who decides?
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3.3.1 Arguments for species and habitat preservation can be based on aesthetic, ecological, economic, ethical and social justifications.
Economic arguments for preservation often involve valuation of ecotourism, of the genetic resource and commercial considerations of the natural capital. Ecological reasons may be related to the ecosystem services. Ethical arguments are very diverse and can include reference to the intrinsic or instrumental value of the species. Social arguments might highlight the importance of goods and services for the well-being of humans.
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