Accra, Aug. 22, GNA - The Ghana Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission has through a pilot project reduced elephant crop raiding activities around the Kakum National Park, Mr Moses Sam, a Director of the Division said on Tuesday in Accra.

He said the pilot project has given farmers within five communities around the park a lot of relief and hence the need for the programme to be expanded to other areas.

Mr Sam, Director of Ashanti region said this at the opening of a three-day international symposium on "African Elephant Conservation," being attended by about 40 participants from 20 African countries. He said the Division was able to achieve success through the collaborative efforts of the Conservation International with support of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) through the use of low cost techniques by mixing diesel and pepper and hanging them on sticks in the farms and also mixing pepper with palm husk and burning them around the farms.

He said the main challenges facing the division in terms of elephant conservation was the conversion of most of the habitat into farmlands, the lack of funds to expand the scaring programmes and the illegal killing of the animals.

Mr Sam called for collaboration with stakeholders to determine the migratory pattern of cross-border elephants in the north of Ghana and that "but for the political upheavals in Cote d'Ivoire, the Government of Ghana and that country had initiated a joint committee to establish a system of elephant migratory corridors within and between our countries".

He expressed the hope that in the near future the two countries would be able to get back to the drawing board to resume the negotiations.

Mr Bill Clark, an Advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, who spoke on the present state of illegal trafficking in elephant ivory said to those who engaged in the trade it a low risk business compared to drugs.

He called on all stakeholders to be vigilant in helping to arrest the perpetrators of the ivory trade. Mr Alfred Oteng Yeboah, a Deputy Director-General for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), who chaired the function, expressed the hope that the objective for holding the symposium would be achieved.