EHRA: Building Human-Elephant Coexistence in North-West Namibia

Founded in 2003, Elephant-Human Relations Aid (EHRA) works to reduce human-elephant conflict and promote peaceful coexistence between people and Namibia's desert-adapted elephants.

Operating across north-west Namibia, EHRA combines practical conflict-mitigation measures, elephant monitoring, community-based initiatives, education programmes, and volunteer participation to address one of conservation's most complex challenges: enabling people and elephants to share the same landscape.

More than twenty years after its creation, EHRA continues to work in some of Namibia's most remote regions, where communities, livestock, tourism activities, and free-roaming elephants depend on the same limited natural resources.

Why Human-Elephant Conflict Matters

Namibia's desert-adapted elephants are among the most remarkable elephant populations in Africa. Over generations, they have adapted to survive in arid landscapes where water and food can be scarce for extended periods.

Despite these adaptations, elephants remain large animals with considerable daily requirements. An adult elephant can consume up to 300 kilograms of vegetation and drink around 200 litres of water per day.

As elephants move across the landscape in search of food and water, they often encounter villages, farms, roads, and water infrastructure. These interactions can lead to damaged water installations, destroyed crops, property damage, and concerns for human safety.

For conservation to succeed, solutions must protect both elephants and the people who live alongside them.

EHRA's Mission: Creating the Conditions for Coexistence

EHRA approaches human-elephant coexistence through several complementary programmes:

• Protecting community water infrastructure.

• Maintaining alternative water sources for elephants.

• Monitoring elephant populations and movements.

• Reducing and responding to conflict incidents.

• Supporting communities through education and practical assistance.

• Training future conservation leaders through volunteer participation and environmental education.

Rather than focusing solely on elephants, EHRA works to address the needs of both people and wildlife.

Protecting Communities and Elephants

One of EHRA's longest-running activities is the construction of protective walls around boreholes, solar installations, water tanks, and other critical infrastructure. These structures help prevent damage caused by elephants seeking access to water whilst protecting essential resources for local communities.

Alongside these walls, EHRA supports the creation and maintenance of dedicated elephant water points located away from villages, and maintained by the communities. By providing reliable access to water in suitable locations, the organisation reduces the likelihood of elephants approaching settlements.

The objective is straightforward: reduce conflict before it occurs.

Monitoring Namibia's Desert-Adapted Elephants

Long-term monitoring forms a central part of EHRA's conservation work.

The organisation tracks elephant movements, records conflict incidents, monitors population trends, and maintains an extensive elephant identification database. GPS collars provide valuable information about movement corridors, seasonal behaviour, water use, and areas where conflict is most likely to occur.

This information supports practical conservation decisions and allows communities to receive advance warning when elephants are approaching certain areas.

Monitoring has also highlighted conservation concerns. In the Ugab River population, no population growth has been recorded since 2012, and calf mortality has raised questions about the long-term viability of some groups. These findings have prompted further collaboration with veterinary specialists and conservation partners.

Supporting Communities Through Education

EHRA recognises that long-term coexistence depends on people as much as elephants.

The PEACE Project, standing for People and Elephants Amicably Coexisting, provides workshops that help community members better understand elephant behaviour and practical coexistence strategies. By the end of 2024, the programme covered more than two million hectares.

The organisation also delivers environmental education through the S.E.E.D. Project, supports rural schools, operates Eco-Clubs, and runs the Periods Are Dignified initiative, which addresses period poverty among schoolgirls in remote communities.

These programmes recognise that conservation and community well-being are closely connected.

Conservation Results

Over two decades, EHRA has expanded from a small volunteer initiative into a multifaceted conservation organisation.

Today, its work includes:

• Human-elephant conflict mitigation.

• Elephant population monitoring.

• Community education programmes.

• Environmental awareness initiatives.

• Infrastructure protection projects.

• Elephant movement research.

• Volunteer participation and field training.

Each programme contributes to the same objective: helping people and elephants coexist across north-west Namibia.

Volunteering with EHRA

Volunteering remains an important part of EHRA's conservation model.

The programme combines practical conservation work with direct exposure to the realities of living alongside free-roaming elephants. During Build Week, volunteers help construct protective walls and support infrastructure projects. During Patrol Week, they participate in elephant monitoring, data collection, and conflict-prevention activities.

Life in the field is deliberately simple. Volunteers camp in remote locations, contribute to daily camp duties, work as part of a team, and experience landscapes that few visitors ever see.

Unlike many wildlife volunteering programmes, the focus is not on close encounters with animals. The emphasis is on understanding conservation challenges, supporting practical solutions, and contributing to projects that deliver measurable benefits for both communities and elephants.

An Ethical Volunteering Experience with Lasting Impact

For those seeking a meaningful wildlife conservation experience, EHRA offers something increasingly rare: the opportunity to contribute to genuine field-based conservation whilst gaining a deeper understanding of one of Africa's most complex conservation challenges.

Volunteers do not participate in activities designed primarily for entertainment. Instead, they contribute to projects that protect water infrastructure, support rural communities, monitor free-roaming elephants, and help reduce conflict across vast areas of north-west Namibia.

The result is an experience built on participation rather than observation. Volunteers leave with a clearer understanding of the realities of conservation, the challenges faced by local communities, and the practical solutions that make coexistence possible.

More importantly, they become part of a long-term effort to ensure that both people and desert-adapted elephants can continue to share the same landscape for generations to come.