The Project
Volunteer Work with Desert Elephants in Namibia

This project is part of a long-term initiative to find solutions to the ever-growing problem of facilitating the peaceful co-habitation between the subsistence farmers and the desert adapted elephants through:

• research
• education
• development

This project’s emphasis is on the building of protective structures around communal water points, creation of additional water points for elephants, assisting with, and teaching the farmers how they can financially benefit from, tourism in the area, researching elephant movements, distribution and compiling identikits on herds and individuals.

Why is the project there?

The project was launched in December 2001, as a result of the escalation in competition for natural resources between the desert-dwelling elephants and human inhabitants of the northern Erongo and Kunene regions.

Through concerted efforts by the ministry of environment and tourism (met), IRDNC, Save the Rhino Trust and other NGO’s over the past 20 years, the population of desert-dwelling elephants in the region has grown from as low as 52 members, to a current population of over 600 elephants.

As a result, elephants have expanded their range to the south and east into territories they have not occupied for many years. Subsistence farmers husbanding mainly cattle, goats and sheep traditionally occupy these areas. This has caused an escalation of the competition for water and grazing and, inevitably, has resulted in conflict between the farmers and the elephants.

Depletion of the natural water table with increasing human use, has led to less available surface water for consumption. Therefore, man-made water points located close to the riverbeds have become the target for elephants in their quest for fresh water.

In their search for the source of such points, elephants cause extensive damage to windmills, dams, reservoirs, hand-pumps and wells. As the farmers’ homesteads are normally located close to the water source, secondary damage is also caused and the lives of humans and livestock are threatened.

With the escalation of tourism as an increasing potential earner of revenue for these communities, the value of elephants and other wildlife in communal areas has increased dramatically.

The project believes that through assisting these communities by constructing protective structures around water points, educating community members about elephant behaviour, creating alternative drinking points for the elephants and promoting tourism in the affected areas, they could assist in alleviating the current pressure facing communal farmers. In turn, this will help to promote the future of the desert-dwelling elephant, in harmony with the continuous positive development of the conservancies and their ideals.