Taking a New Approach to Saving Elephants
Elephant Family is exploring innovative solutions to confront drastically changing attitudes of local people to elephants in Asia. To this end, we recently conducted a survey into such possibilities with our project partners and other elephant experts. The initial findings reveal a need for more public celebrations of wildlife, on large and small scales, and a greater focus on the education of children and the public about conservation issues.
Although the Asian elephant has been revered as a living god in religion and culture for hundreds of years, local people are struggling to reconcile respect for their deity with the practical issues of losing their livelihoods, as humans and wild elephants battle for space. Through our ongoing work in education, training and research and aided by the findings of the survey, Elephant Family aims to empower local people with solutions that will enable them to live side-by-side with elephants and thus reduce conflict.
The survey captured the most up to date thoughts and opinions on how to prevent conflict between people and elephants, and how the media, schools and often deep-rooted beliefs can influence this either way. As well as highlighting the need for greater awareness in general, it was also found that schoolteachers need more support and training to enable them to inspire future generations effectively, and that many believe conservation should officially be on school curriculums. As the world becomes more reliant on technology, there is also a desire from project partners to explore how new technologies such as smart phones could help them in their work, and it was established that a better flow of information is needed between those working in conservation.
Thoughts were also given on areas of research that would be beneficial to elephant conservation, such as how policy is received and managed on the ground, land-use and crop management and alternative ways to prevent conflict. Elephant Family will be developing plans to work with research groups in order to look into potential research projects and to commission inventive strategies from leading experts as a means of widening the thinking beyond conventional conservation approaches.
The findings from the survey are still being reviewed and the suggestions made will be explored further. These include: the use of street theatre as an education tool; the screening and making of documentaries and films to include local people in awareness-raising; project partner exchange programmes to strengthen relationships and improve communication; and the idea of village-based festivals to celebrate elephants and the environment.
With a mixed response of how elephants are perceived by local people across Asia, it is clear that a combination of solutions are required and that no single idea can work in isolation to remedy such a large and growing problem. Perhaps the most important finding to bear in mind is that those most affected by the problem must be included in the solution. The survey provides just a preliminary snapshot from a small number of people working in conservation, so we are also keen to hear from anyone else who has a fresh idea or perspective that could help us develop our work.
written by Carly Vincent on 30th March 11
