From Indonesia’s elephant to Philippine eagle, wildlife matters

Jose B. Collazo, Curtis S Chin

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From Indonesia’s elephant to Philippine eagle, wildlife matters
A richer Asia and Southeast Asia would be a poorer place without them

This month marks the two-year anniversary of the Philippines’ destroying its five-ton stockpile of seized elephant tusks. 

The June 21, 2013 incident “marked not only the first time an ivory-consuming nation took such a public action but also the first time a country took steps to guarantee that [seized ivory] could not re-enter the black market,” according to Laurel Neme, a noted advisor on environmental and wildlife policy and regular contributor to National Geographic.

Underscoring the difficulties of destroying ivory and ensuring that there is no “leakage” from government stockpiles, the Philippines, “rather than opting for the visually evocative burning of a massive pyre, decided to crush its ivory with road equipment and burn what remained.”

Kudos to the Philippines. Yet, two years later, the region’s elephants, like numerous Philippines’ indigenous wildlife species, are under continued threat. Whether for the majestic Philippines Eagle in Mindanao and the dwarf buffalo, known as the tamaraw, in Mindoro or the elephants that once roamed wild across large parts of Southeast Asia, more must be done to ensure their survival amid Southeast Asia’s ongoing rush to develop.

In the world’s two largest archipelago nations, Indonesia and the Philippines, “biodiversity hotspots” are at risk of becoming “biodiversity not, spots.”

The Rainforest Action Network, a California-based environmental organization, says the rapid loss of Indonesia’s biologically rich and diverse rain forests is driving numerous species to the very edge of survival.

In Vietnam, the pangolin – a scaly anteater-like mammal often described as Asia’s most trafficked animal – is being hunted down for food there as well as for illegal export to China.

And in Thailand earlier this year, the government seized six protected Asian black bears from a well-known Buddhist temple in Kanchanaburi nicknamed “Tiger Temple” for more than 145 tigers also housed there. The Thai Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has since controversially ruled the temple’s monks and staff can continue to keep the tigers but not profit off of them.

Yet, it is the iconic Southeast Asian elephant that is being killed for its ivory, meat and body parts. The destruction and fragmentation of the animal’s natural habitat and disruption of migratory routes by logging and plantations also have led to deadly encounters and the killing of elephants.

Collateral damage

As the 10 nations that comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations build more roads and other infrastructure to connect the region and speed economic growth, Asian elephants and other wildlife are too often collateral damage.

The plight of the elephant, while not native to the Philippines, offers lessons that should be taken to heart across the region.

At one time, Asian elephants were found in large numbers as far west as the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in the Indian subcontinent, throughout Southeast Asia, and into China. At the beginning of the 20th century, hundreds of thousands of wild elephants may have lived in Asia.

Today, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization, with more than 1,200 government and NGO members – classifies the Asian elephant as endangered, with no more than 50,000 living in isolated populations across the region. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that the number is much lower – with no more than 25,000 living in the wild.

The overall population decline of the Asian elephant is most evident in Southeast Asia. The IUCN estimates the wild elephant population size in in Cambodia between 250 to 600; Indonesia 2,400 to 3,400; Laos 500 to 1,000; Malaysia 2,100 to 3,100; Myanmar is 4,000 to 5,000; Thailand 2,500 to 3,200; and Vietnam 70 to 150.

So, is there hope for Asia’s wildlife? How to ensure the Asian elephant does not go the way of the now extinct Bali Tiger?

What needs to be done

First, field research is necessary to better determine how many elephants live in the wild and their living habits. Present population figures, according to the ICUN, are at best “guesstimates” of the true number of wild elephants. Accurate data will yield dividends regarding how to best design programs to protect Southeast Asia’s remaining elephants.

Second, ASEAN governments need stronger legislation and enforcement against poaching and the illegal ivory trade. Here, China must also step up given the outsized role of the Chinese consumer in the demand for elephant and other wildlife products. Filipinos must also “just say no” to ivory and other illegal animal products.

Recently, Singapore authorities seized the biggest illegal shipment of ivory and other exotic animal parts in more than a decade – some $6 million worth of tusks, rhino horns and other animal parts hidden among bags of tea leaves and en route to Vietnam and likely onward to China.  A few weeks earlier more than 700 ivory tusks from African elephants were seized at Bangkok’s port, en route initially to Laos. 

At the moment, lax enforcement of existing laws, particularly in the “Golden Triangle” area encompassing Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, has made this region a hub for the sale of ivory and elephant body parts. This needs to stop.  Education will also be key in reducing demand.

Third, as Southeast Asia’s long tradition of domesticated elephants fades, the capture of juvenile elephants for tourism purposes must be halted.

According to the American Museum of Natural History, elephants performing for tourists may have been violently separated from their families at a very young age. In turn, the life they might well go on to live — shackled, isolated and caged — is no way to treat a domesticated animal, much less a wild one. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, a major U.S. entertainment institution, has come to the same conclusion and recently announced that by 2018 it will no longer feature elephants in its shows. Hopefully, a similar movement will take hold in ASEAN.

Finally, we need to acknowledge that what elephants truly need is space to survive. This means creating elephant sanctuaries, such as the Elephant Valley Project, a Cambodian ecotourism projected funded in part by the United States Agency for International Development. Buffer zones also need to be established around economic hubs to decrease human-elephant conflict.

None of this is easy particularly as nations in the region struggle to develop their economies to improve their citizen’s standard of living.

The tagline of the World Wildlife Fund is “building a future in which people and nature thrive.”  Locally, WWF-Philippines, known as Kabang Kalikasan ng Pilipinas, advances that effort through programs ranging from environmental education to endangered species conservation.

But, whether the elephants of Indonesia or the Philippines Eagle, a richer Asia and Southeast Asia in particular would be a poorer place without them.  As the Philippines continues to develop economically, all its citizens must recognize that the nation’s indigenous wildlife is an asset not a barrier to growth. – Rappler.com

 

Curtis S. Chin, a former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, is managing director of RiverPeak Group.  Jose B. Collazo is a Southeast Asia analyst and an associate at advisory firm RiverPeak Group.   Follow them on Twitter at @CurtisSChin and @JoseBCollazo.

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