People and Elephants

Elephant Conservation and Community Outreach Farming Project

EWB has embarked on a bold new endeavor, the "Elephant Conservation and Community Outreach Farming Project". It is unique and the first of its kind within the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA). EWB has planted agricultural trial plots to carefully quantify the impact of elephants on crop production and to experiment with a range of low cost deterrence options which may reduce elephant crop raiding. We have also incorporated conservation agriculture techniques to yield higher crop production. The project site is ideally located in a high density elephant area in the Chobe Enclave, where human elephant conflict is a serious problem. The Enclave is in the northern district of Botswana, surrounded by Chobe National Park, and Chobe Forestry Reserve. The Enclave has five main villages, with a population of 10 000 people that share the area with an estimated 40 000 elephants.

Increasing human populations and expanding human activity contribute to habitat change and fragmentation. These pressures, in combination with growing elephant numbers and expansion of their ranges, inevitably leads to people and elephants coming in close contact, having to share natural resources, which in some instances leads to conflict. Increased elephant forays into areas of human settlement mean people are afraid to collect firewood, cut grass, move from their home, or even walk to work or school. There are increasing complaints of crop loss and damage to property. Not only are people’s livelihoods threatened but also, there are reports of injuries and deaths to both humans and elephants. Frustrated villagers develop negative attitudes towards elephants and at times, engage or demand retaliatory killings of elephants. There is an urgent need for a reliable monitoring system to assess the effectiveness of various HEC mitigation options. Most current monitoring systems have previously depended and placed the onus on poor rural farmers to test crop raiding mitigation measures. This approach relies solely on the rural farmer and suffers from poor supervision, lower farming yields and inferior experimental design. EWB has been approached by several local communities to extend our studies to incorporate Human Elephant Conflict (HEC). In response to this request, EWB has created this exciting new program.

EWB has already developed six agricultural trial plots and a base camp, which will be carefully monitored to determine the effectiveness of various mitigation methods. The camp will accommodate field staff, scientists and eventually host rural farmers who we will be trained in the use of successful deterrence methods. The site will serve as a training facility to aid in the reduction of human wildlife conflict and dually serve as an experimental demonstration site, with a focus on conservation agriculture. It is anticipated that these activities will lead to:
• established demonstration plots where farmers can be trained in mitigation and conservation agriculture techniques, to yield lower incidents of conflict yet higher crop production.
• best practice systems will be properly quantified and put in place for HEC management which can be transferred to other parts of the elephant range.
• HEC reduced to tolerable levels leading to improved livelihood & security for local communities.
• a change in people’s perceptions and behaviours towards elephants.

To learn more about this and other EWB project endeavors, please see our Progress Reports on our Download page (click here)

What is the future of elephants outside protected areas?

EWB’s study on the movements of elephants in Botswana confirms that elephants spend 65% of their time outside protected areas and elephants are expanding their range in northern Botswana (25% in the last ten years), re-occupying areas where they formerly occurred. While these unprotected lands support large numbers of elephants and other wildlife, they also support extensive human populations. It is a complex mosaic of agricultural fields, grazing lands and human settlements interspersed with diverse natural communities, all which pose significant challenges for wildlife conservation. This mixed land-use pattern only accentuates the critical need to provide for an extensive network of wildlife corridors and to promote a sustainable management strategy for both people and wildlife. Over the last seven years, EWB has gathered an impressive data set on elephant ecology, which provides important tools for better understanding the ranging behavior of elephants in the region and critical information to identify conservation corridors and important habitats. These data also provide a common information base to discuss elephant and wildlife management and facilitate conflict resolution. EWB now wishes to disseminate the results gathered from this research to local communities and arrange meetings with resource managers and planners of the Transfrontier Conservation Area initiative.

People’s Perceptions and Local Support for Conservation Corridors

Information plays a vital role in cultural, political, social and economic development. In order to create long-term and practical solutions for wildlife management, it is essential that there be a fundamental understanding between local communities, researchers and decision makers. The information, perceptions and knowledge gained and exchanged between these three groups will provide the foundation and framework for initiating the development of sustainable community-based strategies throughout the region. Ecotourism programs can contribute greatly to the economies of local communities. When local communities benefit from revenues generated, community support for elephants and other wildlife increases, which promotes habitat conservation and restoration of wildlife populations. Through information sharing with all these people, problems can be converted into solutions to conserve wildlife populations and simultaneously enhance the economic opportunities for rural communities.

To facilitate this process, EWB proposes to:

• carry out questionnaire surveys that will help to determine people’s attitudes and
perceptions towards elephants and issues concerning elephants and wildlife management.
• give presentations and provide educational materials to communities, highlighting the major findings and recommendations of EWB’s research on the ecology of elephants, and to promote awareness on the benefits of elephant conservation and the importance of the TFCA to ecotourism.
• organize and host workshops with wildlife managers, local communities, conservation organizations and other stakeholders to share the key results of research studies
• work with local communities and resource management authorities to locate and identify viable conservation corridors and initiate conservation corridor management strategies
• and, develop a cross border partnership for elephant conservation in southern Africa, contributing to both, a regional elephant management plan and a coordinated strategy for developing a wildlife conservation corridor network within the Kavango Zambezi TFCA.