“The Gathering” in Sri Lanka’s Minneriya National Park is the world’s largest meeting in the wild of Asian elephants. Each year during the dry season, up to 300 elephants migrate here at a time to find water, feed and socialise.

However, when the elephants migrate, they can cause damage to crops and the local infrastructure. The scale of the challenge makes it difficult to address this using only nature-based solutions, such as chillies and bees.

Community-based fences respect the ecological boundary between elephants and people. It’s essential that there is human presence next to the fence and that they are regularly maintained – so to be successful, the whole community to be onboard.

There are two types of solar-powered community fences which work best: permanent village fences built around the boundary of settlements to protect dwellings and home-gardens; and seasonal paddy-field fences, built by farmers to protect crops during cultivation. These are placed on the boundary of the fields, removed at harvest and stored until the next growing season, allowing elephants to migrate without obstacles.

The project uses both solutions to maximise conservation efforts. It aims to support the livelihoods of local farmers by developing a sustainable tourism experience for domestic and international tourists and by training tour guides on sustainable and elephant-friendly tourism practices.

The project ended January 2024.