New effort to promote human-elephant coexistence in Equatorial Guinea

A new project to manage conflict between elephants and people in an area of Equatorial Guinea will get underway this year after Bristol Zoological Society successfully won funding.

‘Bee fences’, smelly ‘elephant repellent’, motion-sensor lights and bell alarms are a few of the humane and environmentally-friendly options to be trialled by conservationists from Bristol Zoological Society and UWE Bristol later this year.

The project comes following years of crop-raiding by forest elephants, which has a devastating impact on the livelihoods of communities along the border of Equatorial Guinea’s Monte Alén National Park.

Local people have asked for help with the problem as there is no coherent effort or plan in place to mitigate the issue. As a result, Bristol Zoological Society was approached for help by INDEFOR-AP, the government agency responsible for protected area management in the country, and applied for funding to take on the project.

Dr Grainne McCabe, Head of Field Conservation and Science at Bristol Zoological Society, said: “Monte Alén National Park is an important area for forest elephants but very little is known about the elephants in this region. Little data has been gathered on their population and distribution in almost 10 years.

“Their area is very forested, with little differentiation or boundaries between the protected areas and the non-protected areas, which means elephants roam between these areas easily and often.

“They often go into villages and eat the crops growing in gardens and on smallholdings. This can be devastating to farmers and landowners.

“Farmers have reported that crop raiding takes place on a daily basis throughout the year, particularly when crops were ready to harvest, with various efforts to keep the elephants away having failed.

“It often happens at night and it gets dark very early in Equatorial Guinea which means people, including children, are often still around. It can be very dangerous because elephants can be very quiet when moving through the area and villagers could easily happen upon them by accident. If spooked, elephants can charge and severely injure people or do damage to property.

“People are understandably scared. There are negative feelings towards the elephants, which sometimes even results in the killing of those elephants deemed ‘problem individuals’. Villagers, and the national park authority, have asked for help with this issue and so we have been invited to try and help mitigate the problem.”

Since 2018, at least four adult elephants, including a pregnant female, have been killed by government officials as a response to increasing pressure from village leaders. Bristol Zoological Society’s field team discovered skeletal remains of a fifth individual as recently as November 2020.

The successful funding from Save the Elephants comes just weeks after African forest elephants were officially identified as a separate species from African savanna elephants, by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). African forest elephants have recently been categorised as Critically Endangered, meaning they are at extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future.

Dr McCabe added: “There is a huge need to intervene to reverse the economic impact that these frequent raids are having on impoverished communities. This is particularly critical now, as the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased food prices and food shortages, leading to food insecurity and increased need to hunt to acquire food.

“We need to find a solution which enables the government to stop retaliatory killing of elephants, and improves perceptions of elephants among local communities. It’s important that we come up with the best solution for people and wildlife to coexist safely.

“We have a good relationship with many of the local communities, which is critical for the project because, in order to ask the villagers and farmers to help us protect these elephants, we have to really understand the situation they have been living with for many years.”

Conservationists from Bristol Zoological Society have already spoken with 90 farmers living near the national park, to better understand the situation and the impact on them.

Later this year, the team will implement a pilot project with a number of volunteer farms, to test a range of humane methods of keeping elephants away from crops.

In East Africa the creation of ‘bee fences’ has already proved successful, whereby a series of beehives are connected by wire. This method has proven effective as elephants are known to be scared of bees which can fly up their trunks and sting them.

As beekeeping is not a widely-practised custom in this region of Central Africa, the team will also trial the use of a natural, fermented mixture of smelly ‘elephant repellent’ hung up around villages to keep elephants at bay, and using motion sensor lights and bell alarms and night guards.

Additionally, camera trap monitoring and farmer reports will be used to evaluate actual animal encounters in each village or farm, and measure the effectiveness of these methods, which is key to Bristol Zoological Society’s strategy of evidence-based conservation.

The elephant project will build upon existing work being done by conservationists from Bristol Zoological Society and the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) who have been working collaboratively in the area around Monte Alén National Park since 2018, to protect western lowland gorillas and their habitat, and have established a research base at the National Park.

To find out more, visit https://bristolzoo.org.uk/save-wildlife/conservation-and-research/western-lowland-gorilla-project.

Bristol Zoological Society is a conservation and education charity which owns and runs Bristol Zoo Gardens and Wild Place Project. It relies on the generous support of the public not only to fund its important work at both zoos, but also its conservation projects across the world and its vital education and community outreach programme.

In March last year, the Society launched the BZS Appeal to ensure the future of its work ‘saving wildlife together’, following the temporary closure of both its sites in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As school groups can now be welcomed back, donations from the appeal fund will support the Education Bursary Fund to ensure schools and youth groups in disadvantaged areas are able to benefit from visiting Bristol Zoo Gardens and Wild Place Project.

To find out more, or to make a donation, visit www.bristolzoo.org.uk/bzsappeal.