{"id":2191192,"date":"2026-05-25T18:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T17:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2191192"},"modified":"2026-05-22T13:15:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:15:21","slug":"electric-fences-help-farmers-and-elephants-coexist-in-zambian-borderlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/electric-fences-help-farmers-and-elephants-coexist-in-zambian-borderlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Electric fences help farmers and elephants coexist in Zambian borderlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

LUNDAZI, Zambia \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s not possible [to coexist with elephants], because they are animals and we are human beings \u2014 they should have their own home,\u201d says Esnart Banda, a Zambian farmer whose maize and tobacco fields lie 5 meters, just 16 feet, from the boundary of Malawi\u2019s Kasungu National Park.<\/p>\n

Just two thin strands of orange, plastic-coated wire now stand between Banda\u2019s crops and Kasungu\u2019s elephants.<\/p>\n

The wires, known as polywire fencing and supplied by conservation group IFAW and Zambia\u2019s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), are strung taut between straight, evenly cut fence poles that Banda and her helpers erected. To the uninitiated, they hardly seem capable of stopping a herd of elephants. But Banda herself attests to their effectiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s strong, it helps us,\u201d she tells Mongabay. \u201cIf somebody touches it, they fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Farmer
Farmer Harry Msimuko stands in front of wires that carry a powerful electric charge, protecting his own crops and those of 19 other households from elephants from nearby Kasungu National Park. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

On a neighboring farm, within sight of the bare granite faces of Malawi\u2019s Miwonde Hills, Harry Msimuko shows off the \u201cpower house\u201d in his living room: two solar-powered batteries with wiring snaking up the wall. When he flicks a switch at night, pulses of electricity run along 6 kilometers (nearly 4 miles) of fencing enclosing not only his crops but those of 19 neighbors.<\/p>\n

The only recent conflict, he says, has been with hyenas crossing from Kasungu; he\u2019s lost goats and pigs to the carnivores, but the elephants have stayed away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are protected and this [fencing] will help,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The fencing is just one of several measures IFAW and the national parks department are using to help farmers and elephants coexist in this part of eastern Zambia. Others include tracking satellite-collared herds to give farmers advance warning of their approach; erecting signs at schools and community centers advising people on how to avoid provoking elephants; and broadcasting adverts and live phone-in programs on local radio, where farmers can share their experiences of crop-raiding animals.<\/p>\n

Eleven years ago, Malawi and Zambia signed a treaty establishing the Malawi-Zambia Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA), intended to allow wildlife to move freely between Kasungu and Zambia\u2019s Lukusuzi and Luambe national parks.<\/p>\n

To reach Lukusuzi, and its 2,720 square kilometers (1,050 square miles) of intact miombo woodland, elephants must, however, cross a narrow stretch of populated land containing farms like Banda\u2019s. They must also cross roads and navigate past schools and homes.<\/p>\n

They would need to move through the remaining pockets of intact forest, where they could travel without clashing with farmers or being harassed.<\/p>\n

Such routes for elephants once existed, says Letesiya Phiri, chieftainess of Mwasemphangwe, one of seven chiefdoms in the TFCA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [human] population has grown and most of those routes are now people\u2019s fields,\u201d she says. \u201cTo say [to those farmers], \u2018Move, so that the animals can pass through\u2019 \u2013 they will come to me asking for alternative land. I don\u2019t have any more land for them to be given.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Letesiya
Letesiya Phiri, seated at right, says pathways used by elephants in the past to travel through her chiefdom and surrounding areas are now largely occupied by farms. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n
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\"Sunflower,
Sunflower, tobacco and maize fields at Chimwando village, eastern Zambia, within sight of Malawi\u2019s Miwonde Hills. The fields edge up to within 5 meters of the boundary of Malawi\u2019s Kasungu National Park \u2014 putting them in the direct line of hungry elephant herds. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Her comments highlight the obstacles facing efforts to reconnect Kasungu and Lukusuzi: even where corridors are ecologically viable, finding space for them within an increasingly crowded landscape is far more difficult.<\/p>\n

So far, though, some of the conservation interventions do seem to be working. Farmers with fields now surrounded with protective wires have reported seeing elephant footprints circling their crops, tracing the bright orange fencing, and not breaking through.<\/p>\n

For her part, Banda says she doesn\u2019t plan to remain confined behind the wire. New fields will need to be cleared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got children, they need that land to work,\u201d she says. She\u2019s not the only one who feels this way.<\/p>\n

While she says she hopes support will be available to fence future fields, continued expansion will leave fewer routes for elephants moving across the TFCA. Mongabay observed tree stumps jutting from freshly cleared tobacco fields, and woodlands being cut for fuel to cure tobacco leaves in wood-fired barns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [farmers] just keep increasing their fields,\u201d says Alstone Mwanza, IFAW\u2019s community engagement manager. Since he started working with IFAW here last September, he says he\u2019s already noticed the impacts. \u201cWhere once there was forest, it has now been cleared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed further, Banda says she understands the idea of wildlife corridors \u2014 designated areas allowing elephants to pass between farms \u2014 but doubts everyone will agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cMyself, I can say yes, make a corridor so that they can pass by, going to Lukusuzi, and coming from Lukusuzi, going to Malawi \u2014 there will be no problem. But with my friend, we will argue.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Map
In this July 2025 map on the EarthRanger platform, most elephant herds are shown congregated in Kasungu National Park, green dots show one herd having left Kasungu, crossed the farming corridor to travel along the eastern boundary of Lukusuzi National Park, before crossing back through farming districts to return to Kasungu. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n
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\"IFAW
IFAW community engagement manager Alstone Mwanza stands in a narrow gap between a Zambian farmer\u2019s fields and the boundary of Malawi\u2019s Kasungu National Park. Crops grown so near to the park are vulnerable to raids by hungry elephants, and IFAW has been erecting polywire fencing around such vulnerable sites to mitigate against human-wildlife conflict. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Sitting barefoot on the porch of her palace, within view of a low range of mountains near Lukusuzi\u2019s eastern edge, Phiri says that even if land could be set aside, other challenges remain.<\/p>\n

She says Lukusuzi lacks sufficient standing water to sustain elephants year-round. If water is scarce, herds will simply return to Kasungu.<\/p>\n

Ideally, IFAW officials say, elephants that reach Lukusuzi would continue farther, into the adjoining Luambe National Park, and the Luangwa River running along its western boundary.<\/p>\n

Despite heavy human presence, the window of opportunity to establish elephant corridors across farmland may not yet be entirely closed.<\/p>\n

The elephants themselves have shown this.<\/p>\n

Working on his laptop in the small town of Lundazi, in the heart of one of the TFCA\u2019s main farming districts, IFAW\u2019s landscape conservation program manager Henry Ndaimani pulls up satellite tracking data from last July. It shows a herd leaving Kasungu, crossing farmland into Lukusuzi, moving along the park\u2019s eastern edge, then cutting diagonally back across farms to Kasungu.<\/p>\n

On the EarthRanger map, green dots mark the herd\u2019s hourly positions. Across farmland, the gaps between dots widen \u2014 indicating faster movement, perhaps 8-10 kilometers per hour, or 5-6 miles per hour.<\/p>\n

For the elephants, Ndaimani says, farms represent \u201ca landscape of fear.\u201d But for people like him, working to restore landscape connectivity, the data are encouraging.<\/p>\n

July falls outside Zambia\u2019s main cropping season, suggesting the elephants were not raiding crops back then, but moving between habitats. Ndaimani points to green drainage lines cutting through the brown patchwork of fallow fields within the corridor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the areas that the elephants are trying to use,\u201d he says. \u201cBut do we have enough connectivity between Kasungu and Lukusuzi? It depends on the amount of green.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Dense,
Dense, intact miombo woodland in Lukusuzi National Park in eastern Zambia. This park could be a key stepping stone to help elephants move from Malawi\u2019s Kasungu National Park to Zambia\u2019s Luambe National Park. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Much has changed in the 22 years since Malawi and Zambia signed the agreement establishing the TFCA, Ndaimani adds. There are now more people, and more farms. But the movement data suggest connectivity can still be achieved.<\/p>\n

Collins Mwebela has seen this firsthand. At a shaded campsite in Kaleza, where domed green tents sit behind a grass fence, Mongabay meets him and fellow members of a rapid response unit. Theirs is one of five such mobile teams set up by IFAW to respond to elephant incursions on farms, using firecrackers or warning shots to drive the animals away.<\/p>\n

Last year, he says, a herd that showed no signs of crop raiding crossed farmland and a main road on its way toward Lukusuzi National Park. But at dawn, people spotted the elephants and began shouting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how they turned [back] again,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Elephant movements like these aren\u2019t down to luck, but to IFAW\u2019s and DNPW\u2019s strategy of deploying early warnings, erecting physical deterrents like the cluster fences, and empowering communities through awareness, says Mathews Mumbi, a senior ranger from DNPW\u2019s East Luangwa Area Management Unit. Mumbi recalls how, last June, an elephant herd crossed into Lumezi district and reached Kavikuyu, a populated area between Kasungu and Lukusuzi that\u2019s normally a hotspot for elephant incursions.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time in years, instead of destroying crops and causing chaos, the elephants simply turned around and left without any harm to people or property,\u201d Mumbi says. \u201cPeaceful coexistence is not only possible but is already in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article <\/a>by Ryan Truscott was first published by Mongabay on 20 May 2026. Lead Image: Elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Malawi in 2006. Image by st georges via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).<\/em><\/p>\n

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