In order to address urgent HEC incidences, a Rapid Response Unit (RRU) has been established. The need for the RRU was justified due to the increasing pressure from district authorities, who do not have the capacity to mitigate HEC incidences. Consequently, higher levels of government are put under pressure to protect people and livelihoods, often resorting to lethal management of elephants. To avoid these lethal interventions, the role of the RRU is to (1) respond to HEC situations with near-immediate effect, (2) educate community members on how to behave around elephants and deploy HEC toolboxes more effectively, (3) systematically collect data on crop raiding incidences, mitigation methods deployed and elephant responses in order for us to develop an effective early warning system, and (4) disrupt elephant crop-raiding strategies through surprise intervention planning to ultimately contribute towards behavioural modification. The RRU is supported by the GPS collaring data when (1) identifying key human elephant conflict hotspots and (2) building crop raiding probability maps for the strategic deployment of long-term mitigation methods.

Starting from the knowledge that over 50% of elephant movements are outside of Protected Areas (PAs) and over 75% of elephant populations are transboundary, we used a satellite tracking approach to identify which wildlife corridors are most used by elephants.

While our initial plan was to establish a corridor between Gonarezhou (high elephant density) in Zimbabwe with Banhine and/or Zinave National Parks (low elephant density) in Mozambique, insufficient tracking data and reports linking the PAs in these countries (Zimbabwe to Mozambique) to define a conclusive corridor has made us shift our geographical location to Namaacha Valley in southern Mozambique. Here several elephants that we had collared outside of PAs in the hope to find more corridor moving individuals between PAs across southern Mozambique, have defined a vital corridor covering the southern extreme of the KNP, south towards Tembe National Park in South Africa and east towards the Futi corridor and MSR on the coast of Mozambique.

The collaring of elephants and analysis of the tracking data have shown us that existing PAs are too small for elephants. Using elephants as the landscape planners for connectivity across national boundaries, enabled us to identify human-elephant conflict hotspots where efforts are most likely to have the largest impact.

In order to manage parks sustainably, access to traditional resources is frequently restricted or changed. Such impacts must be reduced since local residents and resource users must directly or indirectly benefit from the MPA and be fully included in the solution. To steer local stakeholders away from the ongoing overexploitation of their mangrove and fishery resources, the development of environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative revenue creation was created. Apiculture was chosen to demonstrate that income can be generated from mangroves and other plants without destroying them and losing their ecological benefits. This activity has strengthened the two fishing associations and illustrated that they can cooperate to execute activities outside of their "normal" operations, the members stand to gain from it.

An important component of conserving the marine protected area is public education, communication, and increasing awareness about the value and vulnerability of the marine ecosystem. Capacity building activities were desperately needed and the project provided this opportunity to stakeholders including university students, local government officials, and FoProBiM employees. Everyone was glad to go outside and have real field experiences, which made the classes, both in the classroom and, in particular, the field, extremely well accepted. This was the first "large scale" activity that FoProBiM offered to many sectors, allowing them to meet each other, learn together and create new beneficial contacts. FoProBiM has conducted smaller, more directed activities similar to this in the past. As management operations for the 3-Bays continue to grow, this additional capacity will be crucial for all stakeholder groups.

This project encouraged the participation of youth and community volunteers to gain support and increase local knowledge of the importance of protecting local ecosystems. Increased community involvement will work to build capacity while empowering and strengthening local conservation efforts. The group of volunteers we currently work with is a mix of residents and visitors, men and women, young and old and from a wide range of backgrounds.

Efforts are made to keep policymakers involved and inform them of the importance of mangroves in general and restoration in particular to gain their support. 

A stakeholders workshop was conducted to share assessment results, address questions from the 2nd workshop, and discuss an action plan for mitigating identified negative impacts. Actions, activities, and timelines were discussed for each impact.

Based on the collected data, TT successfully engaged donors in funding projects aligned with reducing the negative impacts.

To mitigate the Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) negative impact, TT has constructed a 33km Elephant exclusion Fence and 8 additional 10% fences,  reducing HWC by over 80%.

To address the lack of water, TT provided 110 dam liners, each with a capacity of 56,000 L, resulting in the harvesting of over 6 million litres of surface run-off water.

In support of schools, TT is offering scholarships to 9 students and has constructed and equipped a Science and computer laboratory in a local secondary school.

To overcome information barriers, TT established a BULK SMS platform and grievances log to facilitate communication on key issues, ongoing projects, and address grievances between TT and communities.

TT is currently developing a SAPA review scheduled for July 2023 to assess the impact and change in perceptions resulting from the implemented interventions in communities.

The process involved in Data for decision-making included gathering information by conducting participatory community Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and from key stakeholders, development of digital questionnaires, enumerators training on data collection, community data collection exercise and analysing the collected data to draw meaningful insights.

The data-gathering process involved participatory FGDs and engaging stakeholders, collecting information on the positive and negative impacts of Tsavo Trust (TT). This supported the development of a structured survey. The first Stakeholder meeting presented FGD findings, with participants providing additional insights. A digital questionnaire was created based on this input. Ten trained enumerators collected data from 156 households (approx. 950 individuals), achieving gender balance.

Community meetings shared survey results and ideas for addressing negative impacts. A second Stakeholder workshop gathered additional ideas. These components generated meaningful insights for decision-making.

These key components, including participatory discussions, stakeholder engagement, the development of a digital questionnaire, and data collection from households, were instrumental in generating meaningful insights for decision-making.

This is the result of a multi-phase process:

• A phase of exchange with municipal players;

• A community work phase;

• A phase of analysis and processing of the information collected;

• Presentation of the information collected in workshops, exchanges and integration into the IMET tool whenever consensus is reached;

• Restitution of results generated by IMET to stakeholders.

The forest is supposed to be managed by a joint community. As the two communes are political rivals, belonging to 2 different political persuasions (one run by the ruling party and the other by an opposition party), it is important to avoid holding all meetings and events in a single commune. Each commune must be able to organize and host the other in an alternative way. The strategy of alternating the holding of meetings in the two communes helped to encourage participation, with the support of the administrative and municipal authorities.

Discussions with stakeholders to put the project into context and identify the role of each player in order to ensure more effective implementation. A field mission was carried out to meet with local authorities (sub-prefects and mayors), the local administration of the Ministry of Forests and Fauna (MINFOF), local elected representatives, traditional chiefs, local elites and guides.