A Senegalese forestry engineer, Baba Dioum, said in 1968, 'In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught'. 

The elephant is a keystone species in relevant ecosystems and is an ambassador species in ecosystem conservation. As a small, non-profit conservation organization working towards helping Asian elephants and the people connected to them, Elemotion Foundation strongly believes that conserving elephants is impossible without conserving its habitat. Within that habitat, humans living in rural communities and wild elephants come into conflict. In Sri Lanka, around 400 elephants and 121 people were killed due to human-elephant conflict (HEC) in 2019 alone.

Elemotion Foundation has been working with rural communities affected by HEC in Sri Lanka for more than five years. We follow a holistic (ecosystem-based) approach to create a dialogue of conservation communication with school children of HEC affected communities living around Protected Areas. During the period, about 30 school education programs have been conducted in three districts of the country addressing children ages 6-18. Different local taxonomic groups including elephants and ecosystem functions are discussed in these programs by working with various experts and art professionals. Art and creativity are the skeletons on which to develop each program. Student engagement is maximized with creative indoor and outdoor activities. For some children, visiting their local Protected Area and observing different species is the first step in appreciating wildlife in their own neighbourhood. Children are allowed to express their ideas in intriguing and interconnected ways so they can eventually link together the various components of the ecosystem functions, which ultimately supports elephants. We experience such conservation education programs are more effective with the children who are already interested in science and conservation, the Environmental Scouts for example, of the schools.

The effectiveness of such conservation education programs can be seen in three ways. 1. The local schools see the positive impacts of the educational activities on the children and make repeated requests for Elemotion Foundation to conduct more programs. 2. The schools also invite us to cover the topics of their concern, poaching and littering, for example, revealing the programs can impact the children on targeted conservation topics. 3. The local wildlife ranger offices recognize the importance of our programs and request to conduct such in partnership. The teamwork of the local schools, the rangers, and Elemotion Foundation strengthens the community dialogue of species and habitat conservation.

https://www.elemotion.org/our-programs/education-for-conservation/