What way out Human-Elephant conflicts in Uganda?

Mororto, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | These days, farmers in the villages of Kicoke, Bugana, and Nganzi in Buliisa sleep in a makeshift hut outside their gardens. The idea of crops of their crops being unable to pass another night rattles them. They have to stay awake to fight off the elephants from the National Park.

Serina Kamanyire, who previously lost her entire cassava garden to an elephant crop raid two years ago, says the elephant crop raids increase each time there is the semblance of drought.

Farmers in Kagadi last month demonstrated against the “marauding elephants”. John Vincent Bambona is one of those pushing that Uganda Wildlife Authority should remove its elephants.

“It has been seven years since UWA promised to put up an electric fence here. It has not,” he said. “The children will ask me for cassava, it is not there, they will ask for maize. It is not there; they will ask for bananas, they are not there because they were eaten by elephants from the park,” Bambona shouts in anger.

The elephants do not know that they are not supposed to cross the farmer’s gardens; the crops they are eating are part of their delicacies. Far away from Muhorro Town Council, farmers from Lobongia sub-county in Kabongo district have suffered several elephant crop raids. Christopher Lolem, the LCIII Chairperson of Lobongia said the elephants were behaving like thieves.

“Each year when the farmers are about to harvest the crops, the elephants come and destroy them. I am very sure they (the elephants) are having a meeting on how to come and attend. Yes, they are like human beings”

Lolem said jokingly. The elephants reportedly killed one identified as Denis Ngorok aged 23, a resident of Kawang Central Cell, and the injured Godfrey Okello, aged 23 years old and a resident of Akal Cell.

In mid-May residents of Dufile Sub-county woke up to scenes of parades of elephants destroying their cassava and maize gardens.

Armed with arrows and spears, the peasant farmers managed to chase the jumbos from the gardens but unfortunately, they had lost an entire planting season because there would be no harvests to carry home. Images of retreating elephants with blood oozing from their bodies were circulated.

There were conflicting reports about where the elephants could have come from. Some residents said the elephants had originated from South Sudan, and others said they were from the Murchison Falls National Park, Ajai Game Reserve, and therefore Uganda Wildlife Authority should be responsible.

These incidents manifest the growing wildlife-human conflicts, particularly human-elephant conflict. It is feared that the defensive and retaliatory killing may eventually drive these species to extinction.

The elephants roam outside the protected areas endangering the communities surrounding them. So wild animals compete for living space with people, their livestock, and crops. Hungry roaming animals like elephants can cause damage to homes and even destroy lives.

During food scarcity seasons, elephants tend to move in smaller and isolated families so that they can be less crowded at one time. If there is plenty of food, especially during the rainy season or visiting the plentiful community gardens, families can merge to form a large herd.

Threatened in their homes, people kill or injure the elephants, which can lead to certain species dying out altogether. This has happened in other continents like Europe and North America, and both have lost their wildlife.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN), The African forest elephant found in Uganda is critically endangered. The IUCN also the African savannah elephant found in Uganda as endangered. Even more worryingly, the two species have declining populations.

That is why the elephant species found in Uganda are so greatly valued by visiting tourists who pay to visit here and see them in their natural environment. Therefore, Uganda has an important role in keeping elephants for the future.  Nevertheless, around the national parks especially in the Murchison Falls National Park, cases of elephant-human conflict in the northern and northeastern parts of the park.

What is the human-elephant conflict and why is it more than just a conservation concern? 

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), a global non-profit helping animals and people thrive together said it is the negative interactions between elephants and humans. (when elephants eat or destroy crops), property destruction, or simply people getting too close to elephants and triggering defensive behaviours that may lead to injury or death of people and elephants.

The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence Specialist Group defines human-wildlife conflict as struggles that emerge when the presence or behaviour of wildlife poses an actual or perceived, direct and recurring threat to human interests or needs, leading to disagreements between groups of people and negative impacts on people and/or wildlife.

Why are Elephant-Human conflicts on the increase in Uganda? 

Conservationists in Uganda have observed that protected areas are becoming islands surrounded by people and agriculture.

Dr. Simon Takozekibi Nampindo is the Country Director, of the Uganda Program Wildlife Conservation Society. He is one of the experts who have studied and mapped home ranges of elephant groups in Queen Elizabeth (QENP), Murchison Falls (MFNP), and Kidepo Valley (KVNP) National Parks. He said elephants move and try to trace their historical movement pathways.

“The elephants are moving from the Murchison National Park to Kilak Hills, East Madi, Zoka, and trying to retrace themselves to Nimule. But because many people are in those areas, the elephants are bounced back” he said.

In February this year, Nampindo and others released findings of a modeling study that found that hotter temperatures and decreased rainfall increase stress on elephants older than 40 by reducing the amount of food available and prompting migrations.

The study was conducted around Greater Virunga, which hosts the African Forest (Bush) elephant. They found that climate change will affect the quality and condition of suitable habitats for elephants, and will diminish food resources available to elephants, and will trigger them to move longer distances in search of food and water.

Why do we need elephants?

Researchers like Simon Nampindo generally say that elephants like other animals play an important role in our ecosystems because all species are linked to each other. By killing a lion, for example, the animals it feeds on will increase dramatically.

“We do need the elephants. First, from the tourism perspective, people come to see the elephants. Two, if you look and the ecosystem, elephants are the modifiers of the landscape” Said Nampindo.

It is common to, find trees fallen by elephants in national parks and the communities neighboring the protected areas. When elephants fall trees, they allow space for trees to grow because they also disperse trees.

It may be difficult for poor families living within the boundaries of the national parks to sympathize with elephants or even lions when they are trying to look after their families.  Nevertheless, animals have similar struggles too. Many care for their young the same way humans do. Equally, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has been erecting electric fences around the national parks to stop elephant crop raids.

What way out of these conflicts?

Studies have found that buffer zones/corridors that used to exist along all the national parks have been encroached. In trying to reduce impacts on people and retaliation against wildlife, Uganda Wildlife Authority has put and continues to put electric fences around the parks, and encouraged the digging of trenches and ranger operations.

Researchers including Dr. Simon Nampindo agree that given the circumstances that there is a huge human population around the protected areas, it is inevitable that we fence off some areas. “But it is also not true that the entire boundary of Queen Elizabeth is also fenced. No, we are cognizant that they also have to move. Therefore, you leave them a breather. Just imagine that you are chasing a rat in your house. If you don’t leave it space to escape it will bite you,” he said

The problem is that humans have distracted the elephant corridors and movement pathways.   “We are dealing with a human-wildlife conflict. So it is going to be sort of a compromise. Do you want people to continue facing the elephants that damage crops or could injure people?” said Nampindo.

He explained that it is widely accepted that there is space for the animals to move to other areas to reduce pressure on areas where they are confined. “There is also a downside. If they overstay in an area, and they trample the area, they can also change the habitat and it will not have good results”

Parts of Northern Uganda, West Nile, and North Eastern Uganda have tended to report more of the elephant crop-raids. Savanah elephants inhabit these areas. Scientifically, it is proven that Savannah elephants tend to move longer distances in their migration because the pasture and water are scarcer in the lowlands than in the highland forest.

Nampindo and co-researchers suggest transboundary wildlife like elephants requires a regional approach to assessment and conservation.

“This requires a better understanding of the elephant age-specific responses to landscape-level changes in habitat, water availability, and climate change to enable conservationists to develop landscape-wide conservation strategies,”

Community Concerns 

Some members of affected communities told URN there was a time when UWA and partners worked with communities to deploy scouts against elephant crops. It reportedly had an aspect of community sensitization about conservation. It also aimed at keeping elephants in the park and humans out of it. Though effective, the initiative was abandoned when the funding by a donor funding it ended.

Research Associates For Interdisciplinary Studies in India in a paper themed “Preserving and Balancing Ecosystems: Strategies to Mitigate Human-Elephant Conflict through Law” echoed the need for compensation of victims of human-wildlife conflicts as per Section 83 of the Uganda Wildlife Act, 2019. It said the provision of compensation to affected individuals or communities for losses incurred due to elephant-related damage or conflicts serves multiple purposes.

“Firstly, it addresses the immediate economic impact on farmers, households, or businesses, mitigating their financial burden and providing them with the means to recover and rebuild. This contributes to the overall well-being and stability of affected communities,” the researchers said. “Compensation acts as an incentive for communities to actively participate in conflict management efforts. By recognizing the losses incurred and offering fair compensation, it fosters a sense of trust and cooperation between local communities and conservation authorities,”

Uganda also has a national strategy for the Management of Human-Wildlife Conflicts 200-2024. Victims of elephant crop raids have however complained about a long wait before compensation.

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URN