The Elephants and Bees Project is part of the Save the Elephants’ Human Elephant Coexistence Program, based in Sagalla, Kenya, next to Tsavo National Park. Our award-winning project explores the use of Beehive Fences as a natural elephant deterrent, helping protect farmers and farmland. The idea is based on our innovative research using elephants’ fear of African honeybees to help reduce crop-damage and minimize other human-elephant conflict incidences. A win-win addition to the HEC Toolbox of deterrent methods, beehive fences help create a social and economic boost to farmers through pollination services and the harvesting of ‘Elephant-Friendly Honey’.

Elephants near a homestead in Sagalla © Jessica Van Fleteren 2016

Watch Dr Lucy King’s TED Talk given at the TEDWomen Conference in Palm Springs, California in December 2019. If you want to view in high definition click here to direct you to the talk page on the TED website.

Dr Lucy King established this award winning research project, and leads this exciting collaboration between Save the Elephants, Oxford University and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

“I congratulate Dr. King as the winner of this important award. Her research underlines how working with, rather than against, nature can provide humanity with many of the solutions to the challenges countries and communities face. Dr. King’s work spotlights an intelligent solution to an age-old challenge while providing further confirmation of the importance of bees to people and a really clever way of conserving the world’s largest land animal for current and future generations.”

– UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner on Dr King winning the UNEP/CMS Thesis Award 2011