Building Community Capacity for Conservation: Transforming Scientific Research into Action

Sri Lanka is home to 5000-7000 elephants where many protected areas are surrounded by agriculture making human-elephant conflict commonplace. Across Asia, efforts to directly apply the results of elephant field studies to conservation efforts have had limited success, often because the complex mosaic of landscapes of Asian elephant range necessitates site-specific interventions. The 2024 Range States Workshop on Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation emphasized the need to evaluate mitigation strategies at the local level. This project will translate research findings into community-driven conservation in north central Sri Lanka through a community science program equipping farmers to collect data on crop-raiding. Addressing the tourism aspect of coexistence, a training program for safari drivers around the project sites will teach them information to share with tourists enhancing the community conservation ethic. To address community perception of elephants and wildlife, workshops for schoolchildren will be held to teach about the role of wildlife in environmental health and these will include guided trips into national parks to see elephants in person.

IEF #1051

Project Years:2025

Project Partners:
Chase LaDue, Sri Lanka Elephant Project/Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Sri Lanka