$5 million has been included to Gabon‘s 2022 budget as compensation for victims, particularly farmers whose crops were destroyed by elephants.
“In the past, we did not have a budget to compensate victims of the conflict between man and elephants. But, this year, we have included five million US dollars, the equivalent of 3,046,536,400 FCFA, in the national budget for the purpose,” Minister of Water and Forestry Lee White on Monday said.
According to White, the provision is in response to accusations that he was more concerned with defending elephants than human beings whose livelihoods the animal had destroyed.
The government recognises the absolute necessity of “protecting people’s means of subsistence, security, and standard of living,” the minister said.
Human-elephant conflict is now a serious national problem in the Central African country, with elephants regularly destroying agricultural parcels of land to the detriment of the national population.
“The human-elephant conflict is very complex, and scientists have discovered that in the Lope National Park, the production of fruits has dropped by 80 per cent because the temperature has risen by 1 degree Celcius in less than 40 years, and rainfall has dropped. As a result, the elephants are hungry and leave the forest searching for fruits,” the minister said.
The government would consider building electronic barriers and other methods to keep the elephants out of farmlands, rather than killing them he said.
