People vs. Elephants?

We see a magnificent African elephant. But a local farmer sees the thing that stepped on his crops. As human settlements interfere with wild animals' dispersal patterns, one of the top dangers to Africa's animals and landscapes is fast becoming human-wildlife conflict. And the results can be deadly for both sides.

A typical example: Through no fault of their own, migrating African elephants often wreak havoc on a farmer's crops and livestock. The farmer then retaliates, killing the elephants. He feels it's a matter of survival. And it is.

And the problem is getting worse, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), particularly in the Laikipia/Samburu ecosystem. Hardly a day goes by without a person being killed by elephants, reports Nairobi's East African Standard. A KWS communications officer explains that in Laikipia, the situation has been worsened by destruction of the Marmanet Forest, where the elephants lived.

The KWS is strengthening its response to distress calls from local people and, in some cases, erecting fences to prevent elephants and other large mammals from moving through farmlands and human settlements. Wildlife conservationists generally oppose fencing off wild animals, except where the species is in immediate danger of extinction and requires protection.

Elephants aren't the only animals causing problems for farmers: In Voi, Kenya, lions killed 54 sheep on one day in June of 2002.

Nevertheless, the KWS says that elephants are involved in three quarters of human deaths caused by wild animals. The conflict is particularly strong where parks adjoin farmland -- or where rangeland is dotted by occasional farms.

The elephants in AWF's Samburu Heartland are one of the key conservation targets in the region. AWF continues to look for ways to mitigate threats to elephants, namely habitat fragmentation and land subdivision, with the goal of maintaining the elephant population and securing their range in as natural a state as possible.

The Samburu Heartland team is working with partners including Mpala Research Center, Save the Elephants, the private sector and local communities to develop a strategy to protect the elephants and reduce conflict with local people. All the parties agreed to use a Geographic Information System (GIS) approach to identify key habitats for both humans and migratory wildlife.

The Heartland team is now prioritizing zones that the elephants need for habitat and water and, similarly, zones that are critical to humans -- thereby identifying areas where conflict is likely. Save the Elephants is tracking 12 elephants' hourly movements with radio collars.

By overlaying elephant movement patterns with the location of vegetation and water, the Heartland team can highlight habitats of ecological importance for elephant migration. Those areas will then become conservation priorities.

And when elephant movements are overlayed on GIS renderings of human communities, land under cultivation and location of fences, the team can readily see areas ripe for conflict.

In coming months, the Heartland team will ask landowners and other users to complete questionnaires concerning their attitudes about elephants in particular and wildlife in general. Those results will be used to help develop a strategy for elephant conservation in this ecosystem.

AWF's Samburu Heartland team and its partners are working to better understand the needs of both humans and elephants in this region and to develop a strategy for minimizing conflict and permitting coexistence.