Monitoring Elephants Research Programme

Thank you to everyone who voted on our recent IG pole!

We had overwhelming votes on our recent IG poll to support Elephants and we have taken action! We are supporting leading international elephant charity organisation Space For Giants on their groundbreaking monitoring and research of African elephants.

Space For Giants’ mission is to conserve elephants and the landscapes they depend on. Not only have they grown out of pioneering research in the early 2000s, they encourage the co-existence of people and wildlife in modernising Africa. They have spent two decades working in these landscapes, studying how people and wild animals live together, and how that relationship is changing.

#WorthMoreAlive

Here, we tell you how the Space for Giants’ monitoring and research work protect elephants and their habitats:

Data continues to drive and refine Space for Giants’ approach to elephant protection. For close to two decades, the organisation has studied how people and wild animals live together, and how that relationship is changing in the modern world. Space for Giants collars and track elephants to inform policy, and train rangers to use new technology to guide conservation management. In 2019, they began pioneering research on human-elephant conflict with forest elephants, and produced the first of a series of Working Papers to help build Africa’s wildlife economy.

Along side research and monitoring, Space for Giants’ work is focused on these four pillars to ensure maximum benefit for the long-term survival of the species:

Pay, train and equip wildlife rangers

Space for Giants equip, train, and pay elite ranger units, including mobile and rapid-response teams. They also use intelligence-led tactics adopted from counter-terrorism. Deploying intelligence-led and proactive operations has a far greater impact than ever more boots on the ground.

Support judicial processes so trials are stronger

Successfully bringing an end to wildlife crime needs as much attention to activities in the courtroom as it does to operations in the field. Their sector-leading wildlife justice work continues to grow significantly, improve conviction rates and penalties for those involved in wildlife crime.

Mitigate human-wildlife conflict

People and wild animals live ever closer in modern Africa. In a rapidly developing world, the competition for resources between people and wildlife continues to increase, posing a threat to the future of both humanity and critically endangered wildlife.

Contribute to pan-African anti-poaching surveys

The Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) provides information needed for elephant range States to make appropriate management decisions. Space for Giants work closely with the Kenya Wildlife Service and conservation partners to provide data on illegal hunting of elephants and trends over time for its ‘Laikipia and Samburu MIKE site’.

If you would like to read more about the work Space for Giants do - please click: HERE

We make it our mission to support wild animal conservation through our wildlife adventures, wildlife tours and travel adventures. Please click HERE to view all of our forthcoming adventures!

Main Photo: @redcharlie

Monitoring Elephants Research Programme