How the ACB, through the Small Grants Programme and its grantees Yayasan Konservasi Way Seputih and Yayasan Forum Rembug Desa Penyangga, is reducing human-elephant conflicts at Way Kambas National Park in Indonesia using a holistic and systematic approach.
With 40 per cent of its 224.86 hectares falling within the elephant home range in Way Kambas, Tegal Yoso village facessignificant human- elephant conflict. The villagers’ monoculture crops, primarily corn and rice, attract elephants, resulting in crop damages, several human-elephant encounters, and deaths of some people.
To address this pressing issue, the villagers partnered with Yayasan Konservasi Way Seputih (YKWS), an environmental group dedicated to improving forest management in Lampung Province. Supported by the SGP, they launched a project to alleviate pressure on the WKNP forests while enhancing the livelihoods of buffer zone residents. This initiative aimed to empower Tegal Yoso villagers to manage human-elephant conflicts effectively, boost village income through sustainable natural resource use, and raise public awareness and participation in the park’s conservation efforts.
Tatang Supriano and Hartato from forest farmer group LEMBAH have dedicated their time to addressing human-elephant conflict in Tegal Yoso Village
The project commenced with the collection of baseline data, including land cover, land use, and the home range conditions of wild elephants intersecting with the agricultural and settlement areas of Tegal Yoso Village.
With YKWS’ support, the villagers established three women’s groups and empowered them by enhancing their skills in utilising farmyards to bolster family food security. Concurrently, farmers’ groups received advanced training in honeybee farming techniques, focusing on colony splitting to boost honey production.
In addition to capacity-building activities, they implemented integrated mitigation techniques, such as elephant-adaptive farming strategies using mixed cropping patterns and planting species that elephants avoid–some of which are candlenut (Aleurites moluccanus), jengkol (Archidendron pauciflorum), petai (Parkia speciosa), and some species of lemongrass.
The grantees also used SGP’s assistance to organise forest patrol and conflict response teams composed of 25 ERUs that include the MMP, local community members, mahouts and their trained elephants. The grant also enabled them to build monitoring huts, purchase SMART patrolling equipment, and provide honorarium forpatrollers.
The ERU in Tegal Yoso in Way Kambas National Park received training, a monitoring hut, and equipment to support their patrolling operations
“Previously, efforts to deal with human-elephant conflict were ineffective due to locals patrolling individually to protect their own land with no coordination,” shared Tatang Supriyono, a member of LEMBAH, aKTH at Tegal Yoso Village. “Now, things have changed. Stakeholders are working together in a coordinated effort.
Park management has installed GPS collars on the leading wild elephants to track their movements. The ERU constantly updates the village patrollers about the elephants’ coordinates and warns when the wild elephants are near the villages. When this happens, volunteers and the residents use fireworks and megaphones to make noise and scare elephants away, while the ERUs, specifically the 10 trained elephants and their mahouts, help drive wild elephants away. It’s different now. Everyone helps,” he added. To sustain the project’s successes, efforts are underway to pass on knowledge and skills to the next generation by establishing a school that will teach bee farming and biodiversity conservation.
“The locals are very happy because they can feel a big change and now enjoy a more peaceful life after participating in the projects supported by SGP. You can even see how mindsets have shifted.”
— Tatang Supriyono, member of farmers’ group at Tegal Yoso village
Some also hope their children can access agricultural and forestry schools so they can sustain the initiatives implemented.
SOP for human-elephant conflict mitigation
YKWS has taken a proactive approach to address human-elephant conflicts, through a project dubbed “Preparation of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on Human – Elephant Conflict Mitigation in Tegal Yoso Village” under an SGP micro-grant.
The guidelines for patrolling were created based on the collective experiences of local residents, gathered through focus group discussions. These community insights were combined with technical knowledge fromERU personnel, Forestry Police, and mahouts. The collective wisdom from these three-stage discussions culminated in a workshop led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Komunitas Untuk Hutan Sumatera (KHS), and Yayasan Forum Rembug Desa Penyangga (FRDP). A total of 120 locals benefitted from this transfer of technical knowledge.
The workshop’s outcomes were formalised in a decree by Tegal Yoso’s village head, establishing an SOP for residents. This SOP not only empowers locals to safeguard their agricultural lands but also supports WKNP rangers in guiding elephants back into the conservation area, ensuring a sustainable and peaceful coexistence.
Labuhan Ratu XI village’s innovative approach
Like many other buffer villages in Way Kambas, Labuhan Ratu IX Village’s major challenge is handling human-elephant conflict.
“In the past, everyone panicked when elephants came into the village. Villagers didn’t know how to respond,” recalled Parmin, a member of Yayasan Forum Rembug Desa Penyangga (FRDP). The community-based organisation was established to help address conflicts between elephants and communities in buffer villages.
Tatang Supriano and Hartato from forest farmer group LEMBAH have dedicated their time to addressing human-elephant conflict in Tegal Yoso Village
“Previously, patrollers used fireworks to warn the communities and scare off the elephants; but the use of fireworks has since been disallowed as it can be hazardous,” said Ahmad Suyuti, chairperson of FRDP.
Determined to find a safer, more effective solution, FRDP partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)and sought assistance from the SGP to establish an early warning system that would alert the village members ofapproaching elephants.
Using the micro-grant they received, FRDP developed a community-based human-elephant conflict early warning system that is integrated with Labuhan Ratu IX’s farming system. “This system takes both social and economic approaches into account, helping the community adapt to managing interactions with elephants,” Suyuti shared.
In addition to using an early warning system and building infrastructure barriers such as the government-funded concrete canals and riprap walls along the four-kilometre national park border, FRDP planted flora that turn off elephants. “We used natural barriers such as lemongrass and salak (snake fruit with thorny trees) as elephants hate their smell. We also installed bee logs in different locations so that honeybees will sting the elephants who try tocross the borders where the bee hives are situated. We devised the honeybee system to stop elephants from entering the village,” Suyuti explained.FRDP created SATGAS KMG or Elephant Conflict Task Force to implement conflict resolution. Members of the task force underwent training on how to use the alarm system and how to handle human-elephant conflict as first responders. They also learned about a healthy crop cultivation system based on the principles of Integrated Pest Management.
The task force collaborates with the Forest Police, acting as community forestry partners that jointly conduct patrols along the national park and the village borders. They conduct training to identify strategies that will deter the elephants from crossing to their villages and damaging their crops.
“This collaboration, which is supported by the SGP, has resulted in a more organised management of the human-elephant conflict,” said Parmin.
The distribution of honey logs to the villagers has also been done by FRDP, not only to drive away the elephants, but also to add a business component to their SGP grant. They also learned to make plant pots from elephant dung obtained from WKNP’s Elephant Training Center (PLG). While the pots cannot yet be sold commercially due to licensing issues, FRDP hopes that future sales will increase SATGAS members’ income and support elephant deterrence activities in the village.
