Building on successes achieved with previous and active USFWS grants (awards F17AP00456 and F22AP01136), the wildlife conservation society (WCS) seeks to further consolidate the protection of east…

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has awarded a $500,000 Project Grant under the African Elephant Conservation Fund (CFDA 15.620) to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to strengthen the management and protection of East Africa's largest remaining elephant population. The award will build on WCS's previous USFWS-funded efforts to consolidate elephant conservation in the Katavi National Park landscape of Tanzania and prevent human-elephant conflict along the migration routes into Zambia. Key activities include:

• Expanding elephant monitoring into Zambia to track movements and timing across the international border
• Establishing an elephant alert system to facilitate timely response to incidents of human-elephant conflict or poaching
• Expanding human-elephant conflict mitigation measures to 15 additional villages in Tanzania and Zambia
• Piloting local savings groups in Tanzania to improve farmer resilience and deter elephant crop-raiding
• Distributing elephant management materials and supporting coordination between Tanzanian and Zambian authorities

The 2-year grant, with a period of performance from August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2026, aims to build on previous conservation successes and further consolidate protection for this vulnerable elephant population.

Building on successes achieved with previous and active USFWS grants (awards F17AP00456 and F22AP01136), the wildlife conservation society (WCS) seeks to further consolidate the protection of east africas largest remaining elephant population by strengthening management of elephants moving south from the katavi national park landscape into zambia via historic migration routes, working with both tanzanian and zambian wildlife authorities, districts, and local communities. Monitoring conducted with USFWS funding has confirmed that the number of elephants using these migration routes is increasing, with associated escalation in human-elephant conflict (HEC) and low levels of poaching on both sides of the highly porous international border. We are also now learning that HEC extends into areas that were not previously considered. To build on work achieved so far, WCS proposes to advance the management of this regions elephant population by: fleshing out our understanding of the routes taken by elephants between katavi national park and the mbala area in zambia extending elephant monitoring into zambia to assess the timing and nature of elephant movement from tanzania establishing an elephant alert system to ensure timely and effective communication in responding to incidents of HEC or elephant poaching expanding HEC mitigation measures to 10 additional villages in tanzania, 5 in zambia and strengthen the capacity of district staff in both countries in elephant monitoring and HEC mitigation techniques piloting six local savings groups in 2 villages in tanzania to improve farmers resilience to HEC by improving agriculture techniques that deter elephant crop raiding distributing elephant management materials to stakeholders in tanzania and zambia supporting regular coordination meetings and communication between tanzanian and zambian authorities.