African Elephant

Villagers making piri piri bombs - a mixture of oil, used car grease, fresh elephant dung and crushed chilis (piri piri). This mixture repels elephants from their crops.
© Lyn TRELOAR / WWF

Highlights of WWF's achievements in African elephant conservation include:

• More than 420 people in 18 range states were trained in elephant management issues such as law enforcement and human elephant conflict mitigation.
• Human elephant conflict was monitored and mitigation methods were developed and tested around several sites in Africa.WWF supported the training and equipping of villagers and local wildlife authority staff.
• The MIKE Program was implemented across six sites in central Africa, building capacity of wildlife authorities to monitor and census elephants and providing baseline data on elephant populations where previously no accurate records existed.
• WWF support helped increase anti-poaching efforts of 10 protected areas through training and the provision of equipment and supplies.
• WWF provided financial and technical support for the development of sub-regional management strategies for central and southern Africa, and for national strategies in northern Mozambique and Kenya.
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  Establishment of Quirimbas National Park helps protect one of the richest areas of coral reef in the world as well as many other important features, including mangroves, coastal forest and woodland, turtles, dugongs and elephants.
  © Lyn TRELOAR / WWF

  The CITES Secretariat and TRAFFIC provided training for law enforcement officials in Ethiopia to improve wildlife trade monitoring and control. This was followed by a significant crack down on illegal domestic ivory markets and a revision of wildlife legislation.
• Establishment of management systems in Quirimbas, a national park in Mozambique, including the training of 30 park guards.
• Around Quirimbas in Mozambique, human-elephant mitigation efforts have reduced elephant crop damage by 68%.
• Putting to action the Elephant Trade Information System in Tanzania.
• Developed monitoring methodologies for the illegal killing of elephants in 7 protected area sites (6 in Central Africa, 1 in East Africa).