South Africa: Elephant herds and land claims threaten to destroy the image and existence of Kruger National Park, Bill Corcoran reports from Johannesburg.
The authorities at South African National Parks (SANParks) are considering a resumption of elephant culling because the population has exploded at Kruger National Park over the past 10 years.
Since culling was halted after apartheid ended in 1994, the population is estimated to have swollen to nearly 12,000, from about 7,000.
How to prevent herds growing when they are no longer free to roam the country has been puzzling SANParks for years. Recently it said "we need to reduce the population" and now it appears there is a consensus within the body.
The unfortunate reality is that elephants can wreak havoc in their restricted terrain, destroying large areas of trees and making survival hard for the other animals with whom they share their space.
Biologists say that Kruger is in crisis because of the world's largest mammal's ability to eat 170kg of vegetation a day. However, culling is sure to provoke strong protest from animal welfare groups and it could also affect the park's image worldwide.
The practice involves the herding of whole family groups together in the one place where they are then shot - an undertaking even cull supporters say is highly unpleasant.
Although there are a number of options open to the conservationists - such as putting Kruger's 4,000 sexually active females on the pill, or relocating herds to other reserves - the authorities say they are "strongly leaning towards culling, and we want the public to digest this hard fact".
A second major problem facing the park is tied to one of the most contentious issues in South Africa's post apartheid era: the redistribution of vast tracts of land to black South Africans whose ancestors were dispossessed under apartheid.
While the rationale behind the redistribution process is understandable when seen through the prism of apartheid, the park's authorities say that complying with the process would financially cripple the wildlife reserve.
The problem is that around 500,000 hectares, or a quarter of the park, has been subjected to land claims from indigenous communities robbed under the apartheid regime. To make matters worse, the areas at the heart of the claims are the most contentious - the park headquarters at Skukuza, and prime tourist attractions of Letba and Pretoriuskop.
If the 37 claims lodged against Kruger under South Africa's Lands Claims Commission are validated, they "would probably cost the park its survival as a national and international icon," according to SANParks.
But the Land Claims Commission insists that Kruger's objections to restitution are unsubstantiated.
Successful land claimants have two options: they are either entitled to a lump sum payment as a form of compensation for the theft of their forefathers' land, or, they can repossess the land.
Many say they want the claims to yield jobs and business opportunities, and they look to a deal struck between the Makuleke people and the Kruger authorities in 1998 as a blueprint to be followed.
It is the only claim of the 37 that has reached a conclusion.
The Makuleke community was forcibly removed from its land in Kruger National Park in 1969, and settled 50km away, to the south west.
Under the 1994 Restitution Act the community entered into negotiations and regained ownership of its land on the northern tip of Kruger National Park four years later.
For conservation purposes the park authorities and the Makuleke were bound into an agreement which allowed the land to be managed by SANParks, but all decisions relating to the area were made by consensus.
In exchange, the Makuleke gained exclusive commercial rights to the area. The deal was hailed as "world class" by some observers, and has subsequently attracted donor and private sector interest.
Today, the biggest claim facing Kruger, a 179,069 hectare plot in the west of the reserve, was launched by four chiefs living around the town of Phalaborwa six years ago.
They plan to develop tourism on restored land outside of Kruger while hammering out a profit-sharing arrangement for the use of their lands inside the park.
Although on the surface the Makuleke example appears to be a viable solution, the park authority's maintain that "national parks cannot be turned into 'The Lost City' [ at Sun City resort], which is what communities see when they think of making money through land claims".
In fact, the park authorities view all the options open to claimants as potentially fatal to the wildlife reserve's continued existence.
Private land on the park's boundary sells for about €5,260 a hectare, which means Kruger would be facing a bill in the region of €26.5 billion (200 billion rand) if all the claimants opted for cash compensation.