Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Elephants as Partners in Conservation

Feizal Samath,
Inter Press Service News Agency
March 5, 2007
COLOMBO, Mar 5 (IPS) - Decades after unsuccessful attempts to minimise the elepehant-human conflict in Sri Lanka, authorities are trying out a bold experiment -- allowing both mammals to live together in harmony with the environment.
Some 50 to 60 people -- mostly chena (slash and burn) cultivators -- are killed annually by marauding elephants in search of food. Drives to shift herds to nature parks, away from human settlements, have not been very successful.
New research by Sri Lankan scientists have found that, rather than clashing with the large animals, humans can recruit them as partners in the protection and conservation of these animals generally considered their number one enemy.
Thousands of poor Sri Lankans venture into the jungle and grow cash crops on government land without permits -- often in areas which are stomping grounds for the elephants. The elephants see in the chenas an ideal food source. Although illegal, the government has over decades turned a blind eye to chena cultivations because of a shortage of employment.
In the experiment based on scientific data, the Department of Wildlife Conservation and scientists are embarking on a model project to ensure that elephants and cultivators live alongside each other, with the cultivators being the protectors of elephants.

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