| Exetel Devotes USD 300,000 to 'Saving Elephants by Helping People' Project |
| Posted
date 1/19/2010 12:50:26 AM |
biz.lk---Through a fortuitous set of circumstances Exetel Private Ltd and the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS) have collaborated to develop a project that would contribute to dry zone dairy development through sustainable land management to benefit both elephants and people.
Sri Lanka's primary rural industry is agriculture and nearly 80% of Sri Lanka's population is rural and more than 40% of the rural poor people in Sri Lanka are small farmers who suffer pre and post-harvest losses as high as 40-50% mostly due to Human Elephant Conflict (HEC). The annual cost in terms of damage caused by elephants to agriculture crops is estimated to be Rs. 1,100 million (~US$10 million) annually.
Elephants and agriculture livelihoods based on crops practiced by Dry Zone farmers are incompatible, however it has been discovered that elephants and cattle inhabiting the same area use the same sources of food and water and live without conflicts. This behaviour was first documented by a government veterinarian A.P.W. Nettasinghe, as far back as 1973 when he conducted a seminal study on the inter-relationship of livestock and elephants at the Thamankaduwa Farm with reference to their feeding and the environment.
The proposed project is to establish a model sustainable dairy farm based on the concepts of eco-agriculture to support the SLWCS' efforts to develop sustainable solutions to mitigate human elephant conflicts and also function as an extension unit to demonstrate and disseminate good animal husbandry practices among the village communities and thereby encourage them to adopt livestock management as an integral part of their agricultural activity since it is highly compatible with elephants.
The ultimate goal and objective of the project is to develop a dairy model on the concepts of eco-agriculture which will provide a sustainable land-use system to manage the land to both produce food and to protect wildlife and other critical ecosystem services as well as greatly minimize HEC.
An Exetel director explained the company's role in the project "We have undertaken this project in light of the realization that private sector resources need to be channeled into the rural agricultural sector if the incentives and support provided by the State are to be utilized effectively by subsistence farmers. The farm whilst being a commercial operation will also be a platform for facilitating the supply of veterinary extension services provided by the State to subsistence farmers. It is also intended to demonstrate to local farmers that adopting appropriate ecoagricultural practices is commercially viable and will vastly improve their socio-economic status".
The Society will work in partnership and consultation with the Farm Animal Production & Health Department and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine & Animal Science of the University of Peradeniya, National Livestock Development Board, Department of Animal Health and Production, the Engineering and Electronic Communications Laboratory of the University of Moratuwa as well as various local and national government institutions including the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute.
Further information can be found at
http://www.slwcs.org/exetel and http://www.exetel.com.au/fauna-elephant.php.
The general public is also invited to visit the model project. Please contact wasgamuwa@slwcs.org or call +94735463377.
ABOUT EXETEL PVT LTD
Exetel Private Limited is one of the most innovative information and communications technology (ITC) companies in Australia with offices in Sydney, New South Wales. As part of their regional economic development and expansion efforts Exetel has been operating one of the largest customer service call centers in Sri Lanka for the past number of years. Exetel is highly committed to endangered species conservation and sustainable development and provides support for such efforts through its corporate social responsibility program.
ABOUT THE SLWCS
The Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS) is probably the only community based international Sri Lankan organization in existence with offices in Sri Lanka, USA and Australia, and it has been addressing the resolution of human elephant conflicts for the past 14 years. The SLWCS developed the innovative concept of erecting electric fences around villages and fields rather than putting them around national parks. The first community based participatory project of the Society, called, Saving Elephants by Helping People (SEHP) project which was established in 1997 is the longest continuously operating such project in Sri Lanka. In September 2009, the Minister of Local Government and Provincial Council's, Hon. Janaka Bandara Tennakoon was the Chief Guest at the 10th Anniversary celebrations of the SEHP Wasgamuwa project. In 2008 the SLWCS was awarded a UNDP Equator Initiative Equator Prize which honors community-based projects that represent outstanding efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
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