{"id":29,"date":"2016-12-20T00:11:08","date_gmt":"2016-12-19T23:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bteh.org\/th\/?page_id=29"},"modified":"2022-11-23T07:24:47","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T06:24:47","slug":"conservation-leadership-programme","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/bteh.org\/th\/project\/conservation-leadership-programme\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"

The borderland between Thailand and Myanmar harbours one of the largest remaining populations of the Asian elephant: Elephas maximus.<\/p>

In 1965, Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary was established in this area, the very first wildlife reserve of Thailand. Elephants found a safe haven here until, about half a century ago, human activities began to intrude on their habitat. Illegal logging, forest fires and expanding farms increasingly thwart elephants\u2019 efforts to find food, water and space, causing them to look for it in human habitat. Often, the ensuing  conflicts end in violence, for people and animals both. Usually farmers use electrified fences and firecrackers to deter elephants from their fields and water sources, but these fences are expensive and often ineffective. Without intervention, this explosive situation will continue. Together with local communities, we scout new paths to enable a harmonious coexistence between people and elephants.<\/p>

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Nature conservation bottom up<\/strong><\/h4>

Since 2012, Bring The Elephant Home has worked in Chong Sadao, Kanchanaburi, located at the southern part of Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary. Together with villagers, we restore forests and build small dams to provide elephants with food and water, thus lessening the need for them to wander out of the protected area. We fund villagers to do this work, and together we develop knowledge about ecological restoration.<\/p>

In 2015, Bring The Elephant Home received a grant from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF)* in the context of the Conservation Leadership Program. This unique training trajectory enabled us to continue and develop our work in Salakpra. A team, consisting of community leaders and reserve employees now researches innovative and nonviolent methods to mitigate human-elephant conflict, and implements them. The team designed a communal monitoring plan; farmers grow crops that elephants don\u2019t eat, and there are experiments with beehive fences<\/a>.<\/p>

In 2017, we were able to expand the Conservation Leadership Program to our Bee The Change<\/a> project in Chanthaburi. Particularly fruitful were the knowledge exchange trips we organised to Phuluang Wildlife Sanctuary and Kaeng Krachan National Park.<\/p>

In 2018, we co-hosted with the IUCN a Workshop on Conflict Mitigation and the Process of Sustainable Coexistence between Human and Elephants in Chanthaburi. There, we discussed short and long-term solutions to lessen Human-Elephant Conflict with community leaders, national park officials, social movements, organizations, and charities.
During this workshop, groups of leaders whose task is to lessen Human-Elephant Conflicts in the area were created, and a set of guidelines and primary standards to lower these conflicts was established. Among these guidelines are found various short and long-term strategies such as:<\/p>