Ishasha is based in Southern Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP), Uganda. This sector of QENP forms the largest and most significant connection to the Democratic Republic of Congoís Parc National des Virunga. Within the Ishasha Sector there are three river systems and the elephants come from the riverine forests to the community areas to crop raid. Along the eastern border of the QENP there is a hard edge of subsistence farming communities. By 1998 this border region had been experiencing serious crop raiding for over a decade, resulting in losses to the farmers and revenge killings of elephants. Some 339 crop raiding incidents in the Ishasha River Region were recorded between April 2001 and July 2003 at an average of 19 crop raids per month. In the last 18 months, some 1403 crop raiding events were fully documented demonstrating an alarming increase. With community crop losses beyond tolerable, communities have been spearing and poisoning elephants in revenge.
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