Community Engagement
Our ultimate goal is to ‘Bersatu Hati’ or to create a society that is willing and capable to protect and coexist with elephants and other wildlife. Hence, community engagement in solving human-wildlife conflict is crucial to achieve this goal.
Our strategy plan includes these action steps:
Capacity building
Create awareness about elephant behavior
Facilitate effective mitigation
Capacity building
In November 2021, we enrolled 18 individuals from three villages as Community Honorary Wildlife Warden (CHWW). They are given the opportunities and power to implement the wildlife conservation laws and monitor and manage elephant issues on the ground in their respective villages (Kg. Batu Puteh, Kg. Sukau, Kg. Bilit).
Over the past few years, elephants have ventured outside the protected areas more frequently, primarily due to the feeding opportunity. As a result, regular interactions between humans and elephants are inevitable. Hence, having a wildlife warden in each village is crucial to mitigate human-elephant conflict.
In collaboration with Sabah Wildlife Department, we conducted training and capacity building to equip the wardens with the necessary skills as a CHWW. Let us wish all the best to this team!
Create awareness about elephant behavior
Human-elephant conflicts arise when people feel threatened by the presence of elephants or when the elephants destroy crops. To avoid any incidence during a conflict situation, the local community must be equipped with information on elephant behavior. For example, the local community must be able to differentiate the gender of the elephants and know how to react when they encounter elephants.
We conduct regular seminars and workshops to share our experience with the local community and learn from their local knowledge on conflict-mitigation techniques.
We believe that regular communication and sharing sessions will build the confidence of people to co-exist with elephants.
We also made the information accessible. Click the button below to download.
Facilitate effective mitigation
The oil palm landscape provides vital connectivity for elephant movement.
Therefore, finding a landscape solution for wildlife coexistence and biodiversity conservation is essential. Now that we have a better understanding of elephant ecology and behavior in the oil palm landscape, we collaborate with multiple oil palm industry players (companies, small growers, and smallholders) to:
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Develop LIFE Insurance
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Revise guidelines on better management practices for the mitigation and management of human-elephant conflict in and around oil palm plantations
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Develop Wildlife-Friendly Landscape Certification Program