The Sumatran Elephant Conservation Initiative is a non-governmental organisation with a goal of :
“Peaceful coexistence between Humans and Sumatran elephants”
They work on projects that focus on mitigation of the human-elephant conflict as well as the conservation of elephant habitats.
To manage the elephant-human conflict, the SECI has developed and proposed alternative ways instead of killing the elephants in hopes of altering the ways local farmers interact with the elephants. This was carried out in Riau, a province in Sumatra which was the most populated with elephants in Indonesia in the 1980s, but has since dwindled drastically since.
The alternative methods (that the SECI implemented) included:
- Creation of scare guns that make a loud ‘boom’ noise to frighten the elephants away
- Installation of barriers that triggers an alarm in the event that an elephant trips a wire
- Helping the local farmers and villagers to set up an electric fence that borders the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park (a protected land for wildlife)
- The locals also established community watch groups and constructed watch stations so that they can keep a lookout for elephants and congregate to frighten them away quickly using loud noises and fires
- Attaching radio tracking devices to some elephants such that their movements are known
These solutions do not kill or harm the elephants and they make use of inexpensive materials that are easily accessible in the region.
These initiatives have been highly successful in keeping the elephants away from farmers’ crop and villages because they make use of the channel of education and build up the cooperation of the locals.
Environmental education using programs like those mentioned above, which highlights biodiversity, is beneficial as it provides first hand contact and expertise advice from experts. It also involves behavior changing strategies after educating the locals more about the conservation of the species and inspiring their active participation in the initiatives.