Activities of the Human-Elephant Conflict Project

Four main areas of activity in this project

1. Mitigating Human-Elephant Conflict HEC)

In each of three sites - Lolgorien, Laila area and Emarti (map) - farmers will be organised into communal groups to guard crops on a rotational basis from a series of watchtowers that will be constructed. They will be equipped with strong torches and tin drums to scare off elephants when they are encountered. They will also light fires and keep them maintained late into the night along the front line of farms.

In addition, in Laila, a simple rope or wire fence smeared with chili grease and/or oil, and hung with cowbells will be erected. The grease/oil will act as a deterrent and the cowbells as an early warning signal in the event that elephants challenge the fence. The fence will be relatively long and will cross the route that elephants are known to take into farms. A 5m strip of grass will be cleared in front of this fence. Fires burnt in this site will have chilies added to them.

In addition, in Emarti, strong barriers will be constructed in the gullies from the river. KWS will be involved by supplying a mobile unit to respond with thunder flashes and disturbance shooting etc. during a short period at the height of conflict.

2. Monitoring crop raiding and other HEC

Ten enumerators with bicycles are to be trained in standard reporting of conflict incidents using an adapted version of the AfESG monitoring protocol, and in the use of GPS to record exact locations of conflict incidents. These data will be comparable with data collected during a study of HEC in TransMara by Noah Sitati and his scouts between 1998 and 2000 prior to the initiation of mitigation methods as part of this project. As a result we will be able to measure the direct impact of mitigation in terms of decreased or displaced HEC in Trans Mara district.

Furthermore, as a result of the project spanning several conflict seasons (there are two conflict seasons per year) it will be possible to assess both the short and long-term impacts of these mitigation methods.

3. Data collection regarding efficacy of mitigation methods

The communal guards will be paid a small honorarium during the conflict season for the data that they collect. They will make comprehensive reports for each night they are on guard. Did elephants approach? How many, what sex, what time? Were they deterred by fires, fence, or after entering fields by being scared? Did the cowbells ring and did this turn back the elephants? How long did they stay? Did they go around fences? The next morning the guards will check for fresh elephant signs in case they came close but were not seen during the night.

4. Monitoring elephant distribution

Communal guards will be paid a small honorarium at all times of year to do regular monitoring of a 500-1000m wide strip, between the farms and the forest where the elephants come from, to look for signs of fresh elephant activity. This will be done on a weekly basis and any signs deposited in the past week (i.e. elephant dung) will be recorded (and then destroyed or removed or marked so that it is not recorded the next week).