Greetings!

We are receiving the activity reports from last year’s projects and the positive impact made for elephants through your support is incredible! We can’t wait to share the results with you! We are also finalizing the projects that we’ll be supporting this year–from Sumatra to Namibia, Gabon to Bhutan, and beyond, together we are making a difference for elephants!

The International Elephant Foundation is excited to announce our first Conservation Chat of 2023 on Thursday, February 9th at 8am PST/10am Central. We will be joined by leaders Mike Hensman and Adamson Phiri of the K9 Detection and Tracking Unit with Conservation Lower Zambezi (CLZ). This program is a joint venture with CLZ and the Zambian Department of National Parks and Wildlife. Mike is the co-founder and Director of Operations of Resolve Wildlife and has vast experience establishing, training, and equipping specialized conservation law-enforcement teams from diverse multicultural backgrounds across the whole of African with a specific focus in K9s. In 2016 Mike worked with CLZ to establish the DNPW/CLZ K9 Unit. This unit’s success has inspired the first-of-its-kind Village Dog Program funded by IEF that is developing local puppies from nearby villages into conservation dogs, with the hope that they will have better immunity to local diseases, be more tolerant of the climate, and be a more cost-effective and sustainable source of this specialized K9.

Adamson began as a Community Scout with the Chiawa Community Resource Board in 2008 where he was involved in wildlife protection patrols. He joined CLZ in 2016 and eventually became a dog handler in the K9 Unit, and in 2020 became a Wildlife Protection Officer with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife.

He is also the head trainer of the DNPW/CLZ K9 Unit. His excellent skills in training and dog behavior have made him integral to the new Village Dog Program, spending the last 7 months with the puppies and working to establish this groundbreaking program.