Lower thirds:

00:02 Report by Sa'id Sa'ad Abubakar
00:18 Senzeni Sibanda | Councillor and farmer
01:12 Arnold Tshipa | IFAW Field Operations Manager
01:49 Capon Sibanda | Local volunteer

Script:

This park in Zimbabwe is home to one of the largest elephant populations in Africa.

But as the number of elephants grows, so does the daily risk to communities living nearby....

...Who face their crops and properties being destroyed, and sometimes even death.

+++ SOUNDBITE (Shona) Senzeni Sibanda, councillor and farmer++++
"We have a big problem with elephants, but we found them here, they use the same roads, same grazing areas and water sources. These elephants also know when our harvest is ready in the fields. Drought is getting worse and the elephants devour the little that we harvest.”

(shot of rangers placing collars on elephant)

To protect both people and elephants, park rangers have found a new way for them to live together.

They use GPS collars to track elephant herds and then send warnings to villagers on their phones.

The collars are placed here on the herd leaders, so rangers can monitor their movements 

++++SOUNDBITE (English) Arnold Tshipa, IFAW field operations manager++++++
 “Collaring helps us to understand the movement of animals within these human wildlife areas, or corridors per se, we are going to be able to see the interactions between both wildlife and people. This then allows us to give more resources to particular areas.”

(Shot of laptop screen showing elephant movement, local volunteer using phone to show signal) 

The process has now become a key part of the daily work of local volunteers...

Who act as a link between the rangers and local communities. 

Capon Sibanda is one of them.

+++++SOUNDBITE (English) Capon Sibanda, local volunteer++++
“Everyday it has become a morning routine, every time I wake up, I take my bike, I take my gadget, then I hit the road. As I am travelling, the circumference I can cover is 5-10 kilometres depending on how I’m feeling on a daily basis, so as I’m going through the boundaries, checking the spoors (tracks) of the animals, which animals came in and which went out.

The collaring project may be new but it already appears to be gaining local support.

With communities around Hwange National Park seeing the initiative as a potential solution to the local human-wildlife conflict.