Any person executing a function or exercising a power or carrying out an activity that relates, directly or indirectly,to an elephant must do so with regard to the following principles:
| (a) | elephants are intelligent, have strong family bonds and operate within highly socialised groups . Disruption of these groups on properties where they occur, whether such properties are extensive wildlife systems or controlled environments, as a result of management interventions should therefore be avoided, or minimised when it is not possible to avoid disruption; |
| (b) | while it is necessary to recognise the charismatic and iconic status of elephants and the strong local and international support for their protection,proper regard must be given to the impacts of elephants on biodiversity and people living in proximity to elephants; |
| (c) | elephants are recognised engineers of habitat change and their presence or absence has a critical effect on the way in which ecosystems function; |
| (d) | the movement of elephants throughout their natural distribution range is disrupted by the activities of people; |
| (e) | careful conservation management has led to the significant growth of elephant populations and human intervention may be necessary to ensure that any future growth occurs in a manner that does not result in the loss of biodiversity, ecosystem functions and resilience, or human life, or compromising key management objectives for the properties on which they occur; |
| (f) | elephants often exist in close proximity to people, with the result that the elephants potentially pose a threat to the well-being of people and management measures must endeavour to limit these threats; |
| (g) | measures to manage elephants must be scientifically-based , and where the available scientific information is insufficient, adaptive management forms the cornerstone of the management of elephants and adaptive decision-making tools should be adopted; |
| (h) | management interventions must— |
| (i) | be based on measures to avoid stress and disturbance to elephants; and |
| (ii) | take into account the social structure of elephants; |
| (i) | where lethal measures are necessary to manage an elephant or group of elephants or to manage the size of elephant populations, these should be undertaken with caution and after due consideration of all other management options; |
| (j) | while reasonable efforts should be made to ensure that elephants continue to play an important role in an already well-established nature-based tourism sector this should not occur in an inappropriate, inhumane or unethical form or manner; |
| (k) | in the context of objective-based management of complex ecological systems, elephants should not be accorded preference over other elements of biodiversity; |
| (l) | every reasonable effort must be made to safeguard elephants from abuse and neglect; and |
| (m) | elephant populations in the wild should be managed in the context of objective-based management of the complex ecosystems in which they occur |
