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First Ever KAZA-Wide Coordinated Aerial Survey Announced

Nov 10 2021

In 2014, Paul G. Allen funded the Great Elephant Census, the pan-African aerial survey that sounded the alarm for elephants. The survey discovered a 30% decline in just seven years.

Today, a new aerial survey of elephants across the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) was announced, funded in part the by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. This partnership continues efforts to collect accurate and reliable data that informs strategic decisions about the long term protection and management of elephants.

This first ever coordinated survey of transboundary elephant populations will take place and is led by the five KAZA partner states, the Republics of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, which represent 50% of the remaining savanna elephants on the African continent, covers 520,000 square kilometers, and includes an estimated two million people.

Map of the KAZA Transfrontier Conservation Area

The survey will start in July – August 2022 and run for 4 months and results from the survey will contribute significantly towards the decisions on the sustainable management of KAZA’s elephant population.

It will be coordinated by the KAZA Secretariat in close collaboration with designated teams in each of the Partner States and will be based on the recently revised Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) aerial survey standards. Partners and funders for the survey include the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development through KfW, Dutch Postcode Lottery Dreamfund, USAID Combating Wildlife Crime in Namibia and the Kavango-Zambezi Area Project, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Environment and Protected Areas Authority (EPAA) of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Read the official release and video statement from Mr. Teofilus Nghitila: Executive Director: Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism of Namibia for more information on this groundbreaking new coalition engaging in science-led conservation practices.