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Supporting human-elephant coexistence in Equatorial Guinea

Posted on: 10 October, 2024

Field trips are a vital element of the work of Bristol Zoological Society’s conservation teams, who work with local partners and communities to deliver conservation projects in nine countries around the world.

Conservation Lecturers and Project Directors Isabelle Rogerson and Catherine Hart have recently returned from Equatorial Guinea, where they were visiting one of our project sites. A key aim of their visit was to set up an exciting new element of our human-elephant coexistence project - Rapid Response Units to help prevent elephant crop foraging. 

A team of people attending a talk in the middle of forest standing listening to a main speaker amongst foliagePhoto caption: Antonio Alverca, a human-elephant conflict expert from the Mozambique Wildlife Alliance, giving a demonstration as part of the Rapid Response Unit practical training.

Rapid Response Units are teams of people responsible for deterring elephants that have wandered into farms in search of an easy meal. They use tools such as loud horns, flashing lights, and sometimes firecrackers and chilli bombs to herd the elephants away from farms or populated areas and back into safe habitats. This method has had promising results in other countries where there is significant human-elephant conflict, including Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique.

During the trip, the UK team worked closely with our in-country staff to lead two training events, a workshop with the Equatoguinean Department for Forestry and Protected Areas, on Rapid Response Units, and two-days of practical training at our field research station with the Response Unit team members, to practice deterrent techniques.

A group of people standing around with large red horns and being photographed demoing the soundsPhoto caption: Isabelle Rogerson, Project Director, demonstrating the use of the Rapid Response Unit equipment during the practical training at Bristol Zoological Society’s research station.

Both events were a great success, and the government workshop was filmed by local media, as well as attended by heads of the five biggest national parks of Equatorial Guinea, who actively engaged in discussions on the main challenges they are facing to conserve their parks, and the potential solutions. We brought in an expert from the Mozambique Wildlife Alliance to present their system and ways of working, which provided a lot of food for thought and discussion on how to apply these learnings to Equatorial Guinea.

This is the first time, to our knowledge, that Rapid Response Units for elephant crop foraging are being trialled in Equatorial Guinea, and very little research exists testing this method with forest elephants. This means we are taking a step into the (relatively) unknown – which is exciting, if not a little daunting! Luckily, we have a great in-country team and will continue to monitor and adapt our approach as the project progresses. For now, it was great to see our Rapid Response Unit team members full of enthusiasm as they set off on their journeys home with all their new equipment.  

Four people standing near biked ready to go for a bike ride with helmets and hi-vis jackets onPhoto caption: Bicycles being distributed to the Rapid Response Unit team members during the practical training.

The highlight of the practical field training for the Project Director, Isabelle, was the bike practice. Many of the training attendees were not used to seeing a woman riding a bicycle, but any doubts were quickly dispersed when Isabelle sped up a steep hill near the field station, where everyone else had to dismount and push their bikes. All that Bristol hill cycling was not for nothing!

Supported by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and funded by GEF-7, the Global Environment Facility, this project works to understand local communities’ perceptions of wildlife in Monte Alén National Park and investigate ways for people and wildlife to co-exist peacefully.

More information about our conservation projects in Equatorial Guinea can be found by clicking the button below.

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