Reducing Human Wildlife Conflict through an Evidence-based and Integrated Approach in Southern Africa To create an enabling environment and evidence-based approach for managing the effects of human-wildlife conflict in the SADC region Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency. Socio-economic benefits are expected to accrue at local, national and regional level. Firstly, elephant are a key featured species in the region’s wildlife economy that manifests especially through eco-tourism activities. Effective management of the region’s transboundary elephant populations and management of human-elephant conflicts will re-inforce the socio-economic benefits derived from well-managed elephant populations. Refer to section 2.1, project document.  Secondly, human-wildlife conflict in the region has been increasing and has a direct and significant impact on local farmers. The impacts of HWC are generally understood in the context of the visible evidence available, although there are hidden impacts that are often overlooked. There may at times be health problems associated with HWC, where people have to sit in small smoke-filled huts on the edges of maize fields over many nights at a time protecting their crops from maurauding elephants. There may be opportunity costs where young children are required to skip school for months to protect crops, leaving them with a poor education. Transaction costs might occur when a villager has to take time to travel to the nearest council office to claim compensation, and then have to suffer delays in getting paid out. Crop-raiding may result in a reduction in the overall food supply available to a family, particularly affecting women who may have to eat less to provide nourishment for children, leading to the diminished physical well-being of women, anaemia and poor childcare. In some cases, crop-raiding by elephants may force families to abandon their traditionally cultivated fields and find alternative means of income – followed by social ruptures like loss of kinship and family support, as well as increased levels of stress. In South Africa, approximately 30-50% of subsistence farmers and poor local community members have reported HWC occurrences due to problem animals from neighbouring PAs. Crop raiding by elephants poses an especially severe threat to human livelihoods and often occurs along the boundaries of PAs where close proximity of dense human and wildlife populations exacerbates HWC. Frequent episodes of crop-raiding are often associated with harvest time that is a critical and vulnerable period for impoverished households.Where communities receive significant benefits from living with and among wildlife, i.e., where the benefits outweigh the costs, there are far greater levels of tolerance by those communities towards damage causing species. This was borne out by Chief Joseph Tembwe Mayuni, Chief of the Mafwe tribe, Mayuni Conservancy, East Caprivi, Namibia in his comment on HWC issues: “Community attitudes towards wildlife conservation have changed since the establishment of conservancies in my region. As my people see that benefits are going directly to the community, they know it is in their interest to look after wildlife.” Accordingly, creating an enabling environment for an evidence-based approach to mitigating the effects of human-wildlife conflict is expected to improve conditions for local farmers.