With less than 500,000 individuals remaining in the wild, elephants are in trouble around the world. The illegal wildlife trade has decimated elephant populations across Africa as gentle giants are the primary target for poachers due to their ivory tusks. Meanwhile in Asia, elephants are facing severe habitat loss due to the expansion of agricultural land, climate change, development of linear infrastructure and urbanization. With habitats becoming highly fragmented, it is no surprise that human elephant conflict is on the rise. This is certainly concerning as elephants are ecosystem engineers and have a critical role to play in habitat managment. In fact, elephants alongside eight other keystone species, have a critical role to play in tackling the climate crisis.
On this episode, I speak to Sarah Conley from the International Elephant Foundation to talk about some very innovative projects they are supporting in both Africa and Asia to conserve elephants. This ranges from biofencing (ie. beehive fencing) to the use of early warning systems to help mitigate human elephant conflict. We also talk about the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on elephant conservation and the importance of community based conservation.
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