AZA Professional Members
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Conservation Projects
AZA requires support for field conservation work by its member facilities. The AZA and the International Elephant Foundation (IEF) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding in support of elephant conservation projects of mutual interest that are identified by IEF and are consistent with the conservation goals of AZA.
Listed below are the IEF/AZA Elephant TAG/SSP action plan conservation projects for 2010:
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Asian Elephant Projects
1. Mahouts and Their Elephants Working as Conservation Response Units, Sumatra
The Conservation Response Unit utilizes once neglected captive elephants and their mahouts for direct field based conservation interventions to support the conservation of wild elephants and their habitat, and achieve positive outcomes for both elephants and people. By creating this link, and ensuring that these elephants are seen as an important resource, it is expected that local communities, decision-makers and other stakeholders will recognize their contribution and hopefully focus greater attention on protecting Sumatran elephants, in the wild and in captivity. The CRU project has 4 main objectives: 1) mitigating human-elephant conflict; 2) reducing wildlife crime activities in the important elephant habitat through forest patrol and monitoring; 3) raising awareness among local people of the importance of conserving elephants and their habitat; 4) establishing community-based ecotourism to ensure long-term CRU financial sustainability.
2. Lao Captive Elephant Care and Management Program, Laos
The sanitary situation of Lao elephants is deteriorating due to overwork and improper care and management services. There is a clear need to improve the living conditions and socioeconomic development of local people working with domesticated elephants, improve technical skills of veterinarians at national and provincial level, improve mahouts skills in the fields of elephant basic care and management, develop a nationwide elephant registration process/database, provide medicines and medical equipment, operate a mobile veterinary unit, and construct "Elephant Information Houses" in Vientiane and Luang Prabang. Funding supports the Elephant Care Mobile Unit, veterinarian training, and awareness raising through the Elephant Information Houses.
3. Prey Proseth Elephant Conservation Community, Cambodia
Fauna & Flora International established the Cambodian Elephant Conservation Group to ensure the survival of the Asian elephant in Cambodia. This project will conserve key elephant habitat including historical elephant corridors by piloting Participatory Land Use Planning at Prey Proseth Village, O'Bakrotes Commune, Kompong Speu Province, and causing the future cessation of all forest clearing and encroachment on the forest estate surrounding Prey Proseth Village, O'Bakrotes Commune, Kompong Speu Province as a result of clear boundary demarcation from PLUP. This project will also improve livelihood strategies, develop eco-tourism to Prey Proseth Village, raise awareness at the local level of the importance of clear and strategic land-use planning, and reduce Human-Elephant conflict.
4. Saving Elephants By Helping People, Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan elephant population is one of three island populations in the Asian elephant range. Human elephant conflict today is one of the most pressing conservation problems in wildlife management in Sri Lanka. This project will install a 15 kilometer electric fence along the boundary of farmer settlements in the Mahaweli System C. The fence will extend along the western most boundary of System C from Batalayaya to Nuwaragala. This project will also organize and implement training programs for community leaders from 55 community fence maintenance organizations and develop a pilot project to establish and measure the efficacy of biological fences using Agave species.
5. Direct Action Education: Cambodian Wild Elephant Conservation Materials, Cambodia
This project will build on several years of elephant-themed education and outreach through the Kouprey Express mobile unit, focusing on protecting the elephants of the Southwest Elephant Corridor in the Southern Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia.
6. Building Capacities for Mitigating Human Elephant Conflict in Buxa-Jaldapara Landscape, Northern West Bengal, India
For the past six years the Asian Nature Conservation Foundation has carried out a study on elephant ecology in this area through radio-telemetry. The study looked at habitat utilization, foraging ecology and human-elephant conflict. However, applying the lessons learned to reduce conflict has not been done. This pilot project will facilitate co-existence between humans and elephants by building capacities of communities and test strategies for development of alternative sources of income and alternate crops in a selected cluster of villages and tea gardens.
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African Elephant Projects |
1. Kalama Community Wildlife Conservancy: Community Conservation of Elephants in Northern Kenya
This project will provide continued consistent protection of elephants and other wildlife within Kalama, security to ensure that critical migration routes are available and safe for elephants and other wildlife between the National Reserves and the northern rangelands of Kenya, access for elephants and other wildlife to the Conservancy's critical resources, development of habitat management activities in Kalama, monitoring of wildlife and vegetation, and further development of awareness-raising activities within the community, including support of Conservation Clubs in Kalama schools.
2. Support to the Enforcement of Poaching Control and Bushmeat Trade in and around WAZA National Park, Cameroon
This project focuses on reinforcing controls against poaching and illegal trade in bushmeat in and around the periphery of the Waza National Park in order to reduce imminent risks to elephant populations. During the project lifespan, the capacity of 10 recently recruited game guards to protect and secure the park shall be strengthened, anti-poaching sorties shall be reinforced and arrests intensified, while information, communications, and education programs for local communities around the Park are developed and implemented.
3. Children and Elephants of Boromo Region, Burkina Faso
Almost everywhere in Africa where elephants remain, elephants and humans are in conflict, especially in rural areas. In the protected forests of Boromo a population of 300 elephants survive in a degraded habitat. Despite this, most local people, especially children, have never seen an elephant! Often, the children living on the forest border have only experienced or heard about bad encounters with elephants. At the same time, ecotourism is beginning to develop in Burkina Faso and the elephant is an asset for the country. These two facts encouraged Des Elephants et Des Hommes to set up this Conservation & Environmental Education Program. The program offers teachers an outdoor environmental activity that they can rarely provide for their students. For parents, the experience of their children is a very powerful way for them to modify their attitudes about elephants.
4. Lake George Marine Ranger Station: the Waterways Project, Uganda
The Waterways project will reduce poaching capabilities in the Southern Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area and will protect wildlife and their habitats through facilitating water borne law enforcement, research and community conservation. The installation of ranger boat stations and the use of boats will have an enormous impact on the ability of law enforcement to reverse Queen Elizabeth National Park's poaching problem. Rangers now have the ability to be deployed by boat, eliminating long driving distances. Rangers can also be deployed anywhere along the shore line, silently and without detection. The Waterways project has also initiated a 'marine operations' capacity building program, and a 'Lake Rescue' program.
5. Movement, Population Distribution and Social Dynamics of African Elephants in Kuenea and Omusati Region of Namibia
This project will use 6 GPS collars to provide new information on elephant distribution, movements, and human-elephant conflicts to relevant decision makers at the local, national and international levels in Namibia.
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. Support for the core activities of Save The Elephants
Save The Elephants operates in every African environment — desert, forest, bushveld and savannah. Support of core activities will allow Save The Elephants to develop, launch and manage its varied wildlife activities such as radio tracking, long term monitoring, the Elephants and Bees Project, human-elephant conflict alleviation project, education programs, and more.
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Research & Education Efforts |
1. 2009 Elephant Research Symposium
Support will go towards the 2009 International Elephant Conservation and Research Symposium where scientists and researchers will have the opportunity to learn from others and share information in order to further conservation efforts of elephants in the wild.
2. Elephant Edotheliotropic Herpes Virus (EEHV) Research
This ongoing epidemiological study aims to identify the causes of EEHV in an effort to prevent future EEHV fatalities. The study aims to find the status of EEHV in individual elephants, their potential for further transmission, and identify predisposing factors that make specific elephants more susceptible to the disease. EEHV effects both wild and managed elephant populations. |
As a non-profit organization dedicated to elephant welfare, IEF solicits donations to fund worthy conservation and research projects worldwide. To learn more about IEF or to contribute to elephant conservation efforts, visit IEF's website at www.elephantconservation.org. With minimal administrative costs, IEF is able to dedicate more than 90 percent of its budget directly toward elephant conservation programs worldwide.
For more details on IEF/AZA projects, please contact:
Deborah Olson
Executive Director
International Elephant Foundation
dolson@elephantconservation.org
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