Lilongwe Wildlife Trust

Location: Malawi

Donation amount: $15,000 (£11,020)

In August 2021, recent sales of Remembering Elephants funded Lilongwe Wildlife Trust's 'Protecting Malawi's Elephants' project in the Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserve (VMWR), an area in the Northern Region of Malawi.

The project works to reduce human-elephant conflict and protect elephant populations by conducting research on the key drivers of elephant crop-raiding behaviour.

This enables the project to predict 'hotspot' conflict areas and, in turn, support park managment to implement targeted mitigation measures and community outreach work.

Bushlife Conservancy

Location: Zimbabwe

Donation amount: £28,000

Bushlife Conservancy’s mission is to protect and save African wildlife in the Mana Pools and Zambezi Valley. 

In 2015, Bushlife Conservancy set up the Bushlife Support Unit, uniting the Zambezi Valley community in a consolidated effort to stop poaching in the area. 

The Unit put out an urgent appeal for assistance to combat the surge in elephant poaching. With donations from Vundu Camp guests, plus Save The Elephant Fund and Elephant Crisis Fund, a range of anti-poaching activities have been launched.

These are divided into three core areas – deployment of anti-poaching rangers in Mana Pools and the surrounding areas; investigations via an effective informer network; and collaring of large elephant bulls.

Bushlife Conservancy received funding of £24,000 from Remembering Elephants, which went towards investments such as trail cameras, aerial surveys to monitor the health of the elephant population, thermal imaging equipment, vehicles and other provisions for the rangers.

Tsavo Trust

Location: Kenya

Donation amount: £3,900

Tsavo Trust believes in conserving the vast wilderness of the Tsavo Conservation Area, which encompasses Kenya's largest Protected Area, home to the country's biggest elephant population and numerous high-value species. It's one of the few truly wild places with significant wildlife left in Africa.

The trust has a unique strategy, in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service and others, on direct conservation projects as well as engaging local communities in encouraging conservation activities.

The donation has gone towards transporting spare parts from the USA for Tsavo Trust's aerial patrol unit, which is a key activity in its anti-poaching work, alongside Kenya Wildlife Service in the Tsavo Parks.

Born Free’s Babile Project

Location: Ethiopia

Donation amount: £30,000

The goal of Born Free’s Babile Project is to halt or significantly reduce elephant poaching at the Babile Elephant Sanctuary in Ethiopia.

They aim to do this by strengthening law enforcement at the sanctuary while increasing judicial awareness of the illegal wildlife trade, thus encouraging stronger deterrents for elephant poaching. The Babile Project was also set up to reduce natural resource exploitation and human pressure on the sanctuary.

The project received £30,000 from Remembering Elephants via Born Free, alongside other donations from Save the Elephants, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service African Elephant Conservation Fund.

The contributions improved law enforcement at the elephant sanctuary, allowing them to employ a project officer and 24 rangers. Since then, multiple arrests of poachers have been made, leading in one case to the successful prosecution and imprisonment of an elephant poacher in May 2017.

Mali Elephant Project

Location: Mali

Donation amount: £21,000

The Mali Elephant Project is a network of 674 community eco-guardians recruited from local communities to help prevent the decimation of the elephant population in central Mali. These young community members work as part of ‘surveillance brigades’ to monitor elephants, report poaching and collect vital information to enable targeted anti-poaching missions.

The eco-guardians are also active in protecting elephant habitat and the natural resources that form the basis of local livelihoods. The Mali Elephant Project provides direct benefits to local people - it maintains support among the local population for elephant conservation; and it creates respected occupations for young people.

The commitment of the eco-guardians to the protection of the elephants and their habitats has resulted in the prevention of any poaching incidents since January 2017, the longest period since 2013. It has also led to the launch of community-led initiatives to reduce forest degradation in four southern communes.

£21,000 was granted to the Mali Elephant Project by Remembering Elephants through the Born Free Foundation. The funds enabled 371 eco-guardians to receive recognition payments for monitoring elephants. These workers also monitored key habitats in the vulnerable south-east of the range, and in forests in the vicinity of the Porte-des-Éléphants, which is particularly vulnerable to habitat degradation.  

Wildlife Emergency Response Unit

Location: Malawi

Donation amount: £17,000

The Wildlife Emergency Response Unit was set up in 2014 to provide in-field veterinary support for wildlife emergencies and conservation projects across the entire country.

As a joint venture between Lilongwe Wildlife Trust and the Department of National Parks & Wildlife, the Unit aims to treat injured wildlife, relocate animals in conflict with communities and provide veterinary support to projects that monitor and protect wildlife at risk.

The mobile veterinary unit provides fast response in-situ treatment for wild animals in distress. Led by Dr Amanda Salb, it is equipped with all the required drugs and firearms to immobilise and treat small and large wild animals. Dr Salb is the only wildlife veterinarian in Malawi capable of wildlife capture, meaning her services are greatly in demand.

Remembering Elephants contributed £17,000 towards The Born Free Foundation’s £21,000 donation to support the Wildlife Emergency Response Unit throughout 2017 and 2018.

Shompole Wilderness bee fences

Location: Kenya

Donation amount: £2,350

Farmers of the South Rift Valley can often lose their crops to elephants trampling through their fields. This can cause retaliation from the farmers, so Shompole Wilderness was looking for an effective elephant deterrent.

They found it - in the shape of ‘bee fences’. These depend on the fact that elephants hate bees with a passion. By hanging bee hives on fences surrounding crops, elephants on the way to the crops will knock into them. The elephants will be surrounded by a swarm and will run in the opposite direction. 

Land owners that install the bee fences are further incentivised by gaining the honey and other related products to sell, which add to their income. Remembering Elephants and Save the Elephants jointly funded the small trial of hives in the area. 

Get in touch

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