Human Elephant Conflict in Laikepia, Kenya
Human elephant conflict is a huge challenge to conserving habitat and protecting elephants. One village Maria and I visited in Laikipia, Kenya 4 people were killed by elephants in the past year – and that’s out of a population of 250 people! On top of that, these people are living such marginal lives that they face total destitution if their crops are raided. It’s no wonder elephants are sometimes killed and wounded. Trying to foster a positive attitude takes a lot of hard work and keeping elephants at bay is the first step. It’s quite clear that if you don’t have the support of local people any conservation efforts will fail. So you have to help protect farms and villages that are attacked by elephants. The Laikipia Elephant Project (LEP) has been very successful at this through a combination of electric-fencing, collaring notorious bulls that have learned to break down electric fences and by educating local people. Hidden Places Travel provides funds to collar notorious bull elephant
We have chosen to partner with LEP as their approach and philosophy is one that is shared by Elephant Earth Initiative. We are hugely impressed by the dedication and commitment of the team, especially Max Graham and Tobias Ochieng and we look forward to working with them.
Hidden Places Travel has transfered US $ 5000 dollars to EEI in order to fund the collaring of Nelson, a bull elephant well known to authorities. Mid January, a successful operation was launched by Laikepia Elephant Project to place a GPS device on Nelson which will allow him to be tracked on an hourly basis. Initially this data will be used to establish his range and routines and in the second phase a SMS warning signal will be sent to a team on the ground who will be able to see him off if he gets to close to elephant unfriendly areas.
In the near future we hope to be able to provide you with a link to Google Earth so that you can track Nelson on an hourly basis!
Elephant Enigma Book Project
Maria and I have launched our 12th book project. The title is "Elephant Enigma" and will focus on people whose work is giving us a new, enlightened perspective on elephants and our role in their world. This will be our most ambitious project to date and we will be traveling around the globe to gather material, visit projects and interview people in the field. In September we will be heading to Africa, from there to Nepal and then back to Laos, Vietnam, Burma and Thailand. Check "Dispatches" on this website to see our postings about our travels.
SE Asia Expedition 2009/10
From November 2009 through February 2010, Dag Goering and Maria Coffey travelled extensively in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos inspecting elephant tourism operations, visiting protected areas with wild elephant populations and meeting with conservationists from organisations including World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society and Elephant Conservation Network.
Elephants in Laos are facing many challenges: too little is known about wild elephant populations to make accurate estimate of their numbers, poaching and illegal sale of elephant parts is rampant and traditional elephant habitat is disappearing due to logging and hydro-electric projects. Captive elephants which are used mainly in logging are being increasingly used in tourism however the welfare of many remains below standard.
This expedition led to good connections between Elephant Earth Initiative, stakeholders and conservationists and we are exploring ways in which we can collaborate to improve the lot elephants in this region.