EHRA’S GAME GUARD TRAINING

Game Guards are appointed to look after the conservancy’s game and environment, conduct regular game counts and anti-poaching patrols, help community members in conflict situations and advise the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) with game numbers yearly to help set hunting quotas. As Game Guards and even MET field staff often lack sufficient training to successfully fulfil their job duties, EHRA conducts elephant training courses to provide the Game Guards and MET officers with skills that are essential for the job, thereby improving their knowledge about elephants and conflict management so they can competently advise community members to reduce conflicts and fear.

The goal is to equip all appointed Conservancy Game Guards in the project area with the relevant knowledge and skills to competently perform their jobs. Ideally, all Game Guards learn how to identify the elephants living in the area, how many there are and how their seasonal movements affect the human-elephant conflict events. The Game Guards know different methods to deter elephants from farms and homesteads and ably assist other community members with elephant issues.

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 Project Activities

Advanced elephant biology, behaviour & social structure

Advanced elephant safety

Conflict mitigation and HEC management tools

Elephant tracking, ID, sexing

Practical lessons on ecology and biodiversity

CONSERVANCY GAME GUARD TRAINING

5-day training courses for Conservancy Game Guards and MET field staff in the project area include both theoretical information about elephant behaviour, biology, physiology and identification, as well as field-based practical sessions to practice identifying individual elephants, sexing and aging them, completing data forms, learning about associations between elephants and assessing their personality traits, and keeping others safe when close to elephants. Follow-up courses and regular patrols are essential for advancing the Game Guards’ set of skills.