Building and Elephant Aware Economy in communities in Botswana that share space and resources with elephants.

The Elephant Aware Economy initiative was established by the Ecoexist Trust ten years ago in an effort to tip the cost-benefit imbalance of living with elephants: increasing the value in elephants and realising opportunities that lie in the development of a sustainable, non-consumptive local economy for tangible benefit generation, at a household level, in communities sharing space and resources with the largest population of elephants on the planet. The Elephant Aware Economy is a collective of these innovative enterprises that, together, contribute an important driver of a local circular economy and job creation (see www.elephantawareeconomy.org).

This initiative provides support in the form of policy and legislation facilitation, governance, management and financial capacity building, skills development opportunities, and agency services that helps link Elephant Aware enterprises to markets.