completed · Education

Community-based human-elephant conflict management in the Chitwan-Parsa complex, Nepal

The purpose of this project is to conduct capacity building programs within local communities in the Chitwan-Parsa protected area complex of the Terai Landscape, Nepal. Project activities will include: 1) implement a community-based elephant monitoring system, which will include an inception workshop, formation and training of rapid response teams in four buffer zone user groups, data collection and management of the data in a database maintained at NTNCs Biodiversity Conservation Center at Chitwan National Park; 2) establish a community-based early warning system using elephant data collected by the rapid response teams which will be disseminated to communities via loudspeakers, a mobile phone/group SMS alert, and an FM-radio program; 3) conduct awareness campaigns, which will include local-language poster and brochure development and distribution, a short documentary film on human-elephant co-existence, awareness camps in communities with high risks of HEC, school elephant conservation education programs, and weekly FM-radio elephant conservation programs; 4) increase tolerance of local residents for elephants by the creation of an emergency relief fund to provide financial relief to victims of death, injury, property, crop, or livestock loss caused by wild elephants, and by the provision of a crop insurance scheme. This project, to be implemented jointly by NTNC and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation along with the local buffer zone management committees, will benefit both local communities as well as wild elephants by informing locals of elephant movement, status, and causes of conflict, encouraging communities to take responsibility for HEC-mitigation measures and reduce animosity towards wild elephants by providing emergency relief funds in the event of crop loss and property damage.