ABOUT US

ABOUT US

The Tembo-Pilipili project in Kiswahili (elephant-chili in English) aims to ensure that farmers living in close proximity to protected areas in Tanzania sustainably mitigate human-elephant conflict by implementing low-cost humane strategies and using community cooperatives to fund mitigation measures and create economic opportunities.

The project fosters the culture of coexistence by employing mitigation methods proven to keep elephants out of crop fields and reduce retaliation. In the past year, the chili fences continue to demonstrate effectiveness at preventing crop losses across all of our six project sites.

In 2021, we introduced the Tembo Pilipili project in villages around Selous Game Reserve in Liwale district. Selous has high incidence of elephant crop raiding as elephants that take refuge in community forests during the day often invade crop fields at night. Tembo Pilipili continued to build capacity at our existing six sites in Mikumi, Tarangire, Bariadi/Serengeti, Ruaha, Lake Manyara, and Ngorongoro.

WHAT TEMBO PILIPILI DOING?

1.      Chili based methods

Elephants have sensitive sense of smell, and therefore are repelled by the smell of chili. Tembo Pilipili Program promotes the use of chili-based methods because the associated costs are low and materials can be found locally. Farmers can grow chili to use it in making chili fences and chili briquettes/bricks, hence reduce cost for materials for HEC mitigation. Additionally, chili plants are not liked by elephants and most other animals, so they are not at risk of crop raiding. Surplus chili can be sold to chili sauce industry.

Chili fences are made of two to three strands of sisal string strung along poles surrounding a crop field. Materials for construction of chili fence around one acre is as follows:

Sisal rope (5 kg)

Mutton clothes or rages (32 pieces, size 2 x 1.5 ft)

Ground chili (chili powder) (2.5 kg or more)

Spent engine oil (10 liter)

Poles (height 3 m and thickness 2-3 inch)

Fences are best built around fields as the crops are ripening and close to harvest. This timing helps keep elephants from getting used to the fences. Make sure you prepare the buffer zone one meter or more either side of the fence of which the farmer clear all vegetation. You do not want the elephant to leave the thick forest and walk straight to the crop field.

Chili fences can be combined with an alarm system such as bell, tin cans and plastic bottles (with holes) filled with mixture of chili and spent engine oil which can splash to the face of elephant when elephant try to push through the fence

After the harvest, the fences should be broken down right away and the poles stored in a dry place for the next season and the rope and clothes stored if it is decided it can be used again next year to avoid elephant habituation.

Farmers are advised to maintain trees that surround the crop field which can be used as live poles. This will minimize the work load and cost of installing fence poles each year.

Chili briquettes/bricks

2.      Farmers can create chili bricks by mixing cow or elephant dung and water, dry it to the sun and burn them at the border of the crop field or deploy on elephant trails. The mixture could be 50/50 of cow dung and chili. The farmer should aim the smoke to go the direction to trails or where elephant take refuge. Elephant will try to go to areas which are free from chili smell. Sometimes a farmer can burn a mixture of cow dung mixed chili if there are no readymade chili bricks to ward off elephants from crop fields or human settlement.