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INTERNATIONAL ELEPHANT FOUNDATION

Interim Report July 2015– Conservation Lower Zambezi

Project title: Human-elephant conflict mitigation for the communities of Chiawa, Zambia

Investigators, affiliation and contact information:

Ian Stevenson Chief Executive Officer Conservation Lower Zambezi (CLZ) PO Box 30972 Lusaka 10101, Zambia

www.conservationlowerzambezi.org www.facebook.com/clzafrica Project Start Date: 1 January 2015 Anticipated completion date: 31st December 2015

If this is an ongoing project, state short and long term goals that you are using to evaluate your accomplishments.

Short term goals: Improved harvests for HEC-affected communities through reduced crop damage by

wildlife in the Chiawa Game Management Area (GMA) during 2015 farming season; Provide well-trained, accessible and reliable support to local communities

threatened by Human-Elephant-Conflict (HEC) through CLZ’s Village Scout (VS) unit;

Reduction in number of HEC incidents causing property/physical damage to local communities;

Long Term goals: Reduction in number of ‘problem’ elephants controlled in the Chiawa GMA; Improved attitudes towards elephant conservation by communities of the Chiawa

GMA; Improved livelihoods due to consistently increased harvests in the GMA;

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Conservation needs

The communities living in the Chiawa GMA face the daily challenge of resource conflicts between human and wildlife populations (principally elephants), unstable incomes and vulnerability to seasonal fluctuations which leads to food insecurity, high poverty rates and a negative attitude towards both elephants and conservation activities in the area. In 2012, a survey in Chiawa found that whilst 70% respondents reported planting maize, only half of them (37%) reported harvesting any, due to human-wildlife conflict and unfavourable weather conditions1.

The human-elephant conflict (HEC) in Chiawa poses a threat to elephant populations in the short term, as there is intense pressure on the Zambian wildlife authority to respond to HEC through ‘problem animal control’, as this is often seen as the only solution to conflict and field protection, therefore elephants may be killed in order to appease tension between communities and wildlife authorities. The HEC in Chiawa also poses a long-term threat to elephants in the GMA and National Park as these animals are seen as aggressive and evil, and therefore efforts to conserve them are greeted with resentment.

Figure 1: Property damage by elephants done to a villager’s shelter that he uses during the wet season to guard his fields (Mugarameno village, Chiawa Game Management Area).

1 White, Sarah C. and Jha, Sherya (2013) The Politics of Wellbeing, Conservation and Development in Chiawa, Zambia University of Bath

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The introduction of HEC Village Scout patrols, which began in January 2014 thanks to IEF funding, proved incredibly successful within the communities of the Chiawa GMA, in both improving harvests (record levels of harvest according to CLZ’s impact assessment in October 20142) and also improved levels of support for wildlife conservation. The protection offered to fields through this project enables farmers an option to live alongside wildlife through conflict mitigation, rather than seeing problem animal control as the only option to curb HEC.

Summary of goals and objectives

In January 2015, the IEF provided $5000 to CLZ in order to reduce human-wildlife conflict in the Chiawa GMA through the provision of Village Scout support to HEC affected communities throughout the peak conflict season. Through a constant presence during peak season (January-April) and ongoing support for the rest of the year (May-December), CLZ looks to improve the communities’ livelihoods and food security in the area. Tensions between wildlife and communities lead to negative attitudes towards wildlife, conservation, and in extreme cases, even ‘revenge killing’ of elephants and wildlife causing damage to property. By providing a ZAWA/CLZ Human-Elephant Conflict team to respond to property and crop raids, CLZ hope to reduce conflict and improve attitudes towards elephants and conservation in the GMA.

CLZ also noticed in 2014 that in some cases, the Village Scouts were relying on fireworks and firing ammunition in the air as a first option in defending fields. Therefore in 2015, CLZ applied for support to provide extra ‘elephant behavior training’ to the Village Scout unit, to improve their ability to interpret the behavior of the animals they encounter at close quarters. The goal of this activity is also to pass on the acquired knowledge to farmers in the field, to improve their ability to read situations and improve their own safety, without resorting to confrontational (and ineffective and often dangerous) methods such as throwing rocks. The scouts will also be trained in methods which farmers can adopt themselves, and which CLZ’s HWC programme promotes, such as the use of alternative crops, chilli fences and chilli burning blocks.

2 Human-Wildlife Conflict interventions Impact Assessment, Chiawa, October 2014

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Table 1: Updated timeline of objectives achieved (January-June 2015) and outstanding (June-December 2015).

Village Scout Program Month Jan Feb Mar April May June July Aug Oct Nov Dec Workshop for VS on HWC mitigation

X

VS wildlife protection patrols in LZNP and Chiawa GMA

6 9 10 11 9 9 X X X X X

ZAWA wildlife protection patrols in LZNP and Chiawa GMA

14 11 12 9 12 10 X X X X X

CLZ HWC coordinator collecting data on conflict

√ √ √ √ √ √ X X X X X

3 x VS HWC patrols/month in Chiawa GMA

√ √ √ √

1 x VS patrol/month in Chiawa GMA

√ X* X X X X X

* Note: While there was no VS patrol done in the Chiawa GMA in June, there was one 9-day ZAWA patrol in this area which CLZ supported. VS patrols were done in the park and in the Eastern GMA in June.

Changes in goals

The original goals for the project remain the same. As the farming season comes to a close and farmers have harvested their crops, the HWC patrols will continue to operate in the Western GMA behind the communities to provide support to communities for human wildlife conflict, and also monitor for any signs of illegal activity.

The elephant behaviour training will be carried out in October or November, as this is a time of year when there are safari guides available to carry out the training, and the peak HWC season is over, so the Village Scouts will be available. We also intend to bring in more scouts than originally quoted, as the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) have recruited extra scouts in the area who would benefit from the training. Lastly October or November is also only a couple months before the HWC will peak again and by holding the training closer to this time it is our hope the lessons learnt will not be forgotten.

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Figure 2: Map showing all VS and ZAWA patrols in LZNP and surrounding GMAs between January and June 2015.

Figure 3: Map showing all VS patrols in the Chiawa GMA between January and June 2015.

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Figure 4: Map showing all VS patrols in LZNP and surrounding GMAs between January and June 2015.

Figure 5: Map showing all VS patrols in the western GMA between January and June 2015.

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Summary of progress

The HWC scouts were deployed full-time from 8th January _ April 30th. During this time, scouts from the Zambian Wildlife Authority were deployed in the communities to provide manpower whilst the Village Scouts were unavailable. See Annex 1 for details of the ZAWA and Village Scout Roster, January-July 2015

Figure 5 below shows the patrol information for each month Jan-April 2015 of scout teams in the village.

Table 2: Summary of patrols and man-days for VS scouts on HWC patrols and for ZAWA scouts (in grey) from January to June 2015. Note that the ZAWA patrols were not specific HWC patrols, yet they were placed in the Western GMW section where HWC incidents are frequent.

January February March

No. of Men 4 5 6 5 6 6 4 4 5 4 3 6 4 4 3 5

Patrol days 7 10 5 10 4 6 10 10 10 7 9 10 8 3 1 10

Man-days 28 50 30 50 24 36 40 40 50 28 27 60 32 12 3 50

Total 182 221 157

April May June

No. of Men 5 4 4 4 3 5 4 3 4 4 4 4 4

Patrol days 10 10 10 8 8 10 2 2 10 10 1 9 9

Man-days 50 40 40 32 24 50 8 6 40 40 4 36 36

Total 236 134 36

The total number of CLZ Village Scout man-days for HWC patrols January – April 2015 was 719 and including ZAWA patrols which CLZ also support was 796. During this time, the scouts were camped at Chiawa Cultural Village in Mugurameno Village, Chiawa, and for some of this time, the team were split, with some officers stationed at Chiawa Village, Chiawa. From this base, the scouts slept during the day and at dusk started their patrols until dawn. Scouts would cover between 1km and 10km per night, moving between 7 villages in the Western Chiawa GMA. The total number of Village Scout patrol man-days in the Western Chiawa GMA for May and June was 14 and including ZAWA patrols which CLZ also support was 170.

Coordination

Each scout team was divided – two officers were assigned to the Chiawa Village Area and four were assigned to the Mugurameno area. CLZ Human-wildlife conflict coordinator

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Stephen Kalio was placed as the contact point for scouts when they were deployed to the community. Upon deployment, the scouts reported to Mr Kalio, whereupon they were issued with fireworks provided by CLZ and ammunition provided by ZAWA. The Human-Wildlife Conflict Committee of the area, formed of representatives from the Chiawa Community Resource Board, Stephen Kalio and members of the community, along with the Zambian Wildlife Authority Senior Area Warden, were responsible for the scouts’ programme once they were in the village. The programme was based on both fast response to incidents, and providing support to all the villages through nightly rotation. Between January and 28 June 2015, over 3,000 fireworks were distributed to Village Scouts for use in the community.

Transport

With funding from AWF Buffalo bikes (see Figure 6) were acquired at the beginning of the season for use by VS and ZAWA HWC patrol teams. These allowed scouts to cover greater distances in the GMAs where HWC-affected communities are spread out along the Zambezi river, and therefore allowing scouts to respond quicker to potential HEC-incidents.

Illegal activity

Illegal activities such as gunshots, drying racks, poacher’s camps, snares found in the LZNP and in the surrounding GMAs are recorded by each VS and ZAWA patrol team. This allows ZAWA and CLZ to build up a database of illegal activities, which in turn provides valuable insight into areas where illegal activities are concentrated.

Table 3: Incidents of illegal activities in the park and GMAs encountered by VS and ZAWA patrol teams January-June 2015 (number of incidents provided for the GMA|Park).

January February March April May June TOTAL

Gunshots 2|2 1|1 0|1 3|0 3|0 0|0 9|3

Foot prints 1|0 1|0 2|0 1|0 1|0 0|0 5|0

Dyring racks 0|0 0|0 0|0 0|1 0|0 0|0 0|1

Poacher's camp 0|0 0|0 0|0 0|1 0|0 0|0 0|1

Snares 0|0 0|0 11|0 0|3 0|0 0|0 11|3

Contact 2|1 1|0 0|0 1|0 2|0 0|0 5|1

Illegal fire 0|0 0|0 0|0 0|0 0|0 0|0 0|0

Poached elephants 3|0 1|0 3|0 1|3 2|1 0|0 10|4

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Conservation outcomes

When the farming season has finished (farmers in Chiawa are currently growing vegetables in gardens rather than fields), we will be able to provide figures on the total number of HWC incidents, which the scouts responded to in our final report. Stephen Kalio, our human-wildlife conflict coordinator, will also be carrying out interviews with farmers in the area on their experience of the HEC patrols and the effect on their attitudes towards elephants.

Major findings and accomplishments to date

Increased Harvests

The season for farming in fields set back from the river, where HWC is most rife, finishes around April. Farmers are currently drying their maize before moving it for storage throughout the dry season, and storing them in ‘felumbus’, elephant-proof granary stores supported by CLZ. This farming season has been affected by adverse rainfall patterns – the rainy season began late (mid-December), and was at very low levels before a long interim in February, with rain returning in March once many fields had been harvested. Once all the maize has been dried and placed in bags, we will be able to provide more comprehensive figures on weight of harvest. We intend to implement a questionnaire for farmers in the area, as in 2014, to provide a comprehensive picture for the final report.

Relationships with CLZ and ZAWA

Of the sample of community members interviewed (pending full interviews later this year), this project has dramatically improved relationships between the community, CLZ and ZAWA. Community members recently called CLZ staff to a meeting in order to thank them for the support offered to them during the high conflict season. Whilst the number of elephant conflicts remains high, providing armed support has improved the communities’ safety and chances of harvest, whilst also their willingness to accept the risks associated with living alongside elephants.

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Video Clip

A short video has been submitted to the IEF with this report

Summary Translation of IEF video Mr Panja, a local resident from Chijata Village in the Chiawa Game Management Area, tells his story of how an elephant damaged his home when the elephant tried to reach the mealie meal that was stored in his house. In the video, two of Conservation Lower Zambezi’s Village Scouts visit Mr Panja to follow up on the latter’s report of the incident. The interview is undertaken by Village Scout John Mumba in the local language Gova. On arrival, Mr Panja shows John Mumba his home which has been damaged by an elephant the night before. Mr Panja explains that he was away from home at the fishing village when the elephant arrived, but his wife was at home sleeping. The elephant came to the house and damaged the house to get to a bucket of mealie meal which was left in the house – all of which the elephant consumed before moving on. John Mumba then asks MR Panja where his wife is, to which Panja replies that he does not know but as he can see everything in the house is scattered around because of the elephant. John Mumba thanks Panja for his time before leaving.

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Images of the project January – June 2015

Please see images below. These images (Figures 1, 6-9) are attached separately to this report

Figure 6: Village- and ZAWA scouts on patrol using buffalo bikes which help them get around in the wet season when vehicle access is limited as well as increasing their response times to HEC incidents.

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Figure 7: A Village Scout and ZAWA team on patrol in the Chiawa GMA.

Figure 8: A typical scene of the damage done by crop-raiding elephants. This villager will have lost a substantial amount of his crop in a single night (Chiawa GMA).

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Figure 9: One of the elephants encountered close to a village in the Chiawa GMA.