tegalyoso.id - YKWS Lampung has completed its 4th cycle grant project from The Small Grant Program of the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity in Indonesia (SGP ACB Indonesia). The project was implemented over a period of 6 months in Tegal Yoso Village which directly encircles Way Kambas National Park (WKNP), one of the ASEAN Heritage Parks (AHP).

As one of the villages in the WKNP buffer zone, Tegal Yoso Village has the potential to be involved in national park conservation. However, they still face various challenges including the lack of human resource capacity and community institutional capacity in utilizing the potential of natural resources in a sustainable manner. Tegal Yoso village also faces the issue of human-elephant conflict. An area of 224.86 ha or approximately 40% of the village is part of the elephant home range. Most of the area is in the form of monoculture crops (corn or rice according to the season). These types of monoculture crops are highly preferred by elephants and are available in large quantities. As a result, human-elephant conflicts occur every year, resulting in crop damage and even the death of 2 residents. The lack of capacity to mitigate and adapt to human-elephant conflict is one of the main issues faced by Tegal Yoso villagers.

Specifically, the program had three objectives; improving the capacity of the Tegal Yoso Village community in overcoming negative human-elephant interactions; increasing community income through sustainable utilization of natural resources in the buffer zone of the national park; and increasing community awareness to participate in the conservation of Way Kambas National Park.

As an extension of the previous cycle, this project implemented a combination of mitigation patterns in an integrated manner. The combination of mitigating negative interactions, through IFFS planting patterns and routine patrols, was able to reduce damage to agricultural crops and increase agricultural yields by 20% compared to previous mitigation methods. The existence of development canals accompanied by routine patrols is expected to eliminate wild elephant disturbances. There is even the potential to increase income through tourism development from the results of the project activities mentioned above.

On Wednesday February 22^nd 2023, monitoring and evaluating activities for the SGP-ACB Cycle 4 grant program were carried out in Tegal Yoso village. The activity was carried out by GITEC, SGP-ACB Indonesia, KLHK, and DLH together with the WKNP Center and the Tegal Yoso Village Government.

The activity was intended to review the development and impact of the SGP-ACB cycle 4 grants to beneficiaries in Tegal Yoso Village. Monitoring and evaluating this time focused on reviewing the practice of agroforestry planting patterns carried out by the Tegal Yoso village community. This planting pattern is part of an effort to mitigate negative human-elephant interactions and efforts to increase community income apart from the usual monoculture planting patterns.

Gitec appreciates the seriousness of the village government in continuing and developing the activities carried out by YKWS in the SGP Cycle 4 program in 2022. This is certainly part of the village government's commitment to human resource development.

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