To date we have had over 800 volunteers since the project began in 2003 and we have now built 106 protection walls in the area!!! Quite an achievement and all thanks all past and future volunteers!

For 2012 we will be shifting our work further north which Hendrick has been busy planning over the last few weeks. We have spent alot of time this year securing the farms ready for the Ugab elephants rainy season movements and we hope that this year conflict cases in the area should be alot less thanks to all the new protection walls.  In addition Betsy and Hendrick had started the PEACE workshops in the area and we hope that the communities will slowly change their negative perceptions of the elephants.  Luckily the community is also building their own lodge and camp site for tourists, of course on the basis that they have elephants in the area and this will have a massive impact on elephant/human relations.  It was in this area that 4 elephants were shot 2 years ago so it has been an important area for EHRA to focus on.  Last year's rainy season passed with out any reported deaths, however we have missed one elephant from the Ugab Small herd, we called 'The Dowager' who Johannes says was not an old cow, so one could suspect that she was shot. 

So for the start of 2012 we will be tackling the farms around the Khorixas area and also running patrols in this area to finally get some confirmed data on the elephants who are moving through this area.  In addition it is a really important time for us to hold up a presence in the eastern farms where the elephants were shot, so patrols will also be spending much time mapping the elephants movements until the rains dry up and the elephants head back to the Ugab, around July/August. During the first building week for 2012 Hendrick was able to collect 12 application forms from local farms, so we are really happy to begin work in the area.  During the time the volunteers were at the first build site they were visited by Voortrekker who came to drink at the farm, along with a new herd of elephants that Hendrick described as 'wild'.  These herds of elephants we need to ID and map movements for have had a harsh time with much conflict, often being shot at by commercial farmers wanting them off their lands, mostly as the elephants break fences and of course water points.  So the tracking and ID photos will not be an easy task, and just as the Ugab and Huab herds used to be 9 years ago, these elephants are very afraid of humans and very skittish. 

The Khorixas area is a really hard area to track in but with Hendrick back on the team alongside Mattias we have every faith that they will be able to find them! In addition, all being well on the work permit front, Johannes should also be back on the team in 2012 and EHRA should be back on 'track' with the three top elephant trackers in the whole of Damaraland out in the field!! Currently there is no data what so ever on these animals and their movements, aside from the data Neil and the volunteer teams collected whilst working in the area, it seems they are the heards that also patrol the Kamanjab commercial farms, alot of the commercial farmers in this area often shoot at the elephants so we think there is a high probability that these elephants moved out of that area and are now the ones we see around Khorixas.

As soon as the group are back from patrol on Friday 10th February we will post details of the new herds which they have managed to track down.