Elephants in Peril: The Ongoing Battle to Protect Southern Africa's Iconic Species and Their Habitats
February 22, 2023

Elephants in Peril: The Ongoing Battle to Protect Southern Africa's Iconic Species and Their Habitats

Elephants Alive is research-based NGO on a mission to ensure the survival of elephants and their habitats, and to promote the harmonious co-existence of elephants and people. A relatively straight-forward goal, one would think. However, the nature of elephants’ impact on their habitat and the large-space requirements they have for this habitat, makes protecting one of Africa’s most iconic species a uniquely challenging undertaking!

For 28 years, Elephants Alive has been monitoring the ecology and demography of one of southern Africa’s largest continuous elephant populations. Since 1996, we have created a database of 2000 individual elephants and after collaring the first elephants in 1998 with state-of-the-art GPS satellite collars, we have been following close to 200 individual collared elephants over time, defining our study area according to where elephants choose to go. This elephant ID- and tracking study is the longest and most consistent in southern Africa. Our science-based and data-rich approach enables us to understand the drivers of elephant movements and how to best mitigate human-elephant-conflict (HEC) by protecting human assets, ensuring human and elephant safety where both species intersect, thereby increasing human tolerance.

Why elephants?

Elephants are under threat with the African savanna elephant classified as endangered and the forest elephant as critically endangered.  However, a living elephant in its natural habitat has the potential to generate well over US$1.5 million through tourism in its lifetime, which is a staggering 76 times more than the average ivory value of its tusks ($21,000). This value more than doubles if we add ecological value estimations: a single African forest elephant is worth more than US$1.75million in carbon offsets. From a biodiversity and ecosystem viewpoint, elephants serve as an umbrella species, helping to conserve large areas of landscape, ensuring the survival and evolution of numerous other species. As megaherbivores and keystone species, elephants play a crucial role in maintaining ecological processes and providing resources to other species. As example, elephants can create water wells in dry riverbeds, providing critical water sources to other species when it is most needed.

Elephants migrating between protected areas aid in distribution and strengthening of genetic diversity and repopulating sink habitats devoid of elephants or with low population densities and in the process, they also ensure that the genes for large tusks are perpetuated across subpopulations. By flagging where we need to declare habitat corridors, elephants can play a vital role in long-distance seed- and nutrient distribution, promoting both tree inhibition and regeneration over vast landscapes in a dynamic cycle. If we allow elephants as constant gardeners to create a network of interlinked natural landscapes, they will in the process increase access to new feeding grounds and other resources (i.e. water, mineral supplements and micro-habitats) for numerous other wildlife.

The existence of elephants is intertwined with the survival of all species reliant on these ecosystems. If we also take into account immaterial and moral values, like socio-cultural or spiritual benefits of living elephants, it becomes obvious that we need to ensure the survival of this flagship species.

The issue

Elephants need space as only 7% of wildlife habitat patches in Africa are larger than 100 km2. This means that the majority of African elephants are moving outside protected spaces (over 50% of the current population) or need to cross national borders (more than 75% of elephant movements are transboundary). Thirty years ago, the southern African states had a little over 20% of Africa’s continental elephant population. Today, these southern states have become the last stronghold of the African elephant as they now hold over half of the continental population due to excessive poaching to the north of their borders. In addition, in Southern Africa alone, people now dominate 80% of the land that elephants used to live on before colonial developments.

The combination of elephants being compressed within their natural range alongside burgeoning human populations, means that elephants are increasingly migrating across human-dominated landscapes with this interaction potentially resulting in crop-raiding by elephants, food insecurity and at its worse injuries and the death of people and elephants. This is not only true for elephants, but also for other wildlife moving close to human settlements. Statistics from Tanzania from 2012-2019 show that human-wildlife conflicts claimed 1,069 human and 792 wild animal lives. A total of 41,404 hectares of crops was destroyed between 2012 and 2019. Elephants try to avoid conflict with people by covering risky landscapes under the cover of darkness. This risk-adverse tactic, although smart on the elephant’s side, will not be enough to ensure connected landscapes that uphold biodiversity objectives.

The solution?

Finding and implementing innovative ways to make people’s livelihoods compatible with conservation outcomes where humans and elephants intersect is of primary importance. A recent study found evidence that poaching rates are lower where local levels of human development are relatively high (amongst other contributing factors, such as strong localised law enforcement and national governance). Understanding elephant movements to address areas where HEC most occurs, protecting peoples assets by using soft barriers around food crops and ensuring human safety is all part of our newest ground-breaking research. Elephants Alive focusses on promoting human elephant coexistence in a holistic manner within and around conservation areas that straddle a number of southern African countries.

The solution?

Finding and implementing innovative ways to make people’s livelihoods compatible with conservation outcomes where humans and elephants intersect is of primary importance. A recent study found evidence that poaching rates are lower where local levels of human development are relatively high (amongst other contributing factors, such as strong localised law enforcement and national governance). Understanding elephant movements to address areas where HEC most occurs, protecting peoples assets by using soft barriers around food crops and ensuring human safety is all part of our newest ground-breaking research. Elephants Alive focusses on promoting human elephant coexistence in a holistic manner within and around conservation areas that straddle a number of southern African countries.

The solution?

Finding and implementing innovative ways to make people’s livelihoods compatible with conservation outcomes where humans and elephants intersect is of primary importance. A recent study found evidence that poaching rates are lower where local levels of human development are relatively high (amongst other contributing factors, such as strong localised law enforcement and national governance). Understanding elephant movements to address areas where HEC most occurs, protecting peoples assets by using soft barriers around food crops and ensuring human safety is all part of our newest ground-breaking research. Elephants Alive focusses on promoting human elephant coexistence in a holistic manner within and around conservation areas that straddle a number of southern African countries.

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February 22, 2023

Elephants in Peril: The Ongoing Battle to Protect Southern Africa's Iconic Species and Their Habitats

Elephants Alive is research-based NGO on a mission to ensure the survival of elephants and their habitats, and to promote the harmonious co-existence of elephants and people. A relatively straight-forward goal, one would think. However, the nature of elephants’ impact on their habitat and the large-space requirements they have for this habitat, makes protecting one of Africa’s most iconic species a uniquely challenging undertaking!

For 28 years, Elephants Alive has been monitoring the ecology and demography of one of southern Africa’s largest continuous elephant populations. Since 1996, we have created a database of 2000 individual elephants and after collaring the first elephants in 1998 with state-of-the-art GPS satellite collars, we have been following close to 200 individual collared elephants over time, defining our study area according to where elephants choose to go. This elephant ID- and tracking study is the longest and most consistent in southern Africa. Our science-based and data-rich approach enables us to understand the drivers of elephant movements and how to best mitigate human-elephant-conflict (HEC) by protecting human assets, ensuring human and elephant safety where both species intersect, thereby increasing human tolerance.

Why elephants?

Elephants are under threat with the African savanna elephant classified as endangered and the forest elephant as critically endangered.  However, a living elephant in its natural habitat has the potential to generate well over US$1.5 million through tourism in its lifetime, which is a staggering 76 times more than the average ivory value of its tusks ($21,000). This value more than doubles if we add ecological value estimations: a single African forest elephant is worth more than US$1.75million in carbon offsets. From a biodiversity and ecosystem viewpoint, elephants serve as an umbrella species, helping to conserve large areas of landscape, ensuring the survival and evolution of numerous other species. As megaherbivores and keystone species, elephants play a crucial role in maintaining ecological processes and providing resources to other species. As example, elephants can create water wells in dry riverbeds, providing critical water sources to other species when it is most needed.

Elephants migrating between protected areas aid in distribution and strengthening of genetic diversity and repopulating sink habitats devoid of elephants or with low population densities and in the process, they also ensure that the genes for large tusks are perpetuated across subpopulations. By flagging where we need to declare habitat corridors, elephants can play a vital role in long-distance seed- and nutrient distribution, promoting both tree inhibition and regeneration over vast landscapes in a dynamic cycle. If we allow elephants as constant gardeners to create a network of interlinked natural landscapes, they will in the process increase access to new feeding grounds and other resources (i.e. water, mineral supplements and micro-habitats) for numerous other wildlife.

The existence of elephants is intertwined with the survival of all species reliant on these ecosystems. If we also take into account immaterial and moral values, like socio-cultural or spiritual benefits of living elephants, it becomes obvious that we need to ensure the survival of this flagship species.

The issue

Elephants need space as only 7% of wildlife habitat patches in Africa are larger than 100 km2. This means that the majority of African elephants are moving outside protected spaces (over 50% of the current population) or need to cross national borders (more than 75% of elephant movements are transboundary). Thirty years ago, the southern African states had a little over 20% of Africa’s continental elephant population. Today, these southern states have become the last stronghold of the African elephant as they now hold over half of the continental population due to excessive poaching to the north of their borders. In addition, in Southern Africa alone, people now dominate 80% of the land that elephants used to live on before colonial developments.

The combination of elephants being compressed within their natural range alongside burgeoning human populations, means that elephants are increasingly migrating across human-dominated landscapes with this interaction potentially resulting in crop-raiding by elephants, food insecurity and at its worse injuries and the death of people and elephants. This is not only true for elephants, but also for other wildlife moving close to human settlements. Statistics from Tanzania from 2012-2019 show that human-wildlife conflicts claimed 1,069 human and 792 wild animal lives. A total of 41,404 hectares of crops was destroyed between 2012 and 2019. Elephants try to avoid conflict with people by covering risky landscapes under the cover of darkness. This risk-adverse tactic, although smart on the elephant’s side, will not be enough to ensure connected landscapes that uphold biodiversity objectives.

The solution?

Finding and implementing innovative ways to make people’s livelihoods compatible with conservation outcomes where humans and elephants intersect is of primary importance. A recent study found evidence that poaching rates are lower where local levels of human development are relatively high (amongst other contributing factors, such as strong localised law enforcement and national governance). Understanding elephant movements to address areas where HEC most occurs, protecting peoples assets by using soft barriers around food crops and ensuring human safety is all part of our newest ground-breaking research. Elephants Alive focusses on promoting human elephant coexistence in a holistic manner within and around conservation areas that straddle a number of southern African countries.

Identifying vital corridors & HEC hotspots

Our research has identified vital corridors in southern Africa, where implementing innovative ways to protect and increase people’s livelihoods will also have powerful conservation outcomes. Trailblazing collared elephants have enabled us to (1) identify key HEC hotspots within the larger landscape and (2) build crop-raiding probability maps. Since June 2021, Elephants Alive together with our project partners, the Mozambique Wildlife Alliance, facilitated the creation and mobilisation of Rapid Response Units in Mozambique, working specifically to safely deter crop raiding elephants and protect both human and wildlife safety. They have covered 15,480 km during their first year in operation and responded to both 270 reported human-wildlife conflict incidents (35% involving wildlife other than elephants) as well as pre-empted incidents based on predicting elephant crop raids from elephant tracking histories. Actual conflict events in their area of operation declined and mitigation efforts became more successful over time. As the RRU also educated and empowered the communities they were protecting, the farmers readily took on the responsibility to ensure their own safety after training in the mitigation techniques.

Creating soft barriers to protect people’s assets while the free flow of elephants continues.

To protect people’s livelihoods, as well as simultaneously supporting rural communities' socio-economic needs, we have identified several elephant-unpalatable crops with a high-market value for essential oil production. This study is the first of its kind as it includes new crops never studied before in relation to elephant palatability, market value potential, and climate and habitat suitability in arid southern Africa. When planted around subsistence crops like maize, these unpalatable deterrence crops are both highly likely to be effective, soft-barriers against crop-raiding – thereby protecting human food security, as well as providing additional income sources because of their high-market value. In addition, the research highlighted the potential mutually-enforcing effect of planting these unpalatable crops in conjunction with previously-proven deterrence effect of beehive fences. The beehive fences not only add to the protection of the palatable crops, but in themselves also diversify the income of the farmers. The pollination services of the bees increase productivity of all crop types as yet another indicator of the synchronicity between these two soft barriers.

Our women-centred programs, like the Ndlopfu Gogo (Elephant Grandmothers) program and Black Mamba anti-poaching unit beekeeping program, have proven the efficacy of women empowerment and upskilling as a long term conservation investment. With our Proof-of-Concept Projects in South Africa, we have shown that taking the grandmothers from communities surrounding nature reserves to meet elephants we have been studying for decades, instils a passion for conservation and reconnects these women as the pillars of society to the value of ecosystem services and as important first- and second-generation environmental educators. Likewise, we work with the all-female Black Mamba anti-poaching unit to keep bees and cultivate food- and elephant unpalatable crops, while gaining insight into market related products with a conservation story.  Our holistic approach enables a transnational community-based approach to protect African elephants and their habitat, enabling mutually beneficial human-elephant coexistence through a unique multidimensional and integrated approach of community engagement, knowledge creation, and practical conservation action. We look forward to sharing more details on each of the phases of the different projects in the months to come.

February 22, 2023

Elephants in Peril: The Ongoing Battle to Protect Southern Africa's Iconic Species and Their Habitats

Elephants Alive is research-based NGO on a mission to ensure the survival of elephants and their habitats, and to promote the harmonious co-existence of elephants and people. A relatively straight-forward goal, one would think. However, the nature of elephants’ impact on their habitat and the large-space requirements they have for this habitat, makes protecting one of Africa’s most iconic species a uniquely challenging undertaking!

For 28 years, Elephants Alive has been monitoring the ecology and demography of one of southern Africa’s largest continuous elephant populations. Since 1996, we have created a database of 2000 individual elephants and after collaring the first elephants in 1998 with state-of-the-art GPS satellite collars, we have been following close to 200 individual collared elephants over time, defining our study area according to where elephants choose to go. This elephant ID- and tracking study is the longest and most consistent in southern Africa. Our science-based and data-rich approach enables us to understand the drivers of elephant movements and how to best mitigate human-elephant-conflict (HEC) by protecting human assets, ensuring human and elephant safety where both species intersect, thereby increasing human tolerance.

Why elephants?

Elephants are under threat with the African savanna elephant classified as endangered and the forest elephant as critically endangered.  However, a living elephant in its natural habitat has the potential to generate well over US$1.5 million through tourism in its lifetime, which is a staggering 76 times more than the average ivory value of its tusks ($21,000). This value more than doubles if we add ecological value estimations: a single African forest elephant is worth more than US$1.75million in carbon offsets. From a biodiversity and ecosystem viewpoint, elephants serve as an umbrella species, helping to conserve large areas of landscape, ensuring the survival and evolution of numerous other species. As megaherbivores and keystone species, elephants play a crucial role in maintaining ecological processes and providing resources to other species. As example, elephants can create water wells in dry riverbeds, providing critical water sources to other species when it is most needed.

Elephants migrating between protected areas aid in distribution and strengthening of genetic diversity and repopulating sink habitats devoid of elephants or with low population densities and in the process, they also ensure that the genes for large tusks are perpetuated across subpopulations. By flagging where we need to declare habitat corridors, elephants can play a vital role in long-distance seed- and nutrient distribution, promoting both tree inhibition and regeneration over vast landscapes in a dynamic cycle. If we allow elephants as constant gardeners to create a network of interlinked natural landscapes, they will in the process increase access to new feeding grounds and other resources (i.e. water, mineral supplements and micro-habitats) for numerous other wildlife.

The existence of elephants is intertwined with the survival of all species reliant on these ecosystems. If we also take into account immaterial and moral values, like socio-cultural or spiritual benefits of living elephants, it becomes obvious that we need to ensure the survival of this flagship species.

The issue

Elephants need space as only 7% of wildlife habitat patches in Africa are larger than 100 km2. This means that the majority of African elephants are moving outside protected spaces (over 50% of the current population) or need to cross national borders (more than 75% of elephant movements are transboundary). Thirty years ago, the southern African states had a little over 20% of Africa’s continental elephant population. Today, these southern states have become the last stronghold of the African elephant as they now hold over half of the continental population due to excessive poaching to the north of their borders. In addition, in Southern Africa alone, people now dominate 80% of the land that elephants used to live on before colonial developments.

The combination of elephants being compressed within their natural range alongside burgeoning human populations, means that elephants are increasingly migrating across human-dominated landscapes with this interaction potentially resulting in crop-raiding by elephants, food insecurity and at its worse injuries and the death of people and elephants. This is not only true for elephants, but also for other wildlife moving close to human settlements. Statistics from Tanzania from 2012-2019 show that human-wildlife conflicts claimed 1,069 human and 792 wild animal lives. A total of 41,404 hectares of crops was destroyed between 2012 and 2019. Elephants try to avoid conflict with people by covering risky landscapes under the cover of darkness. This risk-adverse tactic, although smart on the elephant’s side, will not be enough to ensure connected landscapes that uphold biodiversity objectives.

The solution?

Finding and implementing innovative ways to make people’s livelihoods compatible with conservation outcomes where humans and elephants intersect is of primary importance. A recent study found evidence that poaching rates are lower where local levels of human development are relatively high (amongst other contributing factors, such as strong localised law enforcement and national governance). Understanding elephant movements to address areas where HEC most occurs, protecting peoples assets by using soft barriers around food crops and ensuring human safety is all part of our newest ground-breaking research. Elephants Alive focusses on promoting human elephant coexistence in a holistic manner within and around conservation areas that straddle a number of southern African countries.

Identifying vital corridors & HEC hotspots

Our research has identified vital corridors in southern Africa, where implementing innovative ways to protect and increase people’s livelihoods will also have powerful conservation outcomes. Trailblazing collared elephants have enabled us to (1) identify key HEC hotspots within the larger landscape and (2) build crop-raiding probability maps. Since June 2021, Elephants Alive together with our project partners, the Mozambique Wildlife Alliance, facilitated the creation and mobilisation of Rapid Response Units in Mozambique, working specifically to safely deter crop raiding elephants and protect both human and wildlife safety. They have covered 15,480 km during their first year in operation and responded to both 270 reported human-wildlife conflict incidents (35% involving wildlife other than elephants) as well as pre-empted incidents based on predicting elephant crop raids from elephant tracking histories. Actual conflict events in their area of operation declined and mitigation efforts became more successful over time. As the RRU also educated and empowered the communities they were protecting, the farmers readily took on the responsibility to ensure their own safety after training in the mitigation techniques.

Creating soft barriers to protect people’s assets while the free flow of elephants continues.

To protect people’s livelihoods, as well as simultaneously supporting rural communities' socio-economic needs, we have identified several elephant-unpalatable crops with a high-market value for essential oil production. This study is the first of its kind as it includes new crops never studied before in relation to elephant palatability, market value potential, and climate and habitat suitability in arid southern Africa. When planted around subsistence crops like maize, these unpalatable deterrence crops are both highly likely to be effective, soft-barriers against crop-raiding – thereby protecting human food security, as well as providing additional income sources because of their high-market value. In addition, the research highlighted the potential mutually-enforcing effect of planting these unpalatable crops in conjunction with previously-proven deterrence effect of beehive fences. The beehive fences not only add to the protection of the palatable crops, but in themselves also diversify the income of the farmers. The pollination services of the bees increase productivity of all crop types as yet another indicator of the synchronicity between these two soft barriers.

Our women-centred programs, like the Ndlopfu Gogo (Elephant Grandmothers) program and Black Mamba anti-poaching unit beekeeping program, have proven the efficacy of women empowerment and upskilling as a long term conservation investment. With our Proof-of-Concept Projects in South Africa, we have shown that taking the grandmothers from communities surrounding nature reserves to meet elephants we have been studying for decades, instils a passion for conservation and reconnects these women as the pillars of society to the value of ecosystem services and as important first- and second-generation environmental educators. Likewise, we work with the all-female Black Mamba anti-poaching unit to keep bees and cultivate food- and elephant unpalatable crops, while gaining insight into market related products with a conservation story.  Our holistic approach enables a transnational community-based approach to protect African elephants and their habitat, enabling mutually beneficial human-elephant coexistence through a unique multidimensional and integrated approach of community engagement, knowledge creation, and practical conservation action. We look forward to sharing more details on each of the phases of the different projects in the months to come.

Elephants in Peril: The Ongoing Battle to Protect Southern Africa's Iconic Species and Their Habitats

Words by
Drs. Michelle Henley and Evelyn Poole

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Elephants Alive is research-based NGO on a mission to ensure the survival of elephants and their habitats, and to promote the harmonious co-existence of elephants and people. A relatively straight-forward goal, one would think. However, the nature of elephants’ impact on their habitat and the large-space requirements they have for this habitat, makes protecting one of Africa’s most iconic species a uniquely challenging undertaking!

For 28 years, Elephants Alive has been monitoring the ecology and demography of one of southern Africa’s largest continuous elephant populations. Since 1996, we have created a database of 2000 individual elephants and after collaring the first elephants in 1998 with state-of-the-art GPS satellite collars, we have been following close to 200 individual collared elephants over time, defining our study area according to where elephants choose to go. This elephant ID- and tracking study is the longest and most consistent in southern Africa. Our science-based and data-rich approach enables us to understand the drivers of elephant movements and how to best mitigate human-elephant-conflict (HEC) by protecting human assets, ensuring human and elephant safety where both species intersect, thereby increasing human tolerance.

Contact SIANA Today

Contact your personal SIANA travel tailor today to start planning your next adventure. As a boutique travel agency specialising in tailor-made itineraries, we leave no stone unturned to create the most memorable holiday that meets your unique needs and desires.

Enquire Now

Why elephants?

Elephants are under threat with the African savanna elephant classified as endangered and the forest elephant as critically endangered.  However, a living elephant in its natural habitat has the potential to generate well over US$1.5 million through tourism in its lifetime, which is a staggering 76 times more than the average ivory value of its tusks ($21,000). This value more than doubles if we add ecological value estimations: a single African forest elephant is worth more than US$1.75million in carbon offsets. From a biodiversity and ecosystem viewpoint, elephants serve as an umbrella species, helping to conserve large areas of landscape, ensuring the survival and evolution of numerous other species. As megaherbivores and keystone species, elephants play a crucial role in maintaining ecological processes and providing resources to other species. As example, elephants can create water wells in dry riverbeds, providing critical water sources to other species when it is most needed.

Elephants migrating between protected areas aid in distribution and strengthening of genetic diversity and repopulating sink habitats devoid of elephants or with low population densities and in the process, they also ensure that the genes for large tusks are perpetuated across subpopulations. By flagging where we need to declare habitat corridors, elephants can play a vital role in long-distance seed- and nutrient distribution, promoting both tree inhibition and regeneration over vast landscapes in a dynamic cycle. If we allow elephants as constant gardeners to create a network of interlinked natural landscapes, they will in the process increase access to new feeding grounds and other resources (i.e. water, mineral supplements and micro-habitats) for numerous other wildlife.

The existence of elephants is intertwined with the survival of all species reliant on these ecosystems. If we also take into account immaterial and moral values, like socio-cultural or spiritual benefits of living elephants, it becomes obvious that we need to ensure the survival of this flagship species.

Contact SIANA Today

Contact your personal SIANA travel tailor today to start planning your next adventure. As a boutique travel agency specialising in tailor-made itineraries, we leave no stone unturned to create the most memorable holiday that meets your unique needs and desires.

Enquire Now

The issue

Elephants need space as only 7% of wildlife habitat patches in Africa are larger than 100 km2. This means that the majority of African elephants are moving outside protected spaces (over 50% of the current population) or need to cross national borders (more than 75% of elephant movements are transboundary). Thirty years ago, the southern African states had a little over 20% of Africa’s continental elephant population. Today, these southern states have become the last stronghold of the African elephant as they now hold over half of the continental population due to excessive poaching to the north of their borders. In addition, in Southern Africa alone, people now dominate 80% of the land that elephants used to live on before colonial developments.

The combination of elephants being compressed within their natural range alongside burgeoning human populations, means that elephants are increasingly migrating across human-dominated landscapes with this interaction potentially resulting in crop-raiding by elephants, food insecurity and at its worse injuries and the death of people and elephants. This is not only true for elephants, but also for other wildlife moving close to human settlements. Statistics from Tanzania from 2012-2019 show that human-wildlife conflicts claimed 1,069 human and 792 wild animal lives. A total of 41,404 hectares of crops was destroyed between 2012 and 2019. Elephants try to avoid conflict with people by covering risky landscapes under the cover of darkness. This risk-adverse tactic, although smart on the elephant’s side, will not be enough to ensure connected landscapes that uphold biodiversity objectives.

The solution?

Finding and implementing innovative ways to make people’s livelihoods compatible with conservation outcomes where humans and elephants intersect is of primary importance. A recent study found evidence that poaching rates are lower where local levels of human development are relatively high (amongst other contributing factors, such as strong localised law enforcement and national governance). Understanding elephant movements to address areas where HEC most occurs, protecting peoples assets by using soft barriers around food crops and ensuring human safety is all part of our newest ground-breaking research. Elephants Alive focusses on promoting human elephant coexistence in a holistic manner within and around conservation areas that straddle a number of southern African countries.

Identifying vital corridors & HEC hotspots

Our research has identified vital corridors in southern Africa, where implementing innovative ways to protect and increase people’s livelihoods will also have powerful conservation outcomes. Trailblazing collared elephants have enabled us to (1) identify key HEC hotspots within the larger landscape and (2) build crop-raiding probability maps. Since June 2021, Elephants Alive together with our project partners, the Mozambique Wildlife Alliance, facilitated the creation and mobilisation of Rapid Response Units in Mozambique, working specifically to safely deter crop raiding elephants and protect both human and wildlife safety. They have covered 15,480 km during their first year in operation and responded to both 270 reported human-wildlife conflict incidents (35% involving wildlife other than elephants) as well as pre-empted incidents based on predicting elephant crop raids from elephant tracking histories. Actual conflict events in their area of operation declined and mitigation efforts became more successful over time. As the RRU also educated and empowered the communities they were protecting, the farmers readily took on the responsibility to ensure their own safety after training in the mitigation techniques.

Creating soft barriers to protect people’s assets while the free flow of elephants continues.

To protect people’s livelihoods, as well as simultaneously supporting rural communities' socio-economic needs, we have identified several elephant-unpalatable crops with a high-market value for essential oil production. This study is the first of its kind as it includes new crops never studied before in relation to elephant palatability, market value potential, and climate and habitat suitability in arid southern Africa. When planted around subsistence crops like maize, these unpalatable deterrence crops are both highly likely to be effective, soft-barriers against crop-raiding – thereby protecting human food security, as well as providing additional income sources because of their high-market value. In addition, the research highlighted the potential mutually-enforcing effect of planting these unpalatable crops in conjunction with previously-proven deterrence effect of beehive fences. The beehive fences not only add to the protection of the palatable crops, but in themselves also diversify the income of the farmers. The pollination services of the bees increase productivity of all crop types as yet another indicator of the synchronicity between these two soft barriers.

Our women-centred programs, like the Ndlopfu Gogo (Elephant Grandmothers) program and Black Mamba anti-poaching unit beekeeping program, have proven the efficacy of women empowerment and upskilling as a long term conservation investment. With our Proof-of-Concept Projects in South Africa, we have shown that taking the grandmothers from communities surrounding nature reserves to meet elephants we have been studying for decades, instils a passion for conservation and reconnects these women as the pillars of society to the value of ecosystem services and as important first- and second-generation environmental educators. Likewise, we work with the all-female Black Mamba anti-poaching unit to keep bees and cultivate food- and elephant unpalatable crops, while gaining insight into market related products with a conservation story.  Our holistic approach enables a transnational community-based approach to protect African elephants and their habitat, enabling mutually beneficial human-elephant coexistence through a unique multidimensional and integrated approach of community engagement, knowledge creation, and practical conservation action. We look forward to sharing more details on each of the phases of the different projects in the months to come.

Project Feature
• Issue no. 1

Elephants in Peril: The Ongoing Battle to Protect Southern Africa's Iconic Species and Their Habitats

Words by
Drs. Michelle Henley and Evelyn Poole
February 14, 2024
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Elephants Alive is research-based NGO on a mission to ensure the survival of elephants and their habitats, and to promote the harmonious co-existence of elephants and people. A relatively straight-forward goal, one would think. However, the nature of elephants’ impact on their habitat and the large-space requirements they have for this habitat, makes protecting one of Africa’s most iconic species a uniquely challenging undertaking!

For 28 years, Elephants Alive has been monitoring the ecology and demography of one of southern Africa’s largest continuous elephant populations. Since 1996, we have created a database of 2000 individual elephants and after collaring the first elephants in 1998 with state-of-the-art GPS satellite collars, we have been following close to 200 individual collared elephants over time, defining our study area according to where elephants choose to go. This elephant ID- and tracking study is the longest and most consistent in southern Africa. Our science-based and data-rich approach enables us to understand the drivers of elephant movements and how to best mitigate human-elephant-conflict (HEC) by protecting human assets, ensuring human and elephant safety where both species intersect, thereby increasing human tolerance.

Why elephants?

Elephants are under threat with the African savanna elephant classified as endangered and the forest elephant as critically endangered.  However, a living elephant in its natural habitat has the potential to generate well over US$1.5 million through tourism in its lifetime, which is a staggering 76 times more than the average ivory value of its tusks ($21,000). This value more than doubles if we add ecological value estimations: a single African forest elephant is worth more than US$1.75million in carbon offsets. From a biodiversity and ecosystem viewpoint, elephants serve as an umbrella species, helping to conserve large areas of landscape, ensuring the survival and evolution of numerous other species. As megaherbivores and keystone species, elephants play a crucial role in maintaining ecological processes and providing resources to other species. As example, elephants can create water wells in dry riverbeds, providing critical water sources to other species when it is most needed.

Elephants migrating between protected areas aid in distribution and strengthening of genetic diversity and repopulating sink habitats devoid of elephants or with low population densities and in the process, they also ensure that the genes for large tusks are perpetuated across subpopulations. By flagging where we need to declare habitat corridors, elephants can play a vital role in long-distance seed- and nutrient distribution, promoting both tree inhibition and regeneration over vast landscapes in a dynamic cycle. If we allow elephants as constant gardeners to create a network of interlinked natural landscapes, they will in the process increase access to new feeding grounds and other resources (i.e. water, mineral supplements and micro-habitats) for numerous other wildlife.

The existence of elephants is intertwined with the survival of all species reliant on these ecosystems. If we also take into account immaterial and moral values, like socio-cultural or spiritual benefits of living elephants, it becomes obvious that we need to ensure the survival of this flagship species.

The issue

Elephants need space as only 7% of wildlife habitat patches in Africa are larger than 100 km2. This means that the majority of African elephants are moving outside protected spaces (over 50% of the current population) or need to cross national borders (more than 75% of elephant movements are transboundary). Thirty years ago, the southern African states had a little over 20% of Africa’s continental elephant population. Today, these southern states have become the last stronghold of the African elephant as they now hold over half of the continental population due to excessive poaching to the north of their borders. In addition, in Southern Africa alone, people now dominate 80% of the land that elephants used to live on before colonial developments.

The combination of elephants being compressed within their natural range alongside burgeoning human populations, means that elephants are increasingly migrating across human-dominated landscapes with this interaction potentially resulting in crop-raiding by elephants, food insecurity and at its worse injuries and the death of people and elephants. This is not only true for elephants, but also for other wildlife moving close to human settlements. Statistics from Tanzania from 2012-2019 show that human-wildlife conflicts claimed 1,069 human and 792 wild animal lives. A total of 41,404 hectares of crops was destroyed between 2012 and 2019. Elephants try to avoid conflict with people by covering risky landscapes under the cover of darkness. This risk-adverse tactic, although smart on the elephant’s side, will not be enough to ensure connected landscapes that uphold biodiversity objectives.

The solution?

Finding and implementing innovative ways to make people’s livelihoods compatible with conservation outcomes where humans and elephants intersect is of primary importance. A recent study found evidence that poaching rates are lower where local levels of human development are relatively high (amongst other contributing factors, such as strong localised law enforcement and national governance). Understanding elephant movements to address areas where HEC most occurs, protecting peoples assets by using soft barriers around food crops and ensuring human safety is all part of our newest ground-breaking research. Elephants Alive focusses on promoting human elephant coexistence in a holistic manner within and around conservation areas that straddle a number of southern African countries.

February 22, 2023

Elephants in Peril: The Ongoing Battle to Protect Southern Africa's Iconic Species and Their Habitats

Elephants Alive is research-based NGO on a mission to ensure the survival of elephants and their habitats, and to promote the harmonious co-existence of elephants and people. A relatively straight-forward goal, one would think. However, the nature of elephants’ impact on their habitat and the large-space requirements they have for this habitat, makes protecting one of Africa’s most iconic species a uniquely challenging undertaking!

For 28 years, Elephants Alive has been monitoring the ecology and demography of one of southern Africa’s largest continuous elephant populations. Since 1996, we have created a database of 2000 individual elephants and after collaring the first elephants in 1998 with state-of-the-art GPS satellite collars, we have been following close to 200 individual collared elephants over time, defining our study area according to where elephants choose to go. This elephant ID- and tracking study is the longest and most consistent in southern Africa. Our science-based and data-rich approach enables us to understand the drivers of elephant movements and how to best mitigate human-elephant-conflict (HEC) by protecting human assets, ensuring human and elephant safety where both species intersect, thereby increasing human tolerance.

Why elephants?

Elephants are under threat with the African savanna elephant classified as endangered and the forest elephant as critically endangered.  However, a living elephant in its natural habitat has the potential to generate well over US$1.5 million through tourism in its lifetime, which is a staggering 76 times more than the average ivory value of its tusks ($21,000). This value more than doubles if we add ecological value estimations: a single African forest elephant is worth more than US$1.75million in carbon offsets. From a biodiversity and ecosystem viewpoint, elephants serve as an umbrella species, helping to conserve large areas of landscape, ensuring the survival and evolution of numerous other species. As megaherbivores and keystone species, elephants play a crucial role in maintaining ecological processes and providing resources to other species. As example, elephants can create water wells in dry riverbeds, providing critical water sources to other species when it is most needed.

Elephants migrating between protected areas aid in distribution and strengthening of genetic diversity and repopulating sink habitats devoid of elephants or with low population densities and in the process, they also ensure that the genes for large tusks are perpetuated across subpopulations. By flagging where we need to declare habitat corridors, elephants can play a vital role in long-distance seed- and nutrient distribution, promoting both tree inhibition and regeneration over vast landscapes in a dynamic cycle. If we allow elephants as constant gardeners to create a network of interlinked natural landscapes, they will in the process increase access to new feeding grounds and other resources (i.e. water, mineral supplements and micro-habitats) for numerous other wildlife.

The existence of elephants is intertwined with the survival of all species reliant on these ecosystems. If we also take into account immaterial and moral values, like socio-cultural or spiritual benefits of living elephants, it becomes obvious that we need to ensure the survival of this flagship species.

The issue

Elephants need space as only 7% of wildlife habitat patches in Africa are larger than 100 km2. This means that the majority of African elephants are moving outside protected spaces (over 50% of the current population) or need to cross national borders (more than 75% of elephant movements are transboundary). Thirty years ago, the southern African states had a little over 20% of Africa’s continental elephant population. Today, these southern states have become the last stronghold of the African elephant as they now hold over half of the continental population due to excessive poaching to the north of their borders. In addition, in Southern Africa alone, people now dominate 80% of the land that elephants used to live on before colonial developments.

The combination of elephants being compressed within their natural range alongside burgeoning human populations, means that elephants are increasingly migrating across human-dominated landscapes with this interaction potentially resulting in crop-raiding by elephants, food insecurity and at its worse injuries and the death of people and elephants. This is not only true for elephants, but also for other wildlife moving close to human settlements. Statistics from Tanzania from 2012-2019 show that human-wildlife conflicts claimed 1,069 human and 792 wild animal lives. A total of 41,404 hectares of crops was destroyed between 2012 and 2019. Elephants try to avoid conflict with people by covering risky landscapes under the cover of darkness. This risk-adverse tactic, although smart on the elephant’s side, will not be enough to ensure connected landscapes that uphold biodiversity objectives.

The solution?

Finding and implementing innovative ways to make people’s livelihoods compatible with conservation outcomes where humans and elephants intersect is of primary importance. A recent study found evidence that poaching rates are lower where local levels of human development are relatively high (amongst other contributing factors, such as strong localised law enforcement and national governance). Understanding elephant movements to address areas where HEC most occurs, protecting peoples assets by using soft barriers around food crops and ensuring human safety is all part of our newest ground-breaking research. Elephants Alive focusses on promoting human elephant coexistence in a holistic manner within and around conservation areas that straddle a number of southern African countries.

Identifying vital corridors & HEC hotspots

Our research has identified vital corridors in southern Africa, where implementing innovative ways to protect and increase people’s livelihoods will also have powerful conservation outcomes. Trailblazing collared elephants have enabled us to (1) identify key HEC hotspots within the larger landscape and (2) build crop-raiding probability maps. Since June 2021, Elephants Alive together with our project partners, the Mozambique Wildlife Alliance, facilitated the creation and mobilisation of Rapid Response Units in Mozambique, working specifically to safely deter crop raiding elephants and protect both human and wildlife safety. They have covered 15,480 km during their first year in operation and responded to both 270 reported human-wildlife conflict incidents (35% involving wildlife other than elephants) as well as pre-empted incidents based on predicting elephant crop raids from elephant tracking histories. Actual conflict events in their area of operation declined and mitigation efforts became more successful over time. As the RRU also educated and empowered the communities they were protecting, the farmers readily took on the responsibility to ensure their own safety after training in the mitigation techniques.

Creating soft barriers to protect people’s assets while the free flow of elephants continues.

To protect people’s livelihoods, as well as simultaneously supporting rural communities' socio-economic needs, we have identified several elephant-unpalatable crops with a high-market value for essential oil production. This study is the first of its kind as it includes new crops never studied before in relation to elephant palatability, market value potential, and climate and habitat suitability in arid southern Africa. When planted around subsistence crops like maize, these unpalatable deterrence crops are both highly likely to be effective, soft-barriers against crop-raiding – thereby protecting human food security, as well as providing additional income sources because of their high-market value. In addition, the research highlighted the potential mutually-enforcing effect of planting these unpalatable crops in conjunction with previously-proven deterrence effect of beehive fences. The beehive fences not only add to the protection of the palatable crops, but in themselves also diversify the income of the farmers. The pollination services of the bees increase productivity of all crop types as yet another indicator of the synchronicity between these two soft barriers.

Our women-centred programs, like the Ndlopfu Gogo (Elephant Grandmothers) program and Black Mamba anti-poaching unit beekeeping program, have proven the efficacy of women empowerment and upskilling as a long term conservation investment. With our Proof-of-Concept Projects in South Africa, we have shown that taking the grandmothers from communities surrounding nature reserves to meet elephants we have been studying for decades, instils a passion for conservation and reconnects these women as the pillars of society to the value of ecosystem services and as important first- and second-generation environmental educators. Likewise, we work with the all-female Black Mamba anti-poaching unit to keep bees and cultivate food- and elephant unpalatable crops, while gaining insight into market related products with a conservation story.  Our holistic approach enables a transnational community-based approach to protect African elephants and their habitat, enabling mutually beneficial human-elephant coexistence through a unique multidimensional and integrated approach of community engagement, knowledge creation, and practical conservation action. We look forward to sharing more details on each of the phases of the different projects in the months to come.

Conservation Stories

Elephants in Peril: The Ongoing Battle to Protect Southern Africa's Iconic Species and Their Habitats

Words by
Drs. Michelle Henley and Evelyn Poole
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Elephants Alive is research-based NGO on a mission to ensure the survival of elephants and their habitats, and to promote the harmonious co-existence of elephants and people. A relatively straight-forward goal, one would think. However, the nature of elephants’ impact on their habitat and the large-space requirements they have for this habitat, makes protecting one of Africa’s most iconic species a uniquely challenging undertaking!

For 28 years, Elephants Alive has been monitoring the ecology and demography of one of southern Africa’s largest continuous elephant populations. Since 1996, we have created a database of 2000 individual elephants and after collaring the first elephants in 1998 with state-of-the-art GPS satellite collars, we have been following close to 200 individual collared elephants over time, defining our study area according to where elephants choose to go. This elephant ID- and tracking study is the longest and most consistent in southern Africa. Our science-based and data-rich approach enables us to understand the drivers of elephant movements and how to best mitigate human-elephant-conflict (HEC) by protecting human assets, ensuring human and elephant safety where both species intersect, thereby increasing human tolerance.

BOOK YOUR STAY NOW

Why elephants?

Elephants are under threat with the African savanna elephant classified as endangered and the forest elephant as critically endangered.  However, a living elephant in its natural habitat has the potential to generate well over US$1.5 million through tourism in its lifetime, which is a staggering 76 times more than the average ivory value of its tusks ($21,000). This value more than doubles if we add ecological value estimations: a single African forest elephant is worth more than US$1.75million in carbon offsets. From a biodiversity and ecosystem viewpoint, elephants serve as an umbrella species, helping to conserve large areas of landscape, ensuring the survival and evolution of numerous other species. As megaherbivores and keystone species, elephants play a crucial role in maintaining ecological processes and providing resources to other species. As example, elephants can create water wells in dry riverbeds, providing critical water sources to other species when it is most needed.

Elephants migrating between protected areas aid in distribution and strengthening of genetic diversity and repopulating sink habitats devoid of elephants or with low population densities and in the process, they also ensure that the genes for large tusks are perpetuated across subpopulations. By flagging where we need to declare habitat corridors, elephants can play a vital role in long-distance seed- and nutrient distribution, promoting both tree inhibition and regeneration over vast landscapes in a dynamic cycle. If we allow elephants as constant gardeners to create a network of interlinked natural landscapes, they will in the process increase access to new feeding grounds and other resources (i.e. water, mineral supplements and micro-habitats) for numerous other wildlife.

The existence of elephants is intertwined with the survival of all species reliant on these ecosystems. If we also take into account immaterial and moral values, like socio-cultural or spiritual benefits of living elephants, it becomes obvious that we need to ensure the survival of this flagship species.

The issue

Elephants need space as only 7% of wildlife habitat patches in Africa are larger than 100 km2. This means that the majority of African elephants are moving outside protected spaces (over 50% of the current population) or need to cross national borders (more than 75% of elephant movements are transboundary). Thirty years ago, the southern African states had a little over 20% of Africa’s continental elephant population. Today, these southern states have become the last stronghold of the African elephant as they now hold over half of the continental population due to excessive poaching to the north of their borders. In addition, in Southern Africa alone, people now dominate 80% of the land that elephants used to live on before colonial developments.

The combination of elephants being compressed within their natural range alongside burgeoning human populations, means that elephants are increasingly migrating across human-dominated landscapes with this interaction potentially resulting in crop-raiding by elephants, food insecurity and at its worse injuries and the death of people and elephants. This is not only true for elephants, but also for other wildlife moving close to human settlements. Statistics from Tanzania from 2012-2019 show that human-wildlife conflicts claimed 1,069 human and 792 wild animal lives. A total of 41,404 hectares of crops was destroyed between 2012 and 2019. Elephants try to avoid conflict with people by covering risky landscapes under the cover of darkness. This risk-adverse tactic, although smart on the elephant’s side, will not be enough to ensure connected landscapes that uphold biodiversity objectives.

The solution?

Finding and implementing innovative ways to make people’s livelihoods compatible with conservation outcomes where humans and elephants intersect is of primary importance. A recent study found evidence that poaching rates are lower where local levels of human development are relatively high (amongst other contributing factors, such as strong localised law enforcement and national governance). Understanding elephant movements to address areas where HEC most occurs, protecting peoples assets by using soft barriers around food crops and ensuring human safety is all part of our newest ground-breaking research. Elephants Alive focusses on promoting human elephant coexistence in a holistic manner within and around conservation areas that straddle a number of southern African countries.

Identifying vital corridors & HEC hotspots

Our research has identified vital corridors in southern Africa, where implementing innovative ways to protect and increase people’s livelihoods will also have powerful conservation outcomes. Trailblazing collared elephants have enabled us to (1) identify key HEC hotspots within the larger landscape and (2) build crop-raiding probability maps. Since June 2021, Elephants Alive together with our project partners, the Mozambique Wildlife Alliance, facilitated the creation and mobilisation of Rapid Response Units in Mozambique, working specifically to safely deter crop raiding elephants and protect both human and wildlife safety. They have covered 15,480 km during their first year in operation and responded to both 270 reported human-wildlife conflict incidents (35% involving wildlife other than elephants) as well as pre-empted incidents based on predicting elephant crop raids from elephant tracking histories. Actual conflict events in their area of operation declined and mitigation efforts became more successful over time. As the RRU also educated and empowered the communities they were protecting, the farmers readily took on the responsibility to ensure their own safety after training in the mitigation techniques.

Creating soft barriers to protect people’s assets while the free flow of elephants continues.

To protect people’s livelihoods, as well as simultaneously supporting rural communities' socio-economic needs, we have identified several elephant-unpalatable crops with a high-market value for essential oil production. This study is the first of its kind as it includes new crops never studied before in relation to elephant palatability, market value potential, and climate and habitat suitability in arid southern Africa. When planted around subsistence crops like maize, these unpalatable deterrence crops are both highly likely to be effective, soft-barriers against crop-raiding – thereby protecting human food security, as well as providing additional income sources because of their high-market value. In addition, the research highlighted the potential mutually-enforcing effect of planting these unpalatable crops in conjunction with previously-proven deterrence effect of beehive fences. The beehive fences not only add to the protection of the palatable crops, but in themselves also diversify the income of the farmers. The pollination services of the bees increase productivity of all crop types as yet another indicator of the synchronicity between these two soft barriers.

Our women-centred programs, like the Ndlopfu Gogo (Elephant Grandmothers) program and Black Mamba anti-poaching unit beekeeping program, have proven the efficacy of women empowerment and upskilling as a long term conservation investment. With our Proof-of-Concept Projects in South Africa, we have shown that taking the grandmothers from communities surrounding nature reserves to meet elephants we have been studying for decades, instils a passion for conservation and reconnects these women as the pillars of society to the value of ecosystem services and as important first- and second-generation environmental educators. Likewise, we work with the all-female Black Mamba anti-poaching unit to keep bees and cultivate food- and elephant unpalatable crops, while gaining insight into market related products with a conservation story.  Our holistic approach enables a transnational community-based approach to protect African elephants and their habitat, enabling mutually beneficial human-elephant coexistence through a unique multidimensional and integrated approach of community engagement, knowledge creation, and practical conservation action. We look forward to sharing more details on each of the phases of the different projects in the months to come.

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