Protecting Elephant Corridors

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Our team has been busy with innovative and ground-breaking work to identify, demarcate, and protect elephant movement pathways! Here are a couple photos from last week–Land Overseers from each village in the Eastern Okavango Panhandle worked closely with Dr. Anna Catherine Songhurst and leaders of the Seronga Sub Land Board to verify elephant corridor locations… Read more »

Watch Our Film! Pathways to Coexistence

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  In July 2015, a short documentary film, “The Ecoexist Project: Pathways to Coexistence,” premiered at the World’s View Conference Centre in the Mokolodi Game Reserve in Gaborone. The film gives a good overview of the Ecoexist Project and aims to be used as an educational tool to inform a variety of stakeholders in Botswana and… Read more »

A Cultural Fair Celebrating People and Elephants

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Hundreds of villagers, artists, performers, government leaders, tourists, and special guests gathered in the Village of Xakao in July this year for the first-ever Cultural Fair of the Eastern Okavango Panhandle. The Ecoexist Project, a non-profit organization working to reduce human-elephant conflict in the region, hosted the event. The Ecoexist team, comprising Ecoexist Community Officers… Read more »

Building an Elephant Economy

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In our efforts to make life easier for people who share space with elephants, we are building an elephant economy in the Panhandle—one where people can gain tangible benefits, skills, and new opportunities from living in close quarters with the world’s largest free-roaming herd of elephants. We have lots of help from colleagues in the… Read more »

Conservation Agriculture–Innovating with Farmers

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We lead collaborative research to help farmers develop more productive, sustainable farming techniques, and more resilient cropping strategies. Recently, we organized and hosted several workshops in the region to bring farmers and technicians together to learn, discuss, and begin practicing planting techniques known as conservation agriculture. Instead of plowing and broadcasting seeds, farmers dig basins,… Read more »

Tracking Elephants

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In 2014, we collared 28 elephants and began tracking their movements throughout the Panhandle, both on east and west sides and in border areas. Using the data we already have on elephant pathways, we worked with USAID’s Southern African Regional Environment Programme (SAREP) and Botswana’s Tawana Land Board to help build what’s called a “Land… Read more »