Elephants, Uganda
Elephants have miles of unbroken savanna to roam inside Uganda's Queen Elizabeth Park, where their numbers total 2,500, a dramatic rise after heavy poaching in the 1980s. Outside the preserve villagers kill elephants that trample and eat crops, though attacks have diminished with the digging of trenches to protect fields from wild trespassers.
(See pictures and read more on this story from the National Geographic November 2011 feature "Rift in Paradise." by clicking here )
UCF originated from work carried out by its founder on human wildlife conflict, in particular conflict resulting from crop raiding by elephants in the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth Protected Area. The trenches referred to in the above article resulted from work originated by UCF.
What have we done so far?
- Research to monitor elephant movements
- The establishment of park / community committees to agree ways of working together
- Excavation of 30 kms of trench by UCF employed local people
- Fencing of valleys
- Job creation
- Launch of pilot bee-keeping project
Other benefits:
- Communities protected by the trench are prospering, new houses are being built, a new primary school has opened.
- 'Villagers now have enough to eat, some to store and a surplus to sell', a major development for what was a subsistence community.
- Income for school fees.
- Improved health as members of families no longer spend their nights guarding crops.
- The communities and Uganda Wildlife Authority working together to resolve problems
Much remains to be done to continue this work in this and other areas. To support the efforts of UCF in this work, PLEASE DONATE ONLINE NOW.