EfA Festive Fundraiser 2016

Help us celebrate this holiday season by contributing to our Festive Fundraiser and assist us in reaching our fundraising target of £10,000 to continue our vital work.

Elephants for Africa is a registered charity in England, Wales and a registered NGO in Botswana. We are primarily concerned with the conservation of elephants in their natural ecosystems. Partnering with local communities in Botswana to empower them to live alongside wildlife and work towards human-elephant coexistence. Our education program also involves hands-on interactive learning for Environmental Clubs of two local primary schools.

We wanted to share with you this holiday season the experiences gained by local school pupils and farmers from two organised trips by the Elephants for Africa Team into the Makgadikgadi National Park recorded by our Project Manager, Dr Jess Isden, to show how your support is having a crucial impact on the ground.

‘Bulldozers or dozing bulls? Seeing wild elephants as individuals, not just destroyers’

For communities living in close proximity to protected areas, wild animals often symbolise reduced personal safety, conflict for resources and damage to property. These are some of the realities and perceptions that EfA faces when we are working with local communities on conservation issues.

So, what can be done to ensure that community members have both a healthy respect for their wildlife and the dangers they pose, but also benefit from them in tangible ways that ensure their future conservation and sustainable use? Elephants for Africa’s Community Coexistence Project, funded by the Good Planet Foundation, is aiming to achieve this through a range of educational activities, workshops and experiences targeted at those who feel most disengaged.

School pupil observing an elephant in the National Park

One of the most rewarding activities Elephants for Africa runs are trips into the National Park for local community members. For many, these trips offer a rare opportunity to view wildlife in a non-conflict situation.

Our first trip focused on taking some of the teachers and pupils from the local primary school on a game drive into the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park.

The first time we spotted an elephant it happened to be browsing next to the Elephants for Africa research camp, outside one of our tents. After being asked whether we were too scared to go to bed at night as would they not eat our tents and us, we explained that by giving them the respect they deserve by staying in our tents and remaining quiet, the elephants were likewise very respectful and simply ignored us making us feel completely safe.

The next day, we swapped our school pupils for members of the farming community whom EfA work alongside. One member on this trip, Mma Malaita, has lived in the Khumaga region all her life. She provides for her home by tending the fields and crops, while her husband looks after a small number of cattle and goats. With her fields situated only a few kilometres from the banks of the Boteti River, she has only ever witnessed elephants marching through the community lands threatening to destroy months of her hard work and has never seen them beyond the boundary fences of the National Park so this was an important experience for her.

Mma Malaita sat in the front row of the game view vehicle, with the pair of binoculars we had provided her with, which she quickly made use of, as once in the park we found a group of elephants at the river bed.

The local farmers enjoying the wildlife

Youngsters were playfully splashing in the water while others engaged in mud throwing and messily drinking from their trunks. These boys were just having a lazy relax at the river, appearing to enjoy the company of their fellows. One farmer exclaimed at how friendly they were towards each other, noting that they had trunks wrapped over each other’s backs and tusks were being gently locked into half-hearted tussles. No one could stifle a laugh when one young bull accidently slid down the muddy bank on his hind knees. The general discussions revolved around how much like a family these animals behaved (even though we weren’t watching a familial group).

Although such encounters will not remove the fear and anxiety that farmers feel when elephants are on their side of the boundary, providing them with these encounters that show other sides of their behaviour help them to rationalise and identify with them. They couldn’t wait to get home and share their experiences of the day with their families, and for once they would be able to talk about elephants in a positive and non-conflict manner, in such stark contrast to the norm.

These trips provide a safe and fun way in which community members can view the wildlife that they reside alongside, and we see that as key to ensuring long-term coexistence between them. Help us raise the funds to ensure that we can continue providing these educational trips, as well as running other mitigation measures to ensure safety and prosperity for people and wildlife alike.

This year Botswana celebrated 50 years of independence; continuation of our work is vital in ensuring that African elephants are still alive and flourishing in Botswana in another 50 years. So, we are gearing up to expand our Education Programme even further, recruiting a local Education Officer to deliver much needed and requested workshops to talk about issues of safety and sustainability that come with living around the national park.

So here is how your donation can help make this happen:

• £20 – A pair of child-friendly binoculars
• £50 – Teacher trip to the National Park
• £100 – 1 environmental club member EleFun weekend to the national park
• £200 – Delivery of a ‘Living with Wildlife’ workshop to the community

Please visit our fundraising page at BT Donate

https://mydonate.bt.com/events/festivefundraiser2016

Also, before you stampede off to do your Christmas shopping, consider shopping online instead. Not only could it make Christmas shopping easier but you could be raising money for Elephants for Africa at no extra cost to you. Simply register at www.easyfundraising.org.uk, select Elephants for Africa as your chosen charity and every time you make a purchase at one of the thousands of online retailers we receive a donation.

For Christmas gift ideas please visit the Elephants for Africa website at www.elephantsforafrica.org to view our merchandise including the great stocking filler Elephant Hand Puppet, our official 2017 Calendar and our beautiful selection of Christmas Cards and Books.

 We wish to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of Elephants for Africa and to wish you a very Merry Festive Season and a Happy New Year.