The Elephants and Bees Project, Kenya

Summary

Implemented by Save the Elephants, the Elephant and Bees Project in the Taita Hills, Kenya, uses Beehive Fences as a natural elephant deterrent, helping protect farmers and farmland.

The solutions at the heart of The Elephant and Bees Project, based in Sagalla – Taita Hills, are replacing the solid physical barriers with unobstructed boundaries between farmers’ land and the surrounding environment, and at the same time creating a new source of income for communities.

The Taita area has been affected by changing rainfall patterns and severe droughts as a result of climate change, which drove agricultural expansion into protected areas, degrading indigenous forests and encroaching on wildlife habitats. Such conditions have worsened conflicts between elephants and people. The solution aimed at addressing this human-wild life conflict.

The idea is simple: elephants are repelled by the rumbling noise of bees in their natural environment. Setting up a series of beehives around the fields creates a soft barrier, preventing elephants from coming too close without needing to harm them. Experience through the project has shown that the presence of beehives drastically reduced the number of crop raids by 86 per cent. The number of elephants involved during the raids also decreased by over 50 per cent compared with a nearby farm without any protection. When spotted by the farmer, elephants inside the farm were not trapped or scared off by the beehive fence and could safely cross it to go away. At the end of the six-week study period, the farmer without any protection estimated a 90 per cent loss of harvest compared to the one who used the beehive fences.

Overview

Location:

• Kenya

Implementation sites:

• Single country
• Single location

Mountain region:

• Taita Hills

Solution scale:

• Local

Ecosystem type(s):

• Forest

Solution type(s):

• Land use practice

Sector(s):

• Agriculture
• Ecosystems Biodiversity
• Tourism & Consumption

Climate impact(s) addressed:

• Drought

Impact time-scales:

• Slow Onset

Benefits:

• Environmental benefits (e.g. biodiversity preservation, water security, food security)

Co-benefits:

• Economic benefits (e.g. job creation, tourism)
• Social benefits (e.g. poverty reduction, inclusiveness and equity, health and well-being)

Implementation timeline:

• 2009 - 2022

Sendai targets:

• 

SDGs:

• 
• 
•