Overlapping Elephant Range
The rapid spread of people, infrastructure, and livestock into traditional elephant habitats across Africa is creating an immense and costly conservation challenge. As rural villages and cities expand outwards and skywards, the remaining pockets of elephant habitats are shrinking. Underfunded protected areas struggle from illegal timber harvesting, soil erosion, excessive water extraction, and a proliferation of invasive weed species that choke vital grazing areas. Meanwhile, rural communities living alongside elephants continue to face growing poverty and are increasingly excluded from global conservation discussions.
Far from being daunted by these challenges, the ECF has elevated investments into coexistence projects since 2020. We understand that proper land-use planning combined with communitybased conservation tools are central to creating long-term solutions. These strategies not only protect vital habitats for elephants but also support local livelihoods, transforming elephants into symbols of opportunity rather than threats.
The impact of these efforts is inspiring, particularly when communities begin to see elephants as allies in their economic future. For many of our ECF partner sites, elephants are becoming a revised symbol of employment, enterprise, food security, and hope for the next generation.
Tools for Coexistence – Education and Awareness
In 2024, we invested $1,642,000 to support 27 coexistence projects across all four African regions. This included collaborative efforts with partner Ecoexist to formally gazette elephant corridors around the Okavango Delta into law. Our HumanElephant Coexistence Toolbox, translated into English, French, Kiswahili, and Ndebele, has been distributed to every elephant range state.
To enhance accessibility, we launched an innovative WhatsApp Chat tool called “Wild Life Info” which is being piloted across Zimbabwe. Designed by ECF partner Wild Africa, this engaging AI-powered chatbot is helping thousands of farmers across Zimbabwe gain practical tools and knowledge for peacefully coexisting with elephants.
We paired this “in the hand” education support for rural farmers with a 16-page booklet for community leaders and government officials – “Ten Steps to Turn Human-Elephant Conflict into Coexistence” – which provides simple but targeted governance routes to tackle rising conflict without resorting to lethal solutions or selling ivory for income.
Save the Elephants’ expertise combined with the continental-wide network of partners and practitioners across Africa is a particular strength of the ECF
JG Collomb – CEO, Wildlife Conservation Network.
Water for Elephants
Amid the global roller coaster of 2024, we faced an unprecedented drought across Southern Africa that hit elephant habitat hard. As climate impacts increase, safeguarding water for both people and elephants has become critical. From Namibia’s Kunene highlands to Botswana’s Kalahari and up to Kenya’s Rift Valley, cries for water assistance have surged.
In Southern Kenya, we’ve enabled ECF partner SORALO to solarize and repair five vital, but damaged, boreholes essential for both elephants and pastoralists. Using methods from our Human-Elephant Coexistence Toolbox, several grantees have surrounded water tanks with sharp white rocks to limit unwanted elephant access, whilst also constructing chest-height, elephant-safe stone walls around solar powered boreholes to provide all animals with access to drinking water. These clever strategies mean communities and elephants can both access water year-round, proving that with the right tools, we can share resources even in the toughest conditions
Tragically, in Namibia, severe drought has led the government to reopen elephant cropping as a controversial way to relieve pressure on limited grazing and provide meat for struggling communities. While we can not support using elephants as meat for drought relief, we understand the intense pressures that both governments and communities living with elephants face when combined with climatic changes and we are deeply sympathetic to people struggling with food insecurity. Without practical and timely solutions to ensure water supplies and co-existence with elephants – like the ECF’s recent funding for Conserve Global to protect and upgrade seven water sites for elephants in the semi-arid Kunene Highlands – we may see more calls for elephant cropping in the future.
We are deeply grateful to you, our donors, for joining us on this journey which has taken us from the height of the poaching crisis to navigating this complex path towards a lasting solution for living in harmony with elephants. Your support is invaluable.
Since I grew up, this is the first time we, as the Mailua and Matapato community, have received an investment in conservation that truly and sustainability cater for the cost of providing water to Elephants and other wildlife when they really need it. This investment supports coexistence; it has a great future.
Senior Chief Ole Njaanka of Mailua Location in Matapato, Kunene Highlands, Namibia