Bulletin:  the Conference on Conserving Elephants has just been Concluded.

• The workshop assigned specific tasks and identified possible start-up funds to get the cross-border community exchanges underway. The African Conservation Centre in Kenya and Wildlife Conservation Society in Tanzania were charged with coordinating activities.
• The community discussions looked into how to strengthen the capacity of communities to protect elephants, avert and reduce human-wildlife conflict and raise benefits from the use of wildlife.
• The government agencies looked at their role in oversight and implementation of elephant conservation plans in the borderlands.
• The workshop concluded that the collaboration and coordination envisaged by the participants lays a foundation not only for conserving the borderlands elephant populations, and wide-ranging species more generally, but also for sustaining the diversity and integrity of ecosystems and landscapes.

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GOALS

The overall goal of the meeting is to bring together community representatives, conservation organizations and government agencies in the Kenya-Tanzania borderland concerned with elephant conservation with the following aims in mind:

·       Assess the status and movements of elephant populations in the borderlands region.

·       Identify pathways needed to establish a viable interconnected elephant population.

·       Strengthen community conservation capacity in critical pathways, aimed at safeguarding elephants, reducing conflict and increasing local benefits.

·       Identify how government agencies, conservation organizations and communities can work collaboratively towards these ends.

VENUE AND DATE

New Arusha Hotel, Arusha.

February 16^th and 17^th 2012.

     All photos by Bill Yancey

INVITEES

Government agencies

Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, Tanzania National Parks, Tanzania Wildlife Division, Kenya Wildlife Service.

Communities

Ujamaa Community Resource Trust, Wildlife Management Area representatives from Enduimet, Longido, Natron, Gelai, Maasai Mara conservancies, South Rift Association of Landowners, Amboseli Ecosystem Trust, Amboseli-Tsavo Group Ranches Conservation Association, Mwaluganke Wildlife Sanctuary and community scouts associations.

Non-government organizations

Wildlife Conservation Society, PAMS Foundation, World Elephant Center, The Nature Conservancy, African Elephant Specialist group, Fauna Flora International, African Wildlife Foundation, Tanzania Natural Resource Forum, Honey Guide Foundation, Maliasili Initiatives, World Wildlife Fund, Amboseli Elephant Program, Elephant Voices, African Conservation Fund, International Fund for Animal Welfare,  Youth for Conservation, Save the Elephants and tourism and hunting industry representatives.

SPONSOR

Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation

ORGANIZERS

David Western (LCAOF and ACC-Kenya). Charles Foley (WCS-Tanzania). James Murtaugh (LCAOF, New York).