Safeguarding South Africa's Elephants: The Loziba Wildlife Reserve Initiative

FOR the last decade, the greater Mawana/Loziba elephants have roamed northern KwaZulu-Natal, symbolizing wilderness and freedom as South Africa's smallest, isolated free-roaming elephant population.

- STAFF REPORTER

Sadly, due to competing land uses and failed fences, the movement of the herd resulted in increased conflict with nearby residential and agricultural land. When the original reserve owners failed to repair the damaged fence lines, the population was declared res nullius, sparking an urgent intervention to find a viable, permanent solution for community and elephant safety.

Thanks to a groundbreaking partnership between Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife (Ezemvelo), Humane World for Animals, and Loziba Wildlife Reserve, one of South Africa's iconic free-roaming elephant populations will now be safeguarded.

A proposal for an emergency area of approximately 8,300 ha south of the Mawana Reserve, referred to as Loziba Wildlife Reserve, was presented at the Ulundi Legislature in November 2024. It was accepted, pending fencing compliance and acceptance of an Elephant Management Plan. In the interim, conflict mitigation initiatives were established to safeguard the affected communities and the elephants.

Vuyiswa Radebe, Head of Ezemvelo’s Biodiversity Conservation Operations, hailed the success as a pivotal milestone in addressing the ongoing human-wildlife conflict in the Mawana area, amid pressing environmental challenges.