Poliwire (polywire) is a mix of fine wire strands interwoven with polyethylene, and due to its flexibility, it is not stiff enough to form wildlife snares; thereby not creating any collateral damage to other wildlife.
\nEach solar-electric poliwire fence consists of poles encircling a field upon which a single strand of poliwire is placed at 1.7 metres high, with flagging strips attached between each pole to ensure visibility by the elephants. Fencing to deter elephants has shown success only if it completely encircles the property that needs protection (Hoare 2012). Electrification of the poliwire is achieved with a solar panel, solar charge controller, small sealed battery and Energiser unit, which can be placed in existing farm buildings or makeshift shelters adjacent to fields. A minimum voltage of 7.0 kV is the target, based on studies in Kenya with the use of electrified fences to deter elephant crop-raiding on the Laikipia Plateau (Graham et al. 2009). Due to the greater resistivity of the poliwire\u2019s six stainless steel strands compared to conventional fencing wire, it can only maintain a voltage of 7.0 kV on farms that are one kilometre in circumference or less. Therefore this poliwire product is more suited to mitigation of human elephant conflict on smaller farm plots and its cost-effective pricing compared to conventional electric fencing can make it suitable for small-scale subsistence farmers. This method can also be used to deter hippopotamus by dropping the height of the poliwire.<\/p>\n
References:
\nGraham M.D., Gichohi N., Kamau F., Aike G., Craig B., Douglas-Hamilton I. and Adams W.M. (2009) The Use of Electrified Fences to Reduce Human Elephant Conflict: A Case Study of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Laikipia District, Kenya, Working Paper 1, Laikipia Elephant Project.
\nHoare R (2012) Lessons from 15 years of human\u2013elephant conflict mitigation: Management considerations involving biological, physical and governance issues in Africa. Pachyderm 51, 60-74.
\nKahler J.S., Roloff G.J. and Gore M.L. (2013) Poaching risks in community\u2010based natural resource management. Conservation Biology 27(1), 177-186.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Solar-electric poliwire fencing is aimed at mitigating the impact of elephants on the livelihoods of subsistence farmers. It is a small, portable, farm-based initiative used during each cropping season to deter elephants from individual fields, while allowing them to continue to move through the landscape and access resources that they need. Our initiative uses a single strand of poliwire to completely encircle a small field or group of vegetable gardens (<1 km circumference) to prevent access by elephants. The initiative provides a relatively low-cost, low-labour, low-maintenance method, which will be important in HEC areas where it is difficult to instil community ownership\/management of wildlife conflict. It can provide an additional deterrent method for use in HEC management, especially in areas where elephants may have become habituated to other methods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":4612,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4581","initiatives","type-initiatives","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type-mobile-fences","type-physical-biological-and-virtual-fences","type-preventing-access","species-elephant-en","species-herbivores","species-hippopotamus","countries-africa","countries-botswana-en","countries-zambia","issues-crops"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/encosh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/initiatives\/4581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/encosh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/initiatives"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/encosh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/initiatives"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encosh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/398"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encosh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4581"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/encosh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/initiatives\/4581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4669,"href":"https:\/\/encosh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/initiatives\/4581\/revisions\/4669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encosh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/encosh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}