A PRESTON lecturer is hoping to raise a staggering £25,000 to build a research centre in Kenya to help save the country's population of wild elephants.

Dr Chris Southgate, who teaches environmental management at the University of Central Lancashire, wants to set up a new field centre for research into ecotourism in Massailand, Kenya.

The senior lecturer has already raised £1,000 through charitable donations, and work on the site has begun to help save thousands of wild elephants, currently under threat, due to increased agricultural developments.

It is hoped the centre will provide training for Massai people as well as students from the UCLan and UK schools.

Dr Southgate said: "In the past the Massai lived in harmony with the wildlife. They tended herds of cattle and during the day took them to the traditional watering holes and springs. "These were used by the wildlife at night and there was no conflict of interest. However, the situation has changed rapidly."

According to Dr Southgate, who has been assessing the threats posed by environmental developments in Massailand for the past eight years, the Massai people are increasingly using the land to grow lucrative cash crops causing the watering holes used by the elephant to dry up. "Increasingly, wild animals that have relied on them are wandering into agriculture areas to search for water," Dr Southgate said. "In the resulting conflict they are losing out and being killed. This never happened before."

Dr Southgate, who has just launched a new degree course in ecotourism at the Preston-based university, believes killing elephants is bad economics.

"The Massai people could actually earn five times as much (per acre) from sustainable ecotourism than from growing cash crops," he said.

"If the right structures are put in place the Massai people can benefit directly from Western ecotourism -- but only if the wildlife people want to see is still there."