Room to Roam: Science-based solutions

For the past 20 years, IFAW has worked with the University of Pretoria’s Conservation Ecology Research Unit (CERU) to better understand elephant populations across Africa. This collaboration has led to IFAW’s Room to Roam initiative, ensuring our approach to elephant conservation is based on robust and science-informed principles that strengthen credibility and guide strategies that deliver results. The scale and ambition of the initiative demands this, as well as a fresh take on continental-scale connectivity conservation, large-scale funding, and transformational outcomes that benefit people and nature.

Maintaining—or ideally increasing—connectivity benefits not only elephants but also supports other ecological processes that contribute to the overall resilience of the landscapes. Additionally, ecological connectivity can be integrated with other vital areas, such as those significant carbon sinks, providing multiple benefits for conservation and sustainable development across southern and East Africa. IFAW will continue to build on decades of science and field research to better understand the drivers of elephant population change and ecological dynamics over time and space. Such insights will help researchers accurately predict when and where population collapses could occur and respond with practical conservation and restoration solutions that ensure healthy and viable elephant populations.

IFAW cannot do this alone, so we call on scientists and other partners, including governments, research institutions, and communities, to collaborate for the immense task ahead. So, while we secure a ‘habitat network’ for elephants, collaborative networks of individuals, organisations, and communities must also be built and nurtured to help achieve the initiative’s goals.