Elephants for Africa gives rural villages in Botswana access to information, training and education to enable them to decrease the cost of living alongside elephants and increase opportunities to benefit from wildlife. By engaging and assisting villages bordering protected areas we enable people to live alongside wildlife to ensure a safe and secure future for both elephants and humans. The requested money will fund fuel and vehicle maintenance to access three communities for a year.
Botswana is home to the largest elephant population, an estimated 130,000. In recent times this population has expanded its range, bringing them into contact with villages that lack knowledge of how to live alongside wildlife, having not had to do so. This has led to an escalation in human-elephant conflict and thus an increase in both human and elephant deaths. Our area has the highest number of reported incidence of human-wildlife conflict, especially among subsistence farmers, in Botswana.
This project addresses the concerns of rural villagers, creating a safer environment for both humans and elephants. Specifically, our objectives are 1) build community support for conservation; 2) improve crop yield and decrease elephant loss; 3) build resistance to elephant damage, and 4) increase economic sustainability. These are achieved through a series of training workshops, environmental education classes and delivery of materials used to deter elephants.
With increased educational activities in the villages (with over 2200 people) we will improve livelihoods, safety and respect for wildlife. To increase financial security in these rural villages we help farmers increase their yield, create alternative income opportunities and help people to benefit from wildlife through employment into the wildlife sector. This will help foster wildlife ambassadors and future conservationists and ensure the safety of villagers and elephants.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).