14 DAY TRIAL // Hot chili peppers sauce can be the key ingredient for solving human-elephant conflicts in Africa, by raising money for local farmers and conservation.
Supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other groups, the Elephant Pepper Development Trust (EPDT) has not only promoted the use of chili peppers as a means of chasing away from crops elephants, buffalo, and other species, but has also introduced a viable cash crop to the economy of African nations.
Loki Osborn of EPDT based in Cape Town, South Africa, got the idea of using chili peppers in the fight with the crop riding elephants.
He originated the idea of EPDT in 1997, when he found that chili peppers could be used as a means of stopping elephants from destroying crops in the Zambezi Valley, at the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. He had first used pepper spray to deter bears in North America. "I then brought this technology to Africa [in 1997]," Osborn said. "But it was just too expensive, so I started getting farmers to grow their own chili."
"Chili peppers are unpalatable to crop-raiding mammals, so they give farmers an economically feasible means of minimizing damage to their investments," said Osborn. "They can be grown as buffer crops to prevent crop-raiding and then be harvested and sold on the world market through the trust."
Specifically, elephants do not like capsaicin-the chemical that makes them hot. Farmers use chili peppers to deter potential crop raiders in different ways. Protective buffer crop surrounding core crop deter the elephants which are reluctantly to pass.
The program also uses string fences that are sloshed with chili-infused grease and equipped with alarming cowbells. Briquettes of crushed chili and animal dung are burned, creating a noxious smoke that keeps hungry elephants out of fields.
Chilies are also an ingredient in a spray to drive away animals. The chilies are then harvested and sold to the Elephant Pepper brand for hot sauce products, which are marketed in South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, and now the United States. Proceeds from the sales of those products are then donated to the trust to support the development of more chili growing projects.
Conflicts between people and elephants are widespread in Africa and Southern Asia, where these beasts nightly destroy cultivated fields, raid barns and sometimes kill people. Elephants start their activity after the sunset. "Protecting crops at night is a dangerous and tiresome activity for farmers", Osborn says.
But the loss of food and income can be devastating for the farmers. "Even if it's once every ten years that their entire field is wiped out, [farmers'] children will go hungry. There is no welfare system." said James Deutsch, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Africa Program.
The real African elephant population is of 600,000, concentrated in the southern, eastern, and central areas of the continent. The effort to protect the elephant populations has considerable success, but the growing number of animals has started competing with people on land and food. "Trying to resolve conflict between elephants and farmers is really one of the key challenges in conservation across Africa," Deutsch said.
Orson experimented also with honeybees, placing hives around fields, but they failed. The insects turned against people. In the past, farmers scared off elephants by beating drums or cracking whips. But, eventually, the animals became used to the noises and were no longer frightened.
Electric fences have been successful at stopping elephants - Deutsch says - but they require expensive upkeep. ''So far the red peppers appear to be an easy, cost-effective means of warding off pachyderms without harming them", Osborn says.
"But it's not a silver bullet," Deutsch warned. "Farmers must also take responsibility for their own fields". "During key harvest times someone needs to keep an eye on the field 24 hours a day."
The chilies are currently being used in the production of bottled hot sauces, jams and relishes. "This is a highly creative and effective way to solve a growing problem across the African landscape," said Dr. James Deutsch, director of WCS' Africa Program.
"With the growth of human populations in the Zambezi Valley and beyond, people and wildlife come into more frequent contact than before. Elephant Pepper products are a working example of how the survival of elephants can be reconciled with the livelihoods of farmers."
"This is a great example of how conservation and development can be successfully combined into a win-win situation," Deutsch said.
The trust has held sessions in African and Southern Asian countries - including Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique, Kenya, Cambodia, and Thailand - where elephants pose a problem for the farmers. "In areas where farmers are using our community-based problem-animal control techniques, most farmers have reduced crop loss by at least 90 percent," Osborn said.
Since its founding, the Elephant Pepper Development Trust has served up to 250 farmers in the valley, and in 2003, the trust was awarded a $108,000 grant from the World Bank. The trust also formed two companies, the African Spices Company in Zambia, and the Chili Pepper Company in Zimbabwe. Due to social and economic unrest currently raging in Zimbabwe, the trust's operations there have ceased, opting instead to continue production in Johannesburg, South Africa.
With the production of these sauces, Elephant Pepper seeks to create new economic opportunities for Africans farmers and to reduce the conflict between elephants and humans in Africa. The project brings sustainable financial, social, and environmental benefit to its stakeholders by linking African farmers to a global marketplace and raising awareness around successful approaches to elephant conservation.
The response by the American public to our product has been overwhelming," explained Marketing Manager Nina Gibson. "Still our major challenge is to identify a distributor who would like to get involved with this socially responsible brand, and contribute to economic development in Africa. The brand needs a partner who will see the long term benefit of the project."
"The Elephant Pepper product line now offers U.S. consumers a means of supporting both elephants and sustainable development in Africa" said Orson.