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IUCNiSSC ASIAN ELEPHANIT SPECIALIST GROUP NEWSLETTFR NT]MBER 7 IUCN/SSC ASIAN ELEPHANT SPECIALIST GROUP NEWSLETTER NUMBER 7 AUTUMN 1991 INIERNAIIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE AND NATURAL RESOURC€S sPtclcs sutvlvAt coMMlsslo|. WWF World Wide Fund For Nature Produced wilh the ossistonce ol World Wide Fund lor Nolure Aslan Elephant Speclallst Group NEWSLETTER Number 7 Autumn 1991 € wwF World Wide Fund For Nature Edltors: Lyn de Alwls & Charles Santlaplllal Inqulrles: - DR CHARLES SANTIAPILLAI Executive Secretary Asian Elephant Specialist GrouP PO Box 133, Bogor, Indonesia Tel : (0251)327316 F ax : (0251)321877 BADAKBOGOR The Newsletter is published and distributed by Charles Santiapillai (WWF-Asia Progranime) with financial assistiance from WWF-lnternational. Nevvsletter AdvlsorY GrouP Mr. J.C. Daniel, Prof. D.K. Lahiri-Choudhury Dr. R. Sukumar Dr. Simon Stuart The Aslan Etephant Speclallst Group Newsletter ls publlshed wlth the followlng alms: - - to highlight the plight of the Asian Elephant - to promote the conservation of the Asian Elephant - to provide a forum for communication amongst all the inembers Newsworthy adicles are invited for consideration for publi to Dr Charles Santiapillaih WWf - Asia Programme, PO Box 133, icles may be reprintbd. Reprinted articles sno.-utO give credit to the Ne ld appreciate necessarily receiving a copy ol any article so used. The opinions expressed by the authors do not reflect the policies of either WWF or IUCN. Cover: An adult bull elephant in the Ruhula National Park, Sri Lanka. (Photo credit: Charles Santiapillai). COMMENT areas to en' There is lately much concern over thg plight of the conservation areas are better than smaller elephants and thus re- elephants from the international conservation agencies- hance the long'term survival of extinctions, yet This is most welcome. Even the National Geographic duce the risks of early or untimely local in the Third World where mpgazine has devoted much of its space in its May 1991 in practice, most countries neither the money nor the trained issue to highlight the precarious situation facing the elephants occur, have protect such areas' long-term survival of both Asian and African elephants' manpower needed to adequately The international ban on ivory may have reduced sub- Nigel Leader-Williams and stantially the threat of poaching in the case of the It has been shown by decline of rhinos and elephants Afnican elephants, but as far as the Asian elephant S.D. Albon that rates of effort and spending' is concerned however, a more insidious threat is the are related directty to conservation conservation schemes rapid loss of its range. Throughout Asia, the elephants Their conclusion is that dither must be con' that roam outside a few conservation areas especially must be adequately funded, or resources parts of large reserves, if local ex' set aside for their protection are coming under increasing centrated in small Therefore it is imperative conflicts with man. tinctions are to be avoided. that international conservation organizations and aid into providing National Parks. as viab,le, self'zustaining areas in agencies focus their efforts and energies park infrastructure and its many Asian countries could prove to be poor bets for much more investment in of money available the long-term survival of the elephants if they are effective protection. The amount globally is still small compared managed in isolation and with no reference to the people for in.situ conservation countries for ex-situ living along the periphery of sr.rch areas. For elephant to that available in somq western set aside for the rn-situ conservation to succeed, it must have the support of conservation. The total budget whole of Africa for example, the local people, especially those who live in the vicinity conservation of'wildlife in US$ 75 000 000/- per year' of the reserves and often bear the brunt of elephant is estimated to be about Diego Zoo in USA depredations. This is not going to be easy. This can The total annual budget for the San ex'situ conser- only come about if protected areas such as National alone is US$ 70 OOO 0OO/-1. In any case, the elephants with their Parks and Nature Reserves are integrated as one form vation is not an option for requirements' of land use with the surrounding agricultural areas so intemperate appetites and vast space as to form a multiPle land use unit. lf elephant conservation is to succeed in the coming Conservati- National Park as "an area set aside where man can decades, then the ball is in the International long-term enjoy, as a privileged visitor, the plants and animals on Organizations' court. They have to adopt a the Government Organizations that are indigenous to that environment under con- perspective and assist in Asia ditions as little affected by his presence as possible" in the economically poor developing corntries as land-use planning may appeal to someone in the West following Western in tackling such broadei issues population growth rate' ethics, but for many Asians especially those from and the reduction in human elephant survival stem not only underdeveloped nations, this may be a bit difficult The factors adverse to of a burgeoning human population to comprehend. As Norman Myers once stated, "Policy from the aspirations from more demand by the industrialised for the United States parks concentrates on the aesthe' in Asia but also west for goods of the kinds which lead tic, as opposed. to the economic, factors of park values. countries in the pressures elephants' life-support systems' It suggests that if you once let commercial considera- to on the tions into a park, the place stops being a park: to which one might retort that in Africa, unless you let commer- cial considerations into a park, it will stop being a park". This may f ind an echo in many people in Asia too. The lesson from these arguments is that wildlife conservation must be integrated in such a way as to conler direct benefit to the surroundirig communities. Elephant conservation is no exception. In the final analysis, both economic as well as ecological considera- tions will determine the survival of much of the wild- life including the elephant. Although in theory, large THE STATUS OF ELEPHANTS IN VIETNAM Do Tuoc Forest Inventory and Planning Institute (FlPl) Van Dien-Thanh Tri Hanoi, Vietnam and Charles Santiapillai WWF-Asia Programme PO Box 133 Bogor, Indonesia INTRODUCTION Three decades of conflict during which the Vietnamese fought first with the French Vietnam is a thin, long and largely moun- and later the US caused not only the death of' tainous country situated between latitudes 8 N four million people, of which 60% were chil- and 24 N, at the southeastern margin of the dren: under the age of 1 6 years, but also des- Indo-Chinese peninsula (Fig. 1) lt has a total troyed thousands of ha of forests: saturation land area of 330,541 km2 with a coast line bombing dumped more than 72 million litres of about 3,200 km. Vietnam is principally of herbicides and 13 million tons of ammu- an agricultural country'with a rapidly growing nition, an amount 450 times the size of Hiroshi- human population of 65 million. The average ma atom bomb (Kernf, 1986). Huge bulldozers population density is 200 per km2 which is called "Rome Ploughs" .were used to clear one of the highest for any agricultural country forests from strategic areas (MacKinnon, 1990). in the world, thereby placing an "impossible These operations were directly attributed to strain on the environmental capacity of the the loss of 2 million ha of forest. But unfor- country" (lUCN, 1985). Given the present tunately, even more forest land has been lost rate of growth of 2J% per annum, the popu- since the end of the war through slash and burn lation is expected to double in 25 years (Westing agriculture, forest fires and fuel wood collec- & Westing, 1981 ). tion. According to Kemf (1986, 1990) these are responsible for the annual loss of 200,000 ) ha of forest cover. Reforesta.tign.ii going on at Forest cover the rate of 100,000 ha annually but only about 3% of the plants survive. ;- . ln the distant past, the entire country was covered with dense tropical forest vegetation with the predominance of monsoon evergreen Protected Areas in Vietnam tropical dense forest (Hoe & Quy, 1990). As park, Cuc Phuong recently as 1 960, about 65% of the area south The 'first national 'was of the 17th parallel was forested, of which un- established in'1962. Today, the.country has se- disturbed primary forest accounted for about ven national parks (Cuc Phuong, Ba Be; Ba Vi, 18%.' Since the Indo-China war, the country Cat Ba; Bach Ma,' Yok'Don'and Nam Bai Cat 49 has experienced.a rapid loss in its forest cover. Tien) and a total of 87 rei6rves including The total forest cover declined from 43.7% in 1943 to 23.6% in 1983 (Quy, 1983)' Thus within 30 years, the country lost 5O% of its forest cover. By '.987, the forest cover had declined to 2'l% (Quy, 1987)- The true extent with the e-xception of .[l.uong Nhe (in L4i,Chag province) (in Daq Lac province) of undisturbed primary forest may be ' only and Yok Don about 10% (MacKinnon, 1990). the protected areas where the elephant occurs I 6 000 000 Muong nhe* + :r Sop cop* )rf " Bu huongi Bon En Tuong duong + Anh son* | \ "'--;^J Ha+tinh - Bo trach B ach ma* r-r i Quang nam danang Con piong rMom ray Con ha nung *Bu + + Bai cat. tien s Xuyen moc r Fig. 1 Distribution of wild elephants in Vietnam.