GPS Tracking Helps South Sudan's Elephant Conservation Efforts

Researchers and experts with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and South Sudan’s Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism (MWCT) are doing everything in their power to protect the few remaining elephants in the region. In the 1960s and 70s, there was an estimated 80,000 elephants in South Sudan. Today, there are fewer than 5,000. The severe drop in population is mostly due to civil war that has plagued the country for decades and a recent increase in poaching. The team is using GPS technology, aerial surveillance and land surveillance to track the elephants and deter poaching.

“I salute the efforts and bravery of the Government of South Sudan’s wildlife personnel and WCS staff who are working to protect wildlife and manage protected areas in these remote zones,” said Dr. Christian Samper, CEO and president of WCS. “The recent expansion of the South Sudan elephant monitoring and protection program is evidence of the serious measures and commitment needed to help secure the country’s protected areas and wildlife for the benefit of the people and new nation.”

“The elephant collaring is critical to improving our understand of the location and movements of South Sudan’s elephants and providing effective protection. Real-time location data from the collared elephants, combined with aerial surveillance, intelligence-led enforcement, and terrestrial patrolling, will enable the MWCT and WCS to watch over the safety of the elephant groups, detect poaching threats, target anti-poaching operations to arrest poachers and traffickers, and secure the elephants,” explained Dr. Paul Elkan, WCS’s South Sudan Country Director.

“The presence of these elephants breathes life and value into our national parks,” explained the Minister of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism, Gabriel Changson Chang. “We must do everything in our means to protect these magnificent creatures. It is our wildlife that will be the basis for developing tourism that will attract visitors from all over the world to South Sudan.” 

USAID South Sudan’s Chief of the Office of Transition and Conflict Mitigation, Monica Moore, said, “Monitoring and protection of the elephant populations is essential for conservation and directly contributes to improving governance and security in remote areas of the country. The involvement of armed groups in ivory poaching, trafficking, and local conflicts in and around protected areas is well documented in Africa. USAID’s support to the MWCT and WCS efforts in South Sudan combines conservation and conflict reduction objectives to help improve security for both people and wildlife, which securing the foundation for development of the new country.”

GPS Tracking Helps South Sudan's Elephant Conservation Efforts