Bukorwe Ridge Elephant Trench

All too often research projects gather dust on shelves once completed but in Uganda the findings of one such project has now produced very practical action. Uganda Conservation Foundation (UCF) has taken the earlier Elephants, Crops and People (ECP) research programme into elephant, human interaction and turned it into a practical project in conjunction with Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and on the initiative of the local communities. The communities hand dug a 2m x 2m trench, with fencing in the valleys, along a 20km stretch of ridge which it is hoped will keep elephants and other non-jumping animals from raiding community crops and destroy.

On the eastern border of the Ishasha Sector of Queen Elizabeth Protected Area (QEPA) there is a hard edge of subsistence farming communities. Competition for land and resources is growing as community densities increase. The sector hosts the largest elephant population in Uganda and this is growing due to increased and successful security by UWA. The elephants are moving back into and using some areas more, which in itself could cause an immediate increase in crop raiding, and collapse of community relations followed by a subsequent vastly increasing rate at which elephants and other wildlife are killed in retaliation and also, by pure resurgence of poaching pressure. Reducing these incidents can make the difference between survival and poverty. In situ wildlife, especially elephants, will only have a hope of survival to the benefit of the worlds future generations if the people have an economic benefit from its existence; aesthetic values are simply not enough.