Ten of the world's leading animal scientists met in Cape Town this week, at the invitation of Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, to discuss South Africa's elephant population explosion.

The scientists were asked to demonstrate scientific evidence in support of or against a number of proposals to reduce elephant populations in the country.

They were commissioned to look at whether the country had too many elephants, and if they were really causing damage to bio-diversity. Their recommendations are being awaited keenly in conservation management circles, as these will possibly help to determine if any action is needed to reduce the populations, and which management options are most appropriate.

The South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) has already received proposals from South African National Parks (SANParks), recommending that the populations be reduced through translocation, contraception, range expansion and culling.

The department this week confirmed that the elephant population in the Kruger National Park was increasing at a rate of seven percent every year, and seemed set to double every ten years. It estimated that by 2012 there could be as many as 20 000 elephants in Kruger alone, and by 2019 as many as 30 000.

The Cape Town summit, described as the Elephant Science Round Table, was preceded by concerns by Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk that stakeholders had insisted that any policy guideline should be based on scientific evidence. Stakeholders maintained there appeared to be little consensus among leading scientists.

The Minister has already indicated that his final decision would be based on the available science, ethical and social considerations, indigenous knowledge, environmental and tourism impacts. The department expects more scientific dialogue to take place before the draft policy is published for public comment later this year.

The elephant debate has been going on for a while with animal rights groups pleading for the elimination of culling as a possible option to manage the country's “oversized” elephant population.