Elephants raiding crops create conflicts that result in elephant deaths and human suffering. Evidence-based coexistence tools protect both parties and reduce retaliatory killing.
Human-elephant conflict creates welfare harms for both species. Elephants killed in retaliation for crop raiding die violently and traumatically; injured elephants may suffer for days or weeks. The communities involved also suffer genuine harms — crop loss, fear, and sometimes lethal attacks. Coexistence solutions that effectively reduce crop damage while keeping elephants alive serve both welfare goals. The beehive fence project, developed by Save the Elephants in Kenya, demonstrates that low-cost, community-maintained deterrents can dramatically reduce raiding while generating honey income for participating farmers. The welfare argument for investing in coexistence infrastructure is compelling: the alternative is a cycle of conflict, retaliatory killing, and population decline that serves no one.