Latest ECF Grants Powering Elephant Protection in Africa

We’re excited to announce four newly awarded grants from the Elephant Crisis Fund. In Kenya, an ECF-funded beehive fence trial on farms near Mt. Elgon Forest Reserve has been transformative, reducing elephant crop raids while generating alternative income from honey production. No crop-raiding has been recorded on fenced farms, while neighbouring fields continued to experience raids.

A new ECF grant to the Mount Elgon Elephant Project is funding the development of a beekeeping and coexistence hub for this community – with a dedicated honey processing unit. This will allow the beehive fences project to expand to other farms and for the project to become self-sustaining.

We’re also funding our partner Noé in Conkouati-Douli National Park in the Republic of Congo, which has been hard hit by the loss of US federal funding. Two new grants are supporting core operational and law enforcement costs in Conkouati, and the expansion of an exciting project to adapt and pilot low cost electric fences to keep elephants away from crop fields, that have already worked well for our partner Space for Giants in Gabon.

Lastly, we’re funding investigations to address the illegal wildlife trade in Southern Africa. In total we’ve awarded US$290,000 this month, with our last granting round planned for early December.