Vote Now for the Spicy Solution to Elephant Conservation

The World Challenge is on, and chili peppers are in the hot seat. In a competition hosted by BBC World and Newsweek, in association with Shell, to find individuals and groups from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at grass roots levels, the Elephant Pepper Development Trust has been selected as one of 12 final contestants.  

The Elephant Pepper Development Trust (EPDT) is a WCS-supported project that has unleashed the power of the hot pepper both to resolve human-elephant conflicts that arise from crop-raiding, as well as to raise money for farmers and conservation in Africa. Loki Osborn, project director for the EPDT, originated the idea of Elephant Pepper in 1997 in the Zambezi Valley, which straddles the borders of Zimbabwe and Zambia, to combat increasing confrontations between farmers and wildlife populations that share the same lands. Because chili peppers are unpalatable to elephants and other crop-raiding mammals, farmers plant them as buffers to surround their crops of maize, sorghum, and millet. The chili effectively wards off the elephants without harm, requires little expense, and introduces a viable cash crop to the economies of African nations.

Now the fiery fence posts are being bottled into hot sauces, jams, and relishes by two companies created by the trust, the African Spices Company in Zambia and the Chili Pepper Company in Johannesburg, South Africa. Hot sauce aficionados are eager to prove their mouths’ mettle against the burn that even elephants can’t stomach. Proceeds from these products are donated to the trust to support the development of chili-growing projects. Since its founding, the EPDT has served up to 250 farmers in the valley, and in 2003, the trust was awarded a $108,000 grant from the World Bank.

Voting for The World Challenge has already begun, and will run until October 16, 2005. The winning project will receive a $20,000 grant from Shell to help further its growth and development. To cast your vote for the spicy solution, and to learn more about the competition, click here. 

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