Using qualitative risk assessment to re-evaluate the veterinary fence paradigm within the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area

Abstract

Based on low estimated risks, sections of all three fences could be considered for removal, but further information was needed for the Western Border fence. Key stakeholders established consensus to move forward with consultations with local communities and to offer assistance with the implementation of risk mitigation measures (such as improved herding, kraaling) conditionally associated with potential removal of key fence sections. Opening the fences in key low-risk areas would restore connectivity for elephants and other wildlife and potentially reduce human-wildlife conflict in areas where high densities of elephants are constrained by fences. This new, more sectorally integrative approach to livestock disease control is vital to wildlife's ability to access key resources over space and time and thus to the sustained success of KAZA.