Human-Elephant Co-existence

Led by the Simoonga-Sinde Core Group

In Simoonga and Sinde, elephants didn’t just share the land with farmers, they raided it. Before BLC introduced the Demonstration Farm Project for Human-Elephant Coexistence, most of the people who are now part of this project had given up farming altogether because of crop raids. There was little income to replace it, and the area saw a rise in charcoal production, illegal logging and deforestation as people searched for another way to get by.

A plan made by the community itself

Starting in 2022, BLC’s ABCD method brought the community together: a baseline survey, then a multitude of biweekly meetings, until the core group members had a plan of their own for the region’s development. That plan combined a Sustainable Organic Agriculture Initiative with community-based conflict mitigation, a demonstration farm to teach low-cost, sustainable techniques for food and income, alongside a Nature-Based Beekeeping Initiative built on a simple fact: elephants don’t like bees. Beehive fences installed around the demo farm keep the elephants out while adding honey production to the mix.

What changed on the ground

Through the Demonstration Farm, people who had no work were able to earn an income again. The project drew in a second partner, Elephant Connection, an NGO that supports community farmers directly. Shortly after the Elephant Deterring Fence went up, elephants did approach the site, and were unable to get into the garden.

Gilbert, the youngest member of the Core Group, gained his own independence through the project: an Earth Bag House built on the farming site gave him shelter and an income of his own. And the Core Group itself grew into something more permanent, registering formally as a Cooperative, a step that opens doors like eligibility for Zambia’s CDF fund, which supports communal cooperatives in their development.

Still protecting both sides of the story

It’s hard to single out one person this project changed, because it changed nearly everyone in it: farmers who can grow food again, a young man with a house and an income, a Core Group with legal standing it didn’t have before. The elephants, meanwhile, keep roaming, just on the other side of a fence they don’t much like.