Ecoexist Trust

The Ecoexist Trust is a Botswana-based NGO, started in 2013, that focuses on addressing human elephant conflict and promoting coexistence in and around the Okavango Delta. Our ultimate goal is to create an enabling environment for policies and on-the-ground programs to reduce human elephant conflict and foster coexistence between elephants and people. In areas of heightened competition for access to water, food, and space, the Ecoexist Trust aims to find and facilitate solutions that work for both People and elephants. Our approach is holistic, including a portfolio of management tools and strategies that aim to provide short and long-term solutions. Five key programme themes contribute a holistic approach to address conflict and promoting coexistence: collect evidence on elephant population and resource use needs, as well as the resource needs and socio-economic understanding and overlaps among communities living with elephants; ensure land use planning and allocation processes consider critical elephant habitat like movement corridors; improve crop-raiding mitigation by trialing and scaling practical, affordable deterrent techniques that protect crops, property and people; farming practices more sustainable to increase yields, improve farmer resilience, and reduce habitat conversion to fields, and; build an elephant economy to improve benefits coming back to people living with elephants, increasing the value of, and tolerance to elephants. Our approach connects science with practice to support informed decision-making through our research and field-based evidence. We strengthen the existing work of government agencies, local communities, regional stakeholders, and the private sector through facilitating partnerships and collaboration, improving communication and information exchange, and building capacity.

https://www.ecoexistproject.org