(ERP) Great Karoo Elephant Migration

ERP has successfully completed the translocation of two family groups of elephants to Mount Camdeboo Private Game Reserve and Buffalo Kloof Private Game Reserve, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. These two reintroductions form part of the ‘The Great Karoo Elephant Migration’, an ERP programme which aims to repopulate elephants in their former range, and restore ecosystems in the Karoo.

The elephants of the Eastern Cape were practically wiped out during the South African colonial era. Thousands of elephants were hunted for their tusks over a period of 250 years, decimating the elephant population. Subsequent hunting by farmers resulted in an elephant population of only 16 individuals left in the province’s Addo region.

With time and protection, natural population growth in the region increased somewhat. However, what really began to improve the situation was reintroduction efforts, and this is also where ERP is seeking to make a meaningful impact. Since natural migration is no longer possible in a modern-day landscape divided by fences, roads and cities, ERP is compensating through elephant translocations. The ERP programme is reintroducing elephants into their former range, establishing viable breeding populations and eliminating the need for elephant culling in overpopulated reserves in other parts of the country.

The latest phase in ‘The Great Karoo Elephant Migration’ follows the translocation in 2017 of a breeding herd of six elephants to the Samara Private Game Reserve, followed by the introduction of two bulls from Phinda Private Game Reserve in a separate operation in 2018, all implemented by ERP.

In the next step in the programme, two family units were translocated from Atherstone Nature Reserve, in the Limpopo Province. Atherstone is a provincial reserve that has been struggling with an overpopulation of elephants for quite some time, resulting in its vegetation being adversely affected to a degree where not only elephants, but all wildlife, could suffer. Without ERP’s intervention, the elephants that have just been relocated would almost certainly have succumbed to culling.

Click here to read the full press release on '' The Great Karoo Elephant Migration''.

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ERP Harvard Business Review Case Study

EPI-USE Labs is offering you the chance to read this fascinating case study which focuses on groupelephant.com CEO Jonathan Tager as he grapples with implementing and sustaining the ERP program. The case study highlights the difficulty of planning in embarking on programs of this nature as well as CSR programs in general. It also addresses topics such as hybrid (blended) business models, the 'theory of change' underlying CSR strategy, and the challenges involved in defining and measuring impact.