Progress Report for May, 2018

Dear Friends of Elephant Havens,

I wanted to give you a quick update on our progress before leaving next week for Botswana. While waiting for our architects to release plans for Elephant Havens, our team on the ground has made great progress with the local communities to establish a working relationship regarding human/wildlife conflicts. Most of the villagers are subsistence farmers on a very small scale that eke out a living by growing crops and rearing cattle. In our research, we’ve found that many elephants are killed by local farmers just trying to protect their crops. Without farming, poverty rises, creating more reasons for poaching which then leads to more elephant deaths. We want to help save orphaned elephants but would also like to be a leading advocate in helping eliminate some of the causes that create orphans in the first place. Our team in Botswana is acting as a liaison between the government and farmers to work on solutions. Some communities are actually willing to relocate further away from the Okavango Delta to remove themselves from the conflict. One particular troubled community has been given the permission to open a photography safari camp on their land. This is a significant win for wildlife and the community. This shows a great deal of foresight on their part to realize that wildlife can actually help the community. We’ve also pledged to help villagers learn elephant awareness. We are training them on elephant behavior, similar to the training given to safari guides. It will help them to understand elephants and how to react to them.

Thank you all for the generous donations and support. Scott and I continue to be amazed by our caring and generous donors. Remember, we still have an open pledge for matching funds of up to $250,000! We are reaching our goals and ask everyone to continue to share our website, www.elephanthavens.flywheelsites.com, and information with their friends so we can make this dream of an elephant orphanage come true.

Sincerely,

Scott Jackson and Debra Stevens