A bee weighs 0.1 grams, while an Asian elephant can reach 5 tons. However, despite their small size, these tiny insects are aiding in the recovery of elephant populations and easing human-elephant conflicts.
With China’s intensified ecological conservation efforts, the population and activity range of elephants have gradually swelled. In Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, the population of wild elephants has grown from 120 in the 1980s to over 300 today. As conservation efforts grow stronger and villager awareness improves, the number of elephants in China continues to rise, while the range of activities is also increasing. The overlap (重叠部份) of elephant activity with human living and production areas has put constraints (限制) on some villagers, making the alleviation of this conflict a current conservation goal.
Zhang Jiangmei, a villager from Daotangqing village, is involved in a project aimed at promoting Asian elephant conservation through community livelihood development. The project provides each participating village household with 10 boxes of Chinese honey bees, along with full support. The project empowers residents to engage in beekeeping and eco-friendly farming, enhancing skills and income, reducing losses caused by elephant activities, and reducing human-elephant conflicts. Now, Zhang has a deeper understanding of the relationship between people and elephants, and she recognizes the significance of her beekeeping. “I tell everyone, ‘You taste the sweetness of my honey, and I benefit, as do the elephants,’” Zhang said. “Additionally, beekeeping also protects the forest. In Xishuangbanna, we have elephants, and we have primitive forests; our beekeeping aims not to disturb the elephants.” Beekeeping has increased her annual income by more than 7,000 yuan.
“When we began the project, it was to promote development and push forward the protection of Asian elephants,” Cao Dafan, project lead of the Asian Elephant Protection project, said. “We started from an economic perspective by increasing villager income and reducing their hostile (敌对的) attitudes toward the elephants. The villagers’ attitudes toward elephants depended on the losses caused by the elephants. By promoting economic development and changing production methods, we can transform the relationship between villagers and elephants.”
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