completed · Education

Community stewardship for human elephant co-existence at Bardia National Park.

This project continues the human-elephant conflict (HEC) mitigation work initiated in Bardia National Park, Nepal under USFWS awards F14AP00259 and F15AP00342. The overall goal of the project is to development community stewardship for human-elephant coexistence (HECx) by diversifying livelihood opportunities, strengthening use of HEC mitigation tools such as electric fences and street lights, establishing a value chain approach for unpalatable cash crops, and launching community outreach programs in the eastern sector of the park to increase the tolerance of local communities for wild elephants. Specific project activities include: 1) tourism homestay workshop, training, and promotion in HEC-prone areas; 2) electric fencing and street light provisioning; 3) procurement and training of elephant immobilization equipment to wildlife technicians and mobility support to HEC rapid response teams; 4) scoping study of fire wood species and production of seedlings and plantations; 5) provision of seed money for two agricultural cooperatives in unpalatable crops and business training for farmers; 6) agricultural extension for unpalatable essential oil crops such as mentha, chamomile, and lemongrass; 7) conservation education classes at community schools; and 8) workshop with journalists to broadcast elephant conservation stories. This project contributes to the conservation of wild Asian elephants by supporting and educating local communities sharing the landscape with wild elephants in the Terai region of Nepal. This award is provisionally approved for two phases or years funding, with each phase or years funding dependent upon performance and financial management of the previous phase or years, meeting technical and financial reporting requirements, and availability of ASECF funds.