PIONEERING RESEARCH
Space for Giants was literally built on research and science, evolving from our founder’s Cambridge PhD on human-wildlife conflict.
Data continues to drive and refine our approach. For close to two decades, we have studied how people and wild animals live together, and how that relationship is changing in the modern world
Our very foundation was scientific research, with major academic studies of elephant movements in increasingly human landscapes. We continue to collar and track elephants to inform policy, and train rangers to use new technology to guide conservation management. In 2019, we began pioneering research on human-elephant conflict with forest elephants, and produced the first of a series of Working Papers to help build Africa’s wildlife economy.
smart patrols
Rangers are in the field on a daily basis, and they are the best eyes and ears we have to understand the landscapes we seek to conserve. We have helped trial a new smartphone-based app for rangers called the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) in Loisaba Conservancy that collects data on animal sightings, security incidents, and patrol information.
ELEPHANT MOVEMENTS
Increasing human settlement and activity is encroaching on what used to be relatively wild areas. In places, this happens on elephant migration paths, increasing the chance of human-elephant conflict. By fitting elephants with collars carrying chips linked to satellites, we can map their movements and advise authorities of areas with the highest wildlife densities. This informs policy, and makes it easier for wildlife and people to continue to live alongside each other.
academic papers
Space for Giants has built up the world’s leading database of research about how elephants react to increasing human settlement. Our research on Kenya’s savannah elephants in Laikipia has led to further study being commissioned on similar topics for forest elephants in Gabon.