Zambia has joined four other African countries to start a program to identify the traditional routes used by elephants as corridors, local newspaper Zambia Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

So far, eight elephants in Zambia have been darted and attached with monitoring collars that would assist ecologists in discovering their routes and corridors formed over hundreds of years ago.

Most ecologists and tourism managers have found difficulties in identifying the real corridors for elephants, which could cause human beings to encroach on their routes and natural habitat.

This coupled with tourism developments have resulted into wildlife-human conflicts that are usually seen in African countries.

The program, initiated by the Peace Parks organization headed by former South African president Nelson Mandela, is being implemented in conjunction with Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) and the Wildlife Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia ( WECSZ).

The development follows the signing of an agreement last week between five African countries that include Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The five countries are also involved through Peace Parks funding in the Kavango-Zambezi transfrontier park program on elephants and environmental protection.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2006)