Table of contents

Preface ...... iv The people behind the audit ...... iv elephant family ...... iv Conservation Direct ...... iv Executive Summary: The state of wild Asian elephant conservation in 2003 ...... v Independent conservation audits ...... v Investing in elephant conservation ...... v The state of wild Asian elephant conservation ...... v Capacity to conserve wild elephants ...... vi Challenges for society, government and NGOs ...... vii Society at large ...... vii The elephant conservation establishment ...... vii Section I: Introduction to the report and study ...... 2 Scope and aims ...... 2 Terms of reference ...... 2 The broader issue of NGO transparency & accountability ...... 2 Target audience and report structure ...... 3 Assessment approach and methods ...... 3 Needs of elephants ...... 3 Comparative scorecards ...... 3 Conceptual basis of the assessment framework ...... 4 The scorecard rating system ...... 4 Data and information collection ...... 5 Section II: Condition of wild elephants and their habitat ...... 7 Elephant distribution: trends over time ...... 7 The causes of declining elephant numbers ...... 8 Assessing the status of wild elephants and the threats to their conservation ...... 8 Rationale behind the scorecard structure ...... 8 Findings: the current status of wild Asian elephants ...... 9 Country findings ...... 10 The political dimension of elephant population declines ...... 11 War & civil strife ...... 11 Politically driven settlement of elephant habitat ...... 11 Section III: Countries’ capacity to conserve wild elephant populations ...... 14 Essential systems and institutions for elephant conservation ...... 14 Comparative assessment of a country’s capacity to conserve elephants ...... 14 Country scorecard assessment system ...... 14 General themes arising from the analysis ...... 16 Laws compared to implementation capacity ...... 16 Cultural empathy with elephants and will ...... 19 The role of the media ...... 21 Status of science and knowledge ...... 22 The need for a vision ...... 22 Section IV: Conservation charities and Asian elephant conservation ...... 25 How NGOs can make a difference: their role in Asian elephant conservation ...... 25 Government perceptions on conservation NGOs ...... 26 How conservation NGOs with elephant projects are organising themselves ...... 27 The structure of the NGO community ...... 27 Asia-wide elephant conservation networks ...... 28 NGO partnerships with scientific institutions ...... 28 Thematic areas of conservation activity ...... 29 Counting and mapping wild elephants ...... 29 Employing international financial levers ...... 31 Resettlement and forest restoration ...... 33 Strengthening enforcement...... 33 Piloting community-based means to control crop raiding...... 34 The quality and impact of elephant conservation projects ...... 37 A ‘Project Scorecard’ assessment methodology ...... 37 Projects considered ...... 38 Findings of the scorecard analysis ...... 38 Endpiece: Reflections on conducting an independent conservation audit ...... 46

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 i List of Boxes Box 1 The scorecard system ...... 5 Box 2 Worked example of a method for rating strength of system elements ...... 6 Box 3 Underlying values and baseline assumptions of the assessment framework ...... 6 Box 4 Contraction of Asian elephant range over time ...... 7 Box 5 Elephant distributions in Asia and population trends 1995-2002 ...... 9 Box 6 Do people in Asia want to conserve elephants? ...... 21 Box 7 Current issues: Planning corridors of elephant habitat ...... 32 Box 8 Current issues: law enforcement ...... 35 Box 9 Current issues: Human-elephant conflict ...... 36 Box 10 Projects not assessed ...... 38 Box 11 The US Asian Elephant Conservation Act and Fund ...... 39 Box 12 Web-sites of projects assessed ...... 41

List of Tables Table 1 Comparative rating of status of wild elephants in 10 Asian countries ...... 10 Table 2 Diagnostic statistics on 10 Asian countries with wild elephant populations ...... 13 Table 3 Strength of four essential systems that together lead to elephant conservation compared between 10 Asian countries ...... 16 Table 4 Strength of sub-system of the four essential systems that together lead to elephant conservation compared between 10 Asian countries ...... 17 Table 5 Assessment of focal activity areas of conservation NGOs with projects to conserve wild Asian elephants ...... 30 Table 6 Conceptual links between the ‘Balanced scorecard’ and the project scorecard ...... 37 Table 7 Comparative rating of elephant conservation projects run by conservation NGOs ...... 40 Table 8 Strength of five systems that together generate likelihood of conservation impact in 21 Asian elephant conservation projects ...... 43

List of Acronyms

AESG Asian Elephant Specialist Group of the IUCN AREAS Asian Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy BECT Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust, Sri Lanka CAT Cat Action Treasury FFI Fauna & Flora International IFAW International Fund for Animal Welfare IDCP Integrated Conservation and Development Project IUCN The World Conservation Union INGO International non-government organisation LNGO Local non-government organisation NGO Non-government organisation NNGO National non-government organisation WWF World Wildlife Fund/World Wide Fund for Nature/WWF-the environment network

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 ii Project Manager for elephant family: Citation: Jepson, P & Canney, S (2003) The state Dugal Muller of wild Asian elephant conservation in 2003. An independent audit for elephant family. elephant Audit Advisory Board family and Conservation Direct, London and Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton Oxford. www.elephantfamily.org Dr. Widodo Ramono Prof. Charles Santiapillai ©Conservation Direct 2003. All material in this Prof. Raman Sukumar report is subject to copyright protection, and reproduction in whole or in part other than for the Prof. Chris Wemmer purpose of promoting Asian elephant conservation, is expressly forbidden, without the prior consent of Audit Report Review Committee Conservation Direct. Dr. Ajay Desai Dr. Jamison Ervin Note: The assessments and analyses presented in Paul Hannam this report represent our independent viewpoint Sarah Laird based on the information available to us. We Karl Strohmayer may have over-looked information which could Prof. Chris Wemmer influence the ratings. As a result this report should be considered as just one input into any decision- Final thanks making process. There are many people to thank. We are especially indebted to all those individuals – within NGOs and governments, as well as independents - who generously gave their time to talk frankly with us, share their knowledge, and facilitate our travels. We would like to mention them all by name but respect their need for anonymity. We are also grateful to the members of our advisory committee for their guidance and advice; and to our review panel for their helpful insights. elephant family have provided the opportunity to undertake this fascinating project, and we thank them for all their help, support and encouragement. Our thanks go also to McLaurin for their interest and help in media communications and to Nikki Santilli, Kristina Plenderlieth and Justin Hine for editing and design support.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 iii Preface

Concerns are growing about the future of the Asian The people behind the audit elephant. Numbers of wild Asian elephants are only a tenth of their African relatives and demand for elephant family land in populous Asia is intense. In informal The work was commissioned by elephant family, a settings conservationists air the view that the newly formed NGO who believes that societies decline of Asian elephants is accelerating, that should treat elephants with the respect, care and governments are unable or unwilling to act and that admiration we would wish to extend to any family conservation charities lack the capacity and unity to member (see www.elephantfamily.org). They make a difference. recognise that building a world where humans and elephants can live in harmony is fraught with Not only is the Asian elephant an awesome difficulties and conflicts, but believe that most creature, but it has played a role in shaping our people desire such a world and that if we act cultural history. For four thousand years the together in a spirit of honesty, innovation and elephant has helped shape Asian civilisations transparency we can make a difference for through its capacities as a military machine, tractor, elephants and for people. pile driver and fork-lift. It has never been domesticated: working elephants are caught from Conservation Direct the wild and sometimes return. The relationship Conservation Direct is an Oxford-based think-tank between humans and elephants is unique and goes on conservation policy. The audit was conducted by far beyond utility. We can relate to elephants and the founding directors, Dr Paul Jepson and Dr elephants can relate to us. This is what sets the Susan Canney. Asian elephant apart and is why it has a central place in Hinduism and Buddhism - the two major Paul Jepson followed a career in urban world faiths that originated in Asia. conservation in the U.K. before moving into international conservation in 1991. He is a The Asian elephant risks fading into extinction now specialist in conservation strategy and planning. A that its economic worth has been replaced by former chairman of the Oriental Bird Club, he machines, unless we face up to three crucial established and managed the Birdlife International questions: Indonesia Programme (1991–97). He was awarded his Doctorate from Oxford University in 2001 for a 1. do we want Asian elephants or don’t we; if so thesis on protected area policy in Indonesia. 2. how much land are we willing to grant them; and 3. what should be done with the surplus animals? Susan Canney worked on various conservation projects in Africa and Europe before joining the The message of this report is that the situation for Green College Centre for Environmental Policy & elephants looks bad, but there is still hope if there Understanding in 1993. In 2001 she was awarded a is concerted and co-ordinated action. Doctorate by Oxford University for research on human use and vegetation change in Mkomazi Game Reserve, Tanzania.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 iv Executive Summary: The state of wild Asian elephant conservation in 2003

This report represents an independent view on the independent conservation audits. Our approach state of wild Asian elephant conservation. It recognises that conservation is a complex system of contains assessments of 1) the capacity of ten Asian elements that together lead to effective action. We countries to conserve and manage elephants, 2) have designed scorecards to rate the strength of key Twenty-one, projects run by non-government systems elements relating to a country’s capacity to organisations (NGOs) and their capacity to have an conserve elephants (Table A) and an organisation impact in their chosen area of elephant or project’s capacity to have meaningful and lasting conservation. Systems for action are rated impact in its chosen area (Table B). according to strength and are presented in two scorecards (Tables 3 & 7). The results show that Investing in elephant conservation two countries (India and Sri Lanka) have The twentieth-century NGO has been characterised reasonable capacity; four have fair capacity as an outsider challenging the system, spot-lighting (Malaysia, Thailand, China and Myanmar); and problems and raising funds on the back of public four have weak capacity (Cambodia, Indonesia, anger and guilt. In contrast, the successful twenty- PDR Lao, Vietnam). More projects run by national first-century NGO is expected to be part of the NGOs were rated as having good potential for system, with a focus on solutions and attracting impact compared with projects run by high profile funds through convincing supporters that they are a international conservation NGOs. good investment.

Overall, our assessment is that capacity for Asian The present report is for anyone wishing to support elephant conservation falls far short of that needed this new ethos. The audit aims to: to resolve the complex issues that conserving an intelligent, powerful and wide-ranging animal • provide an independent assessment of the state entails. Without far-reaching reforms in the of Asian elephant conservation organisation and financing of elephant • empower people to make informed choices conservation, the animal will fade away across concerning which elephant projects they support large parts of its range, and many people will be • help improve the performance and standards of terrorised and killed by displaced herds. These conservation delivery by introducing reforms need to embrace the operations of independent performance measurement linked government and non-government actors and the to greater accountability and transparency relationship between the two. To this end, we provide an overview of the issues in Independent conservation audits elephant conservation from a social as well as a Conservation NGOs are mandated by their claim to scientific perspective. We explain how elephant represent the values and aspirations of people conservation is organised and introduce the main concerned about nature and the environment. players and their roles and responsibilities. Our However, NGOs sometimes give themselves assessment framework provides a first attempt to glowing reports by cherry-picking results from rate projects in terms of an investment in elephant their most successful projects. This practice is conservation. unfair to supporters and constrains self-analysis and lesson-learning in conservation. As a result, The state of wild Asian elephant demand is growing for independent conservation conservation ‘audits’ conducted by independent experts. If present trends continue, the evidence suggests that the Asian elephant will retreat from much of its Performance assessment is new and untested in the remaining range to a few scattered parks crammed conservation field. It touches on major issues with elephants, providing a tourist spectacle and concerning the role of context, the lack of hard income for governments. data, and reservations about accountability. At the heart of this report is a unique scorecard system, which proposes a tentative framework for

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 v The Asian elephant now has a patchy distribution protecting national forest estates and clamping covering the Indian sub-continent, Indochina (with down on poaching syndicates means ending the a small population in SW China) and parts of south corrupt land and trading deals of local politicians, east Asia. In India and Sri Lanka, elephants are army commanders and bureaucrats. This would packed into relatively small forest areas. In risk exposing the true limits of state power. Myanmar (Burma), Lao and Cambodia it is the opposite: elephants are thinly scattered across the Conserving elephants requires good governance, largest remaining forest block in Asia. long-term planning, and the need to balance long- term and short-term goals and the needs of society Conflict between humans (settler farmers) and with that of the individual. In terms of governance, elephants has escalated over the last five years. In the needs of elephants are much the same as our several locations across Asia there is war between own needs. people and elephants. Desperate farmers, fearing for their crops, property and family, but also of the Conserving wild elephants means protecting consequences of taking direct action against a forests, which are vital to maintaining the protected species, are discreetly poisoning ecological functions of climate stability, clean elephants or paying corrupt police officers to shoot water and erosion control. These are necessary to them. safeguard economic growth, social stability and quality livelihoods. The worsening state of wild Table A: Comparison between 10 Asian elephant populations indicates serious future countries of the strength of four essential systems problems in meeting these wider goals. that together lead to elephant conservation Capacity to conserve wild elephants Government and NGOs together lack the capacity to conserve and manage wild Asian elephant populations. There is little political will and government wildlife and forestry agencies are at best ineffectual, at worst dysfunctional.

Neither governments nor NGOs are admitting the scale of the problem, nor are they putting in place the long-term policies, programmes and funding that are required to ensure the survival of wild elephant herds in 20 years’ time. Elephant conservation is largely being treated as if it were a technical problem that requires better knowledge and planning, when in fact it has become a social problem.

India and Sri Lanka have the best capacity to conserve elephants and their forest habitats, due to strong cultural regard for elephants and long established wildlife and forestry agencies. Indonesia is rated worst, in part because the government has allowed implementation agencies to collapse.

Competition for funds and publicity among the larger NGOs results in a divided movement that is The uncomfortable truth is that ignoring the not making best use of its assets. It also results in elephant issue might suit governments. On the one the diversion of funds from conservation to hand, managing a reduction of elephant institutional survival, self-interest, and a lack of populations in line with agricultural expansion transparency (and therefore learning). would require culling or capture. The former would cause a public outcry and the latter has Local NGOs performed well due to long-term enormous recurrent costs. On the other hand, engagement with the locality, and well targeted

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 vi interventions, but without a co-ordinated country- wide strategy their impact is relatively small compared to the size of the elephant problem.

The people working within international NGOs are aware of the issues militating against elephant conservation, but these are not being translated into programmes. As a result, those with a clear focus on wildlife crime rated best, while those trying to cope with habitat loss without engaging with the local causes rated worst.

Challenges for society, government and NGOs

Society at large Society needs to debate three crucial questions:

1) Do we want wild Asian elephants or don’t we? 2) How much land are we willing to grant them? 3) What should be done with the surplus animals?

Currently, society pigeon-holes elephant conservation as a wildlife issue and shifts responsibility (and guilt) for its future to wildlife departments, conservation NGOs and biologists. Elephants are unlike any other animal. The scale and complexity of issues surrounding their conservation and management far exceed the capacity and mandate of any one government department. As a result, a diverse group of institutions must take responsibility for their conservation and work together to put in place a set of social infrastructure (laws, protected areas, institutions etc.) to enable management of the human-elephant relationship.

The amount of money dedicated to elephant conservation needs to match the scale of the problem and the enormous public empathy for elephants. This study estimates that approximately US$4 million per year has been spent on Asian If governments of Asian countries are to control the 1 elephant conservation since 1999, yet the view of forces threatening wild elephants, they must experts in the region is that a minimum of US$80 address politically difficult issues such as culling million per year is required, Asia-wide, to start and corruption. In particular they will need to having an impact. This is a figure equivalent to the address the issues of politically-vested interests annual salary bill of Manchester United Football promoting settlement of forest areas to create ‘vote Club. banks’. Table B. Comparative rating of elephant conservation projects run by NGOs The elephant conservation establishment Governments and NGOs need to face up to the 1 US$1 million from WWF AREAS, US$1 million from the scale of the problem and put in place the long-term remaining NGO sector and US$2 million from the Indian policies, programmes and funding that are required government

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 vii to ensure the survival of wild elephant herds in 20 and institutions of society. As part of this agenda, years’ time. At present many activities are ad hoc there is a need to strengthen public understanding, and reactive. Without a long-term vision or clear knowledge and attitudes towards elephants and strategy the limited funds that are available will not their conservation and instil throughout society a be used to best effect. sense of respect and responsibility for wild elephants NGOs need to recognise that elephant conservation is a government responsibility and accept that their To maintain their credibility and integrity in role is to support and complement government the long-term, NGOs involved in elephant initiatives. They need to avoid publicity that might conservation need to improve their transparency create the impression, in the public mind, that civil and accountability. Important initial steps include: society can secure a future for elephants given a) improving access to online information adequate funds. In reality, NGOs lack the mandate, concerning strategy, short-term goals and the inter-agency influence and the inter- performance; b) greater openness concerning the disciplinary insights and skills to make the required amount of funds raised and their use. NGOs also impact. need to be clearer about the source of their mandate and demonstrate that they are representing a Conservation NGOs need to work together to lobby legitimate constituency or social value. for and assist in the reform and development of empowered, professional and motivated Independent conservation audits have the potential government agencies. This is not the same as trying to strengthen the credibility, legitimacy and to patch up dysfunctional and weak government performance of conservation NGOs and thereby agencies, and may involve challenging the political help attract greater investments of funds and time and bureaucratic status quo. in the cause. Much more effort is needed in this area and the concept and merits of independent All actors need to find ways to put aside assessment needs to be promoted and discussed organisational rivalries and work together to build much more widely among conservation a broad-based social movement for elephant practitioners than is currently the case. conservation that transcends different structures

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 viii Section I: Introduction to the report and study

indicators by which performance can be measured Scope and Aims and assessed. To date most activity in this area has been conducted by international conservation NGOs seeking to measure progress towards Terms of reference targets3 and motivated, to a large degree, by the 4 This report represents an independent view of the need to demonstrate results to their major donors . state of wild Asian elephant conservation. We were tasked by elephant family to assess the efficacy of NGOs are mandated by their claim to represent the elephant conservation projects run by conservation values and aspirations of people concerned about NGOs (charities) with a view to promoting nature and the environment. However when improved performance. communicating with supporters, NGOs tend to give themselves glowing reports by cherry-picking They asked us to produce a ‘Which guide’1 to results from their most successful projects. elephant projects based on the idea that the Recognition is growing that this practice is unfair performance of in-situ elephant conservation can to supporters and constrains self-analysis and be improved if people (conservationists) are lessons-learning in conservation. As a result, many empowered to make informed choices concerning are calling for independent conservation ‘audits’ which projects to support2. This is the underlying where established and experienced premise of the successful consumer unions and conservationists, without an NGO affiliation, associations in Europe and the US. assess performance on behalf of public conservation constituencies, using a systematic, A familiar feature of consumer reports is the transparent and verifiable methodology. This report scorecards comparing specifications and the represents a pioneering attempt at an independent 5 quality of products and services. elephant family conservation audit . asked us to apply similar tools to the conservation domain. At the heart of this report is a unique scorecard system which is our tentative framework and The broader issue of NGO transparency methodology for independent conservation audits. & accountability Our time and resources for this complex undertaking were limited. We hope that the In recent years ‘civil society’, the sphere of activity framework presented herein will provide a forum between the state and markets, has expanded. The for discussion and a resource to build upon in the number of non-government organisations has future. Despite its experimental nature and proliferated: they have become a significant undoubted limitations, we believe our framework influence on public policy; users of public provides a firmer basis for understanding the resources; and play an increasing role in the context of civil society action and assessing the delivery of many public services. comparative strengths of conservation projects than is currently available. Overall, it is a first shot at As NGOs become part of the mainstream they are identifying the key dimensions of successful realising that along with increased power and elephant conservation. influence comes the responsibilities of accountability and transparency. This means providing stakeholders with information on decision-making and performance. The conservation movement is starting to address this important, but complex, challenge.

This report focuses on the performance dimension of transparency and accountability. It is part of an 3 The Conservation Measures Partnership of WWF, WCS, on-going research effort to devise frameworks and Ci, TNC etc. 4 Haley, J & M. Sorgenfrie. Measuring success? Issues in performance management. Key note paper for INTRACS 1 The name of a popular UK consumer magazine. 5th International Evaluation Conference, April 2003. The 2 Either through donations of funds, in-kind work, Netherlands. volunteering or simply taking an active interest in the 5 See Randerson, J. 2003. Nature’s best buys. project story. New Scientist, 31 March 2003, 32-35.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 2 Target audience and report structure are part of wider inter-breeding clans. They live for According to a recent report by the UK- about the same length of time as we do (around 70 consultancy, SustainAbility6, the twentieth century years). As a general rule of thumb, they consume NGO was an outsider challenging the system, spot- 135-300 kg of plant matter and up to 225 litres of lighting problems, with strategies centred on public water each day. To live free in a reasonably natural anger and guilt and communicating in sound bites, way they need about 100-600 km2, depending on with single-issue campaigns. In their view, the the quality of the habitat7. Elephant societies successful twenty-first century NGO will operate at densities ranging from 0.1/km2 (1 increasingly be part of the system, focus on elephant for every 10km2) to 2/km2 (one elephant solutions, generate income by convincing per 0.5km2). High densities can adversely affect the supporters that they are good investments and habitat: in deciduous forest this can happen at pursue multi-dimensional campaigns. densities of around 2/km2.8 To put this figure into perspective, it can be compared with the north of This report is for anyone wishing to support this Scotland which we deem to be sparsely populated, new ethos. We provide an overview of the issues in yet has a human density of 3/km2. elephant conservation from a social as well as a scientific perspective. We explain how elephant The large spatial and temporal scales over which conservation is organised and introduce the main elephants live their lives means that their players and their roles and responsibilities. Our conservation ultimately has to be the responsibility assessment framework provides a first attempt to of government. Conservation charities can give rate projects as a conservation investment. support in crucial areas, but they lack the mandate and resources to control the large areas that As such we envisage users of this report as the comprise the seasonal range of the elephant public constituencies for conservation, comprising populations to be conserved. Similarly, they are government, corporate, foundation, philanthropic unable to ensure the long-term continuity of policy and individual supporters as well as conservation and investment in the same way that governments professionals managing wild elephant conservation can. Only governments can mandate and ensure the projects. co-ordinated action of the various sectors involved -wildlife, forestry, land use, agriculture, water, The remainder of this section briefly introduces the transport infrastructure, industrial development etc. scope and conceptual underpinnings of our What is clear is that the scale of the effort to assessment framework. The report itself is then conserve elephants means that governments and structured into three sections. The first section NGOs must act together. reviews the condition of wild Asian elephants and their habitat. The second section assesses the Comparative scorecards capacity of each country to conserve wild Bench-marking or score-carding is a powerful tool elephants. Together these two sections describe the for improving performance, and is commonplace in conservation context within which conservation many walks of life. Its use in consumer reports has NGOs operate. The third and final section, reports driven major improvements and innovations in on the response of the conservation NGOs and the product service quality. However consumer performance of their projects focusing on product surveys employ free-market mechanisms conservation of wild Asian elephants. to drive improvements. Normally, they do not distinguish between the contexts of production and Assessment approach and have little concern for the fate of the companies methods producing inferior products or services. We started by asking the questions, what do wild Conservation projects are not directly comparable elephants need to survive, and what systems must to a consumer product. For example, the context of societies have in place to provide for these needs? operations has a major bearing on the design and performance of a conservation project, whilst the Needs of elephants ethos of the conservation movement should be that Elephants need a lot of space. They are social donors and supporters will want to help poorer animals that live in herds led by a matriarch which

7 Sukumar, R (1989) The Asian Elephant: ecology and 6 SustainAbility, ‘The 21st Century NGO: in the market for management. Cambridge University Press. change’ http://www.sustainability.com/publications/ 8 Ajay Desai.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 3 performing projects respond appropriately and countries have relatively weak government achieve their full potential. Moreover conservation institutions. professionals are obviously keen for their projects to be as effective as possible. To deal with this An alternative approach is to think of conservation difference we devised two scorecards, one to assess as a system – a connected assemblage of entities and compare the capacity of countries to conserve that together lead to the actions and transformations wild elephants (Country Scorecard) and one to needed to achieve the goal of elephant assess the potential for NGO projects to make a conservation. An everyday example of this line of meaningful and lasting contribution to develop, thinking is exemplified by Chelsea football club’s strengthen or maintain this capacity (Project recent purchase of several star players following Scorecard). Each scorecard represents an their takeover by a Russian billionaire. Football assessment approach that draws on concepts and pundits were quick to point out that a team of stars principles from business performance (inputs) does not amount to a star team (outcomes) measurement (e.g. the Balanced Scorecard9), capable of winning trophies (ultimate goal). Sports consumer reports (easily accessible scorecard fans understand that winning emerges from, among formats) and systems theory. other things, a combination of individual player’s talent, quality coaching, team spirit and fitness Comparative performance or rating is successful if regimes, and that each of these describes a complex a) the people involved are impartial and unity of inter-relations, i.e a system. trustworthy; b) the system is credible; c) parties involved agree on the system and what is being The same is true of conservation. We can ask what measured; d) differences in operational context are systems need to be in place to conserve elephants accounted for; e) ratings can be substantiated by and rank the strength (status) of each system. At the data; f) consistent, reliable and timely data can be scale of a nation it should be possible to define and collated; g) the process is open and transparent. The identify the key systems (or factors) whose difficulty of satisfying these criteria is a major interaction would create the conditions for elephant impediment to improving accountability in the conservation. We regard the purpose of NGO sector. Our framework represents a genuine conservation NGOs as helping to create, strengthen effort to overcome points (a) and (b), also (d) and/or support these systems. We believe it is also through (g) above, and a contribution to meeting possible to define and identify the group of factors (c), namely the creation of a system or standard that together lead to conservation ‘impact’, defined upon which conservation NGOs can agree. as meaningful and lasting strengthening of one or more elements of the conservation system. Conceptual basis of the assessment framework This approach creates the possibility to compare Conservation is usually approached on the premise projects irrespective of their specialist role (e.g. that a suite of inputs will lead to certain outcomes. enforcement, protected area planning or education) For example, additional enforcement personnel and, to a lesser degree, independent of their size, will result in a reduction in poaching. Often the budget and age. We believe that this approach has choice of inputs depends on the professional the potential to provide a useful guide for those backgrounds of those designing a project. A wishing to invest in conservation. conservation biologist might stress the need for inputs designed to expand the knowledge base The scorecard rating system whereas an economist might argue for inputs that Each scorecard is based on a systems hierarchy. We change market incentives. Our view is that such have identified the key elements (a “level 1” approaches are valid where the context of system) that in combination can lead to elephant conservation operations is relatively simple or conservation. We have also listed the assembly of where efficient structures of public administration factors (level 2 sub-systems) that combine to create are in place. In the case of Asian elephants, the each key element. At a country scale we consider scale at which they live introduces massive the key (level 1) systems to be ‘will’, ‘legal complexity to the conservation task and most Asian frameworks’, ‘resources’. and ‘implementation bodies’. At the project scale we consider them to be ‘vision & strategy’, ‘organisational systems’, 9 see Kaplan, R. S. & Norton. D.P (1996) Using the ‘team & skill’, ‘track-record’ and ‘wider balanced scorecard as a strategic management tool. Harvard Business Review. Jan-Feb, 75-85.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 4 impact’. We do not distinguish between the present is ranked on simple scales. These scales are relative importance of each element. The purpose not robust measures. They are guides designed to is to look at the effectiveness of the system build consistency, rigour and impartiality into our rating of each element, which has a Box 1 Schematic representation of scorecards large element of subjectivity on account of poor data quality and STATUS OF ELEPHANTS availability in the field. What is the Population condition of numbers wild elephant Level of populations? poaching Additional detail on our assessment Status of habitats framework is provided in Sections II and III where the completed scorecards and findings are discussed.

IMPLEMENTATION Are there Parks & wildlife The advantages of such a structured implementation departments assessment approach are that it: agencies with Enforcement empowered and agencies 1.clearly sets out areas of neglect in motivated staff? planning bodies the operational context; 2.shows areas within an organisation’s FRAMEWORKS RESOURCES operations where effectiveness could Is there a solid Legal Is there the Financial legal and policy instruments technical know- resources be improved by additional focus; basis for elephant Policy how and funds to Technical conservation and instruments guide policy and knowledge 3.allows periodic auditing to track management? management? performance over time and identify what is working and what is not. WILL Is there political National political will and public will Nonetheless, the process and the concern for the Concerned urban frameworks of this assessment elephants? elite Local political will inevitably reflect the values and assumptions of its compilers, and those who do not agree with these Country scorecard (above) Project scorecard (below) will find the present survey less useful. The key values and Capacity to Act (Soft systems) assumptions that inform this To deliver on Team objectives what assessment are summarised in Box 3 capacity do we Organisational need? culture and were defined on the basis of Mandate literature review, a series of exploratory interviews with Project Delivery (Transactions) Organisational Systems (Hard systems) conservationists who have each been Have we delivered Annual Targets MISSION To deliver our Management what is expected Vision strategy what systems resident in Asian countries, and our and promised? Short-term Strategy organisational Fundraising own experience as managers of field objectives systems are Physical assets Strategic goals Openness required? conservation projects. Accountability

Wider (Social) Impact (Transformations) Data and information How can we Political will generate the collection political and Public support Measures leading to the rating of key public support for our vision? Civil society elements of each scorecard system activism were scored over a nine-month period (September 2002 to June 2003) on the Boxes represent a key (level 1 system), inside each the right hand column lists level 2 systems. Each level 2 system has a set basis of a review of literature and policy; strategy of objective and indicative measures (See Box 2) and project documents; transcriptions of 139 face- to-face interviews conducted with professionals architecture. To this end each scorecard is designed either working on Asian elephant conservation to rate the strength of each element of the system projects or working in government wildlife and the relationships between them. departments: and field visits to six Asian countries.

Level 2 systems are rated on the basis of sets A related purpose of the face-to-face interviews was of objective statements. The extent to which each is to gain insights and perceptions concerning the issues

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 5 and politics of Asian elephant conservation. All the literature produced by government and NGOs. In interviews were conducted in confidence and many reporting these perspectives, we often quote the people spoke honestly and off the record. We heard speaker to better represent the sentiments of people important and widespread perspectives on elephant living and working with elephant. conservation that receive little attention in the

Box 2 Worked example of method for rating strength of each system element In the Project Scorecard ‘Vision’ is a level 2 system. A measurable objective of this system is ‘actions guided by a compelling strategy (M1) which were sub-divided into statements (M1.2) that could be scored. Each statement was weighted to come to an overall rating.

Projects ABC Mission Weightings Scores for M1.1 Vision statement Vision 0 no statement of conservation vision 1 generalised statement ‘save elephants’, M1 Actions guided by a compelling vision 0.15 secure future with no time scale M1.1 State the shared long-term vision 0.5 0.5 0.5 2.0 2 statement includes actions but has no time scale M1.2 Explain values & principles that guide action 0.5 0.0 0.0 3 clear mid-term (5-14 yr) vision Score for M1: 1.0 0.5 2.0 4 clear long-term (15-25 yr) vision

Box 3 Underlying values and baseline assumptions of the assessment framework

• The conservation of wild elephants requires a response at the level of society because of the large spatial and time scales over which elephant conservation must be approached. •Asocietal response requires a set of social infrastructure (laws, protected areas, institutions etc.) to enable management of the human-elephant relationship across scales and over time. • Conservation bodies collectively have the responsibility for generating a societal response in favour of elephants: their role is to create a vision, generate the political and public support for this vision and assist with its delivery. • Network building is highly desirable as it may be the only solution to combat the causes of loss in many cases. A healthy conservation movement is one that has a dynamic blend of small spontaneous projects and large projects run by established conservation bodies. • Conservation also requires innovation, which comes through open and responsive interactions with society and fellow conservationists.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 6 Section II: Condition of wild elephants and their habitat

The focus of this report is the activity of Elephant distribution: trends conservation projects and organisations, however over time this needs to be looked at in context. First, we need to know the conservation status of elephants and At the time of the Pharaohs, Asian elephants were their habitat, coupled with the severity of threats to found from Iraq east to China and possibly south to each. We analysed these on a country-by-country Java. Their distribution has shrunk as human basis, because the state of elephant conservation agricultural civilisations have expanded, as shown reflects the socio-political culture of the country in Box 4. It should be noted that the historical concerned. distribution on Borneo shown is controversial.

Box 4 Contraction of Asian elephant range over time

Elephants once ranged from Iraq to the Yangtse in China, south Sumatra and perhaps also Java ? KEY:

Elephant populations of the Tigris-Euphrates basin extinct by 7th century BC

Elephants lost in western India and Java during the 11-17th centuries

Elephants extinct in northern China by 200AD and all but a remnant population in SW China by c1700

Areas supporting elephants at the beginning of the colonial era, c1700

Distribution at the end of the colonial area

Present day distribution

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 7 The causes of declining elephant Rationale behind the scorecard numbers structure The main threats to elephants can be categorised as: Elephant population numbers Elephant numbers are an important starting point • threats to the animal from poaching and hunting but to be useful in terms of understanding the for ivory, meat, and sport; the killing of crop- forces at work, we used them to calculate an raiding animals; and the capture of baby elephants indicator that captures how well a country is for tourist shows. conserving its elephants in terms of numbers, how much lee-way exists (i.e. the amount of habitat it • threats to elephant habitat through forest has in which to conserve elephants), and how destruction for smallholder agriculture; large- scale elephant numbers are responding to the forces at plantation development and infrastructure projects. work within the country. The indicator is a These reduce the resources of food and shelter composite of three diagnostics which are: the available to elephants as well as severing proportion of the world’s elephant population migration routes that enable access to resources contained within that country, the density of such as refuges, water, salt and seasonal foods elephants (i.e. elephant numbers relative to the (see Box 7, page 32). Replacing elephant amount of remaining habitat), and the population habitat with agriculture brings the animal trend (whether it was increasing or decreasing and into the proximity of palatable crops therefore how rapidly). increases conflict with humans (see Box 9, page 36). Habitat Assessing the status of wild We estimated the state of elephant habitat by elephants and the threats to their considering the amount left in relation to elephant numbers;2 the rate at which it was being lost; its conservation configuration; and the degree to which it was Measures need to be chosen according to the scale protected. of analysis. In this section, we focus on those appropriate to an Asia-wide analysis. The measures Killing of elephants are intended to place the different elephant ranges These metrics indicate how severe or widespread within an Asia-wide context. More detailed are the threats to elephants from poachers, hunters analyses over smaller areas would require the and poisoners, killing for ivory, meat, sport and to consideration of other factors. Elephant densities, remove crop-raiders. The main sources include for example, will vary from place to place within a organised syndicates that sometimes involve the range, district, or locality according to factors such army and police and are particularly prevalent in as habitat type and hunting pressure. Indochina; individual poachers and hunters who may or may not be organised into small mafia We chose a suite of diagnostic statistics that bands; and local level shooting and poisoning of portrayed not only the current state of play, but also crop-raiding elephants (see Box 9, page 36). trends over time, as these are important in identifying priorities for any conservation effort1. Human-elephant conflict (Their construction will be the topic of a further This measures the severity of human-elephant paper.) These statistics were grouped under the four conflict in terms of frequency; how widespread the headings below and are shown in table 1. occurrences are; the ease with which elephants can be chased away; and the occurrence of deaths, both 1. Elephant population numbers. human and elephant. 2. Elephant habitat. 3. Killing of elephants. 4. Human-elephant conflict.

2 Habitat stability included measures of remaining habitat (km2); sufficient area available for present population (carrying capacity), stable tracts of habitat; annual change in forest cover 1990-2000 (km2) and annual rate 1 The degree of ‘uniqueness’ was not included: Borneo’s of forest change 1990-2000 (%) as indicators of the elephants are regarded as unique by many and therefore pressures on elephant habitat (even though not all deserving of particular conservation focus. forest- loss entails the loss of elephant habitat).

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 8 Interpreting the scorecard Findings: the current status of The scorecard is intended to give a picture of the wild Asian elephants elements involved in elephant survival. It would be difficult to score highly on all indicators as, for The Asian elephant now has a patchy distribution example, success in conserving numbers generally covering the Indian sub-continent, Indochina (with involves high conflict, and a requirement for larger a small population in SW China) and parts of south areas of habitat. Countries with few elephants due east Asia. Box 5 shows the current status of to heavy poaching, such as Cambodia, will have elephant populations. In India and Sri Lanka, low levels of conflict, and an abundance of habitat. elephants are packed into relatively small forest areas. In Myanmar (Burma), Lao, Cambodia it is Note also that the overall measure is a weighted the opposite: elephants are thinly scattered across average of the four indicators, with the weighting the largest remaining forest block in Asia. The designed to indicate success in elephant reason for this apparent paradox is war. conservation.

Box 5 Wild elephant distributions in Asia and indicative population trends 1995 - 2002

SW CHINA 0.5% INDIA 62%

LAO 2% MYANMAR 11% THAILAND 5% CAMBODIA 1% VIETNAM 0.2%

KEY: MALAYSIA 6% Current elephant distribution

Population increasing across range

Population generally stable, indication of increase in parts of range INDONESIA Population generally stable or increases in some & decreases in other parts of range (SUMATRA) 5% Population generally stable, but clear declines in some parts of range

Clear declines throughout range

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 9 Country findings Sumatra is moving towards the situation in India India and Sri Lanka score best in terms of the where forest clearance is increasingly constraining numbers of individual elephants that have been elephants in islands of habitat and, as a result, conserved. In India it appears that numbers are human-elephant conflict is escalating. Twenty-nine increasing in some areas, however there is percent of the island’s forest was lost between the significant decline in the habitat and populations in years 1985 and 1997. This has accelerated since the the north-east. Even in the southern states, severe fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, and the ivory poaching has reduced the numbers of adult subsequent decentralisation of power, and it is bulls and led to distorted sex ratios of between 1:12 predicted that Sumatra will lose all of its super- and 1:100, but this is potentially reversible diverse lowland forest by 2005 if current trends 5 compared to habitat loss, through stronger continue . protection. Sri Lanka does not have to cope with the ivory poaching issue because few of its Vietnam has gone one stage further. As one resident elephants bear tusks, but nearly 100-120 a year are explained ‘national policy is very much aimed at lost to trap guns used in crop defence or for moving large numbers of people into formerly poaching other game. More males are lost because uneconomic areas and converting it to 6 they inhabit areas closer to human settlement3. agriculture’ . As a result, Vietnam experienced an enormous decline in elephant populations from an 7 Table 1: Comparative rating of status of wild estimated 1,500-2,000 in 1990 to 85-114 today . elephants in 10 Asian countries The remaining elephants are dispersed in isolated, small populations with none larger than 16 elephants. Studies of the resulting human-elephant conflict show clearly that its incidence and severity are strongly related to the extent of habitat destruction8.

By contrast to the situations in the above countries, there are large blocks of habitat in Cambodia and PDR Lao but few elephants due to uncontrolled poaching. Conflict is beginning to surface in PDR Lao but there are serious efforts to stop shifting cultivation and thus the potential for conflict and habitat damage9. Cambodia, by contrast, faces extensive logging and plantation development in the future10.

Myanmar also contains large blocks of remaining forest, having retained about half of its forest cover, although little is known for sure about the situation there11. Elephant numbers are thought to be declining in parts of the range and are less than originally supposed in the mid 1990s12. However the extent of remaining forest means that healthy In both India and Sri Lanka, this ‘success’ in populations possibly still remain. Elephants here conserving numbers in islands of habitat led to high are undoubtedly under threat from poaching and levels of human-elephant conflict, while in some accelerating deforestation as the regime looks for areas elephants are moving into new regions revenue to combat the effects of economic 13 because of disturbances in their original home sanctions . ranges. The rising use of poisons and explosives 5 Holmes, D (2002) The Predicted Extinction of Lowland reflects a decreasing level of tolerance. At the same Forests in Indonesia. In Terrestrial Ecoregions of the time, increasing demand and easier travel appears Indo-Pacific (Wikramanayake et al.). Island Press, to facilitate the spread of knowledge about these Washington DC, USA. 6 Interview 58, Cambodia, 17 February 2003 technologies4. 7 Baker, I & Kashio, M (2002) Giants on Our Hands. FAO, Bangkok. 8 Ibid. 9 Lao is also developing extensive hydropower schemes. 10 Interview 3, India, 27 December 2002 11 Interview 69, UK, 21 November 2002 12 In 1995 the state-run Myanmar Timber Enterprise was 3 Interview 3, India, 27 December 2002 unable to find elephants for capture. 4 Interview 14, India, 16 December 2002 13 Interview 66, UK, 4 February 2003.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 10 The situation in Malaysia and Thailand is provided meat for military bush kitchens. The sale somewhat intermediate. In Peninsular Malaysia, of ivory, elephant meat and timber pulled out by forest conversion (chiefly to plantations) started in elephants helped finance local army commands. the south and west and is moving progressively Organised poaching syndicates which emerged north and eastward. As a consequence, these areas from these needs constitute the main threat to wild lost the last of their elephants in 1991. Even in the elephants in Indochina. Lao used to be called ‘land Taman Negara National Park, the forest is of a million elephants’; today there are about 2,500 fragmented through ad hoc plantation development left. with no deliberate maintenance of elephant corridors or consideration of elephants in the One result of wars and insurgency movements is allocation of land to plantation agriculture. that modern firearms pass into the rural population. Previously it was difficult and dangerous to try to In Sabah, a large contiguous block of forest habitat kill an elephant with an old single-shot WWII rifle. remains, conflict is localised and relatively low, With a modern semi-automatic AK47 an elephant and it is thought that elephant numbers are stable as can be peppered with shots and killed as a result of long as large- scale plantation development does multiple wounds in 15-20 minutes. The capacity of not occur. However this currently remains a very the weapon, their easy availability and the market real threat. for ivory, meat and other elephant parts (and wildlife in general) makes hunting a viable part- Thailand’s 2,250 wild elephants are found in 8 time or full time occupation for pioneer farmers. forest complexes, however all are islands except the Tenasserim complex in the west that continues Elephant poaching is a serious problem in parts of over the border into Myanmar. Rapid plantation India and Indochina. In Lao and Cambodia only development often means that elephants are pushed smaller, remnant populations of elephants remain. into village areas where, unlike plantation Ironically, decades of war and actions of the companies, the people cannot afford mitigation genocidal Pol Pot regime curtailed human measures such as electric fences. settlement of forests, leaving elephant habitat in relatively good condition. Elephants in China occur only in the extreme SW corner of Yunnan province. It should be noted that Politically driven settlement of the data used in this section covered Yunnan elephant habitat province only, while data in the country scorecard relates to the whole of China. There is a The real problem for elephants in countries outside combination of forces operating in this area. While Indochina is the expansion of agriculture into land is being converted to agriculture to elephant’s forest habitat. Forest-loss in Asia is accommodate increasing populations, there is also often portrayed as an inevitable consequence of the a national reforestation programme, and it is also forces of population growth and poverty, which, thought that elephants are moving into Yunnan despite the best efforts of government, still remain from Lao in response to increased habitat outside social control. destruction there, although this is yet to be proved. Agricultural development and infrastructure The political dimension of projects (e.g. dams) related to economic elephant population declines development necessitated clearing large areas of elephant habitat in the last 50 years. However large areas of habitat land are being settled in War & civil strife contravention of government land-use and Elephants have been a casualty of the wars and development plans with the tacit support and oppressive regimes that have characterised encouragement of political, vested interests. There Indochina since 1939. Elephants were a military are four main forms of settlements: target because they were used by local armies to drag guns and supplies over the difficult forest • to displace and dilute dissident or minority terrain. Because wild elephants can be caught and peoples trained quickly, it is reported that Japanese and • to lay claim to tribal territories British pilots in WWII were ordered to shoot any • to create vote banks wild elephants they chanced upon, as were • to reward political patronage American helicopter pilots in Vietnam14. Elephants 14 Scigliano, E (2002) Love, War and Circuses: the age-old relationship between elephants and humans. Houghton Mifflin Company. New York. State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 11 Settlement to displace dissidents The reality is that land represents the capacity for Such has been the level of deforestation in Thailand power especially when it has trees. Rather than that national boundaries are clear on satellite settling and cultivating abandoned or degraded images and wild elephants are ‘pocketed’ in land, forests are targeted for the simple reason that scattered forest patches. The power-base of the the timber covers the start-up investment and more. Kingdom of Siam and the new nation of Thailand In many forests reserved for watershed and was the wet rice cultivators of the Mekong river environmental protection, for nature conservation basin. During the Cold War, the communist threat and the sustainable supply of timber and other was linked with the fear that the marginalised tribal forest products, politicians and bureaucrats either peoples inhabiting forested regions would embrace bend the rules, ignore the rules, or re-write the rules communist principles. Later, following the 1970 to suit their own interests. Crucially, as we will see military clamp-down, young intellectuals fled later in this report, they often undermine the Bangkok to find refuge in tribal villages. An influence of forest and wildlife departments to expedient way to deal with this problem was to reduce resistance to their activity. drive roads into forested regions and allow the urban poor to pioneer ‘new’ lands, often in the Table 2 has been included to serve as a reference, wake of army-owned logging concessions. displaying a series of statistics chosen to characterise countries in terms of: Settlement to claim territory Tribal leaders in Assam have recently encouraged • elephant data (numbers of elephants remaining) young families to settle forest lands in an attempt to • forest data (amount of forest remaining secure territorial ownership claims in future -in relation to land area- and rate of loss) negotiations on representation and the degree of • political characteristics: the nature of the tribal autonomy. government, level of freedom, civil liberties, and press freedom Settlement to capture vote banks More insidious is the widening practice of establishing vote banks. The clearest example of this, also in Assam, where democracy, coupled with multiple parties and diverse populations, means that power can rest on as little as 5,000 votes. In Assam, politicians ‘facilitate’ settlement of reserve forest lands by Bangladeshi immigrants. Such communities tend to stick together and vote as a block for their political patron. The spread of democracy means that city-based governing elites need rural votes. In many south-east Asia countries, the patron is a trader/investor but the outcome is the same. The traditional feudal system provides an established means of achieving this end. Allowing local ‘big men’ to build a loyal client base of pioneer farmers, and then doing deals with these individuals, appears to be an expedient way of securing votes.

Settlement to reward political patronage Since 1970, Sumatra’s forests have been opened up for logging and estate and timber crop plantations at an extraordinary rate. Plantation and logging concessions were a means by which the Suharto New Order regime (1967-1998) could reward supporters and punish opponents in the struggle to stabilise political power.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 12 Table 2: Diagnostic statistics on 10 Asian countries with wild elephant populations

Photo used in the public awareness campaigns programmes of the Sri Lankan Wildlife and Nature Protection Society.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 13 Section III: Countries’ capacity to conserve wild elephant populations

Essential systems and institutions less than perfect. The same is true of knowledge, for elephant conservation and financial and human resources, where dedicated money and the availability of the Elephant conservation requires a response at the required knowledge and expertise greatly enhance level and scale of society because of the large space the ability to direct the science, policy, and requirements of elephants and the complexity of implementation of conservation activity. managing interactions between elephants and humans. This means that government institutions have ultimate responsibility for the fate of wild Comparative assessment of a elephants. We identified four key sub-systems of country’s capacity to conserve the socio-cultural make up of a country that need to elephants be in place and functioning if elephant conservation We considered 10 of the 13 Asian countries that is to succeed in the long term. These are 1) a have wild elephant populations, due to constraints genuine will on the part of politicians and the of time and money. The three not covered were public to secure a future for elephants; 2) the legal Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. These countries and policy instruments to provide institutions and were excluded on the grounds that they had low individuals with the mandate to act; 3) resources — numbers of elephants; most of their elephants were financial, knowledge, expertise — to finance, transmigrants and their resident herds were very devise and guide these actions; and 4) small and isolated or non-existent; and there were implementation activities able to translate will, no current NGO projects concerned with their frameworks and resources into a meaningful and conservation (the primary focus of this study). lasting effect on the ground. Country scorecard assessment system Of the four socio-political sub-systems, we regard In order to assess a country’s capacity to conserve “will” as the most important element that underpins elephants, we chose a suite of indicators that all the others. “Will” covers both political will and captured the degree to which the elements required public support. Public support provides the for successful elephant conservation were present pressure and impetus for the expression of political and functioning. This involved considering both will, most notably in democratically elected the entities (such as institutions, people, governments. National political will can also be frameworks), the nature of the relationships influenced by international pressure. Political will between them, and the processes involved in their drives the passing of laws and policy to protect and functioning. We grouped these under four headings manage elephant populations and their habitats. It (see Box 1, page 5) that corresponded with the sub- ensures that financial resources are provided; systems identified above: sufficient knowledge, scientific and technical expertise is nurtured; laws and plans are enforced; 1. Will. and that implementation agencies (parks 2. Frameworks. departments, judiciary and the police) are 3. Resources. empowered and held accountable for delivery. 4. Implementation.

Effective implementation agencies follow closely Will behind will because these are required to translate When considering the will or support for elephant will into action and ensure the desired results. A great conservation, two major subdivisions appeared to deal could be achieved with strong will and good be appropriate: implementation, but the efficiency of implementation is greatly facilitated by a legal basis for activity, and 1. Government vs public. planning frameworks that direct the various Governments determine priorities for the government sectors that need to integrate elephant country, construct frameworks and conservation with the needs of stakeholders. This is particularly the case in the real (as opposed to the abstract) world where will and implementation are

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 14 implementation agencies, and allocate conservation is supported by National Plans and resources accordingly, but these can only really Strategies. be effective if there is support from the public, and public concern can motivate and support Resources governments to provide for elephant conservation. This sub-system assessed the availability of 2. National/urban vs local/rural. resources that can be accessed by the country to The attitudes of populations living in immediate support elephant conservation. (The degree to proximity to elephants are likely to be different which these resources were effectively used is from those living elsewhere, and yet the support covered in the other sub-systems.) It covers three of these people is crucial to the success of general areas: financial; scientific and technical; elephant conservation efforts on the ground. and the availability of expertise. Financial resources include both governmental and non- Combinations of these two divisions lead to four governmental sources. Scientific and technical categories of will: knowledge assesses the degree to which the i. national political will country supports on-going research related to ii. urban support (generally the urban middle elephant conservation, and whether there is up-to- class) date information available on elephant numbers, iii. local political will distribution, demography and ecology, as well as iv. rural support conflict mitigation, translocation, public attitudes and the socio-economic context. The final area Indicators capturing the degree of national political measures the availability of expertise in the subject will included aspects such as the existence of areas required for elephant conservation. In champions for elephants among the political addition to the aforementioned, these include leadership and whether elephants were related to planners and policy workers, cultural promoters national identity. It also included the level of and fund-raisers. engagement of civil society in elephant conservation, and its wider influence. Implementation agencies Wildlife and protected-area departments cannot Assessment of the engagement of the urban middle conserve elephants without the active support and class included factors such as whether there was a assistance of other departments. At the very least, cultural empathy with elephants, the level of the planning department or authority needs to knowledge, and whether this group were active in designate reserves and corridors of sufficient size elephant conservation. It also included media and appropriate configuration; the police need to coverage: whether elephants were deemed combat poaching syndicates and evict illegal newsworthy and how they were portrayed. settlers, and the judiciary must provide court time to hear cases and apply adequate deterrents. The Local political will captured the degree to which implementation agencies responsible for delivering political interests at a local level were supportive elephant conservation on the ground were therefore and sympathetic towards elephants. Rural support grouped into four main areas: the Parks and included an assessment of attitudes — compassion, Wildlife Department; enforcement bodies; tolerance, crop-raiding — as well as basic planning authorities; and civil society knowledge, and whether government institutions organisations. were perceived to be responsive. In assessing the Parks and Wildlife Departments we Frameworks were concerned to capture the organisational status Under frameworks, we included the legal and policy of the Department and the degree to which they instruments used by governments that are relevant to were empowered to carry out their responsibilities elephant conservation. Legal instruments include in terms of available budget and authority. both the existence and the quality of legislation Organisational culture was also important and this related to the conservation of elephants and their covered the nature of bureaucratic operations as habitats, as well as the ratification of key well as the level of inter-departmental and inter- international conservation conventions. This also agency co-ordination; the basis of decision making; includes laws relating to the existence of civil society and the amount of organisation learning fostered. organisations and the ability of citizens to call the The number and availability of well-trained staff government to account through the legal system. was also important. Finally we assessed the degree Policy instruments assess the degree to which elephant to which operations were hindered through political

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 15 interference, rent-seeking and corruption, issues Laws compared to implementation that can render all else ineffective. capacity The most obvious general finding was that The enforcement bodies included the judiciary and implementation capacity falls well behind laws and the police, and we assessed the degree to which regulations. All countries surveyed have laws to they were able to uphold the law; their capacity and protect elephants and establish wildlife sanctuaries motivation to do so in terms of time, resources, and and all are signatories to key international knowledge; and the evidence of successful conservation conventions. But the countries vary in prosecutions and deterring sentences. their ability to hold government to account, a factor that we deemed crucial in capturing the Table 3: Strength of four essential systems that together lead to elephant conservation compared between 10 Asian countries

We also looked at the degree to which planning efficacy of legal frameworks. Only India has a authorities integrated elephant conservation, and government-approved policy and action plan to the level of empowerment of the local planning facilitate implementation of these laws, and of all authorities. the countries surveyed, only India was able to provide an estimate of the amount of money For civil society organisations we measured the required. level of activity within a country and its spread for each of the major types of NGO (INGO, NNGO, Elsewhere, wildlife departments have prepared LNGO) as well as assessing the degree to which their own action plans (e.g. Vietnam, China, Sabah) these activities provided strategic support to local or are in the process of preparing one (Sri Lanka) government implementation agencies. but mostly governments have simply contributed to an Asia-wide elephant plan prepared by the IUCN’s General themes arising from (World Conservation Union) Asian Elephant the analysis Specialist Group in 1992. The AESG comprises a The results of our assessment are presented in group of committed elephant conservationists and Scorecard Tables 3 and 4 (pages 16 and 17). This was founded in 1978, to ‘provide politicians with section highlights five general themes arising from attractive alternatives, supported by quantifiable the analysis: data and, where appropriate, strengthened by 1. The mismatch between laws and tested practical solutions which they can use implementation. without seriously compromising national plans for 2. The importance of cultural empathy. economic development’. Their 1992 document 3. The role of the media. represents overall elephant policy to guide 4. The status of science. government action. 5. The need for a vision.

16 Table 4: Strength of sub-systems of the four essential systems that together lead to elephant conservation, compared between 10 Asian countries

The dysfunctional implementation system: the vary in importance from place to place and bogging down of political will combine in mutually reinforcing ways according to Of the countries considered, India has the best local circumstances. overall capacity, but was still only rated fair. This is because although it has excellent laws, policies, At first sight, this dysfunctionality may appear to and resources; many enlightened individuals; a be due to the fact that while laws and plans are supportive judiciary at the higher levels which is produced at the national level, responsibility for effective in bringing the government to account; implementation lies at the level of the State, whose and a non-corrupt army, it is severely hampered by finance ministries habitually use the funds to bridge the implementation process. The political will is shortfalls in essential expenditure and they are only there but seems to get tied up and bogged down. As released to the wildlife department at the end of the one seasoned senior executive and citizen’s group year. However, as one senior NGO policy worker campaigner put it ‘things fall flat at the explained: ‘The government doesn’t give (the implementation stage due to the dysfunctionality of States) enough money and they misuse it ... The the system’1. This dysfunctionality emasculates the State governments don’t have much concept of efforts of the many excellent, committed planning and adhering to the plan. They use the individuals present at all levels within the system excuse that the money has run out and has to be who have to find ways to operate around it. used somewhere else... There’s rampant misuse of funds and it is all official’.2 The reasons are complex, but the significant factors are articulated in the following sections. These will While funding can be a problem, the real issue lies in not knowing exactly what to do with the

1 Interview 85, India, 14 December 2002 2 Interview 110, India, 11 March 2003

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 17 resources available: how to think strategically, plan The fundamental significance of will and and prioritise activities. Much of the problem can commitment is manifest in cases such as Nagerhole be attributed to the lack of a clear policy vision for National Park in South India and Kaziranga in the Indian government’s Project Elephant3. There is north-east India. Here, local staff fought off no concrete guidance about, for example, what the poaching pressures with the same resources that States need to do with their elephants, especially were available to others. Such success tends to problem elephants. The result is that much of what attract the attention of NGOs and government does get done is ad hoc and reactive, amounting to support, giving the appearance of better funding, expensive crisis management with no enduring but the initial success was due to individual officers impact. A simple example is paying compensation who motivated their staff. Another example is that for crop damage instead of implementing strategies of a committed District Forest Officer, and his to reduce the incidence of conflict in the first place. exemplary work with the resettlement of tribal peoples out of the Bhadra Tiger Reserve. In this In many areas (especially north-east and central case, he recognised the people’s plight, he was India) the implementation process has been sensitive to the needs of people and wildlife, and he hijacked by the political interests of this ‘noisy motivated the other departments to do their job in democracy’. The following quotes capture local supporting the effort. sentiment ‘local politicians are the biggest threat to elephants …. (because) …. national politicians The plight of the field staff gain support from local politicians, and local The dysfunctional nature of many government politicians gain their power base from giving out agencies means that responsibility for decisions, land’.4 This often means that ‘the middle action or accountability to the public is delegated to management … don’t want to be active for fear of the least empowered levels of the department upsetting groups of voters/influential people who concerned. In the words of one ranger, ‘the upper will then pressure politicians which might lead to level shifts responsibility to the lowest level and the the officer being relocated’. It makes it very lowest level has no resources’.6 The result is that difficult for committed individuals to act. many of the forest staff are demoralised. Many ‘Throughout the government, the culture is such have pride in their work and feel a moral duty to that no one will take a decision that may be protect the forest, but they are in an impossible controversial. They would rather stall the decision position. One forest guard spoke of feeling bad that than stick their neck out, and so there is pressure to he had not been able to protect the forests, and that paint the picture that everything is OK because if five levels of hierarchy put responsibility on the something is wrong, then they are expected to do guards for failing in forest management, but at the something, and they risk being confronted with operational level they have to balance so many controversial decisions. This happens most of the competing interests including the well-being of time because they are scared of their superiors and their family. Another group of guards spoke of their of the wrath of politicians, who might not like their low status and the day-to-day problems of trying to decision, and override it. The officer then loses do their job. ‘If we apprehend a poacher, a group of face, credibility and is transferred. Any officer that villagers beat us up. The police should back us up but is the thorn in the flesh of politicians (and the they don’t because they are paid off by locals.’ 7As officers in their thrall) will be moved out.’ 5 one NGO director put it, ‘there is enough will in the new generation of forest people – very sincere and It is possible, however, to exaggerate the role of want to make a difference but do not have the local politicians. In south India it appeared that resources nor the backup.’ 8 they were much less of a driving force and that internal corruption was the key problem. Over- Low ratings in Lao and Cambodia reflect recent emphasizing the role of politicians could merely be political histories when totalitarian and genocidal excuses for the poor performance of the wildlife regimes destroyed institutions and the professional department, be it due to internal corruption; lack of classes. As a result, government agencies are knowledge and strategy; apathy and a lack of will weak and lacking in capacity. One NGO worker in and commitment; or any combination of these.

3 Interview 3, India, 27 December 2002 6 Interview 127, India, 10 December 2002 4 Interview 2, India, 18 February 2003 7 Interview 47, India, 12 December 2002 5 Interview 2, India, 18 February 2003 8 Interview 112, India, 16 December 2002

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 18 Cambodia described the effect as follows: ‘In much forest areas), the process is often superficially of rural Cambodia the ability to achieve anything is executed by non-specialists, effectively rendering not defined just by a single government agency. It the process invalid.10 is based upon a people’s committee. It is usually influenced by a number of different factors: the Cultural empathy with elephants and will military, the provincial governor, proximity to The second general point arising from our international borders and then power. We use the assessment is that countries with cultural empathy phrase ‘big bananas’: people who wield power. for elephants generally fare best. This esteem can Sometimes it’s politicians, sometimes it isn’t. These be traced historically to their domestication in the local political climates need to be understood far old kingdoms and the harnessing of their power to better than the agencies from Phonm Penh.’ 9 The construct palaces and cities, engage in elite sports lack of government presence makes Cambodia a and embody military might. The possession of a relatively easy country for INGOs, who have fewer large elephant stable became the most important constraints on their operations. symbol of royalty and independent power in Asia and, as one source states, ‘where there are In Indonesia, the weak performance reflects the elephants there is victory’. Their use continued into corrupt systems inherited from the 35-year old the colonial era, notably in forestry and Suharto regime, and the anarchy and chaos that construction, but it is only in Myanmar that followed its collapse in 1998. Post-1998 elephants are still central to the economy. Here, a decentralisation policy enabled these systems to force of 5,400 elephants is employed in its logging flourish at more local levels, beyond the control of industry where they cause much less damage than central government. The enforcement agencies machinery and are cheaper to maintain. continue to be involved in poaching and the illegal timber trade, and the authority of the Parks and Wildlife staff at the district level has been substantially undermined. Consequently, they are powerless to counter the networks of local exploitation interests, and are demoralised by the futility of their task. Indonesia does, however, have a dynamic civil society; while Sumatra’s rapidly disappearing super-diverse forests have attracted the inputs and expertise of many of the INGOs.

More generally, inter-ministry and departmental co-operation is limited throughout Asia. The work of the conservation department can be greatly undermined when other departments act without taking the elephant into consideration at the outset. Marginal changes in plan can often be very beneficial to elephants at little or no extra cost. Relief from the Royal Palace in Cambodia. Elephants helped Unfortunately, wildlife and protected area create perceptions of the divine power of many rulers of the old kingdoms of Asia. Photo: Paul Jepson departments are among the lowest status government departments in Asia and tend to have Elephants are strongly manifest in the religious little influence with these other branches of traditions of Hinduism in India; and Buddhism in government. In India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and where governing and business elites have a long Cambodia. Their laws of non-violence and their tradition of interest in wildlife, these departments teaching of reincarnation embody a profound have a slightly higher profile. respect for nature. India’s good performance in elephant conservation, for example, has relied on Where there are conditions imposed to bring about the tolerance of its people and the regard they hold an integrated approach (e.g. mandatory for elephants as the embodiment of ‘Ganesh’ the Environmental Impact Assessment for projects in elephant-headed god, the Lord of Beginnings, the

9 Interview 58, Cambodia, 17 February 2002 10 Interview 3, India, 27 December 2002

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 19 God of Protection and the Remover of Obstacles. The Secretary of the Asian Elephant Specialist He is the most popular of the Indian deities, and Group stated in its Action Plan: ‘The best laid plans devotees flock to temples to receive his blessings. for conservation in general will come to nothing if India’s Project Elephant document states that there is no political will to implement them’. ‘Elephants have always been so much a part of National political will was evident, particularly in India’s myths, history, and cultural heritage that India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, but in all these protecting and ensuring the survival of this animal countries it was caught up in the implementation means much more to an Indian than protecting just process. Urban middle classes in democracies are another endangered species’. influential in terms of mobilizing support and mobilizing politicians, and these three countries Elephants figure strongly in the legends of both scored the highest on this measure. Local political these religions. In a previous life, the Buddha is will is influenced by the power of local exploitation said to have been incarnated as a six-tusked white interests to pressure political and government elephant, endowed with miraculous powers and an processes. In Indonesia, for example, despite ability to fly, and a white (or albino) elephant is declarations at the national level asserting the associated with Buddha’s birth. Buddha’s mother is intention to control illegal logging, there is little said to have dreamed that a white elephant entered political will or organised concern at the local level her side. Wise men told her that it was a sign that to do so. she would give birth to a great man. Eric Scigliano 11 observed of Sri Lanka that ‘nowhere We found rural support depended on the level of save Thailand are elephants so widely splashed – human-elephant conflict and the extent of cultural across ads, signs, temples and ballots. empathy. Young women in the fields of Assam expressed the strong sentiment that ‘we have lived Cultural empathy appears to be latent in Cambodia in a land of elephants and we won’t live in a land and Laos, probably owing to the political upheavals without elephants’.13 of the past decades. Laos used to be called ‘The land of the million elephants’, and white elephants However, the prevailing view in India was that were associated with royalty. Today, even though human-elephant conflict had become an there is no king, the State still maintains a white increasingly important issue over the last five elephant stable for processions. In Cambodia, one years. According to one NGO director, ‘I think government official affirmed that cultural empathy human-elephant conflict is becoming a huge issue was still present and expressed pride in the elephant – much bigger than it is now. People like elephants carvings at Ankor Wat. ….but land is everything now.’14 One veteran conservationist explained that ‘previously rural Countries where the cultural importance of people thought elephants were part of the elephants has disappeared, such as Malaysia and environment: they found ways to live with it. Indonesia, don’t show the same empathy for Increasingly their attitude is that elephants belong elephants. However, in Sumatra, we found that to the forest department and they hold the even in rural areas suffering from conflict caused government responsible for crop-raiding.’ 15 One by rapid deforestation, rural people still felt that senior official attributed this to government policy elephants had a right to exist (see Box 6, page 21). and that ‘people’s attitudes changed once the The same survey also highlighted the lack of government started offering compensation’.16 knowledge of the global importance of remaining Asian elephant populations. A common sentiment of people throughout Asia living close to elephants was eloquently expressed by settlers in Assam as ‘where there is forest there are elephants. Europe has forest …elephants must be there …. but not in America because it is all cities’.12

13 Interview, 133, India, 12 December 2002 11 Eric Scigliano (2002, ‘Love, War and Ciruses’ 14 Interview, 14, India, 16 December 2002 Houghton Mifflin. 15 Interview, 127, India, 10 December 2002 12 Interview, 133, India, 12 December 2002 16 Interview, 48, India, 18 December 2002

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 20 Box 6 Do people in Asia want to conserve elephants?

Five major cities: 82% Remarkably little has been done to understand public attitudes to elephants and their conservation Indonesian culture will be diminished if in Asia. Governments and NGOs alike assume elephants die out support for their policies. In 2002 we conducted 16% two surveys in Indonesia. The first investigated 2% attitudes in the Sumatran province of Aceh where Agree Disagree Don’t know conflict between elephants and farmers is 98% increasing. The second surveyed households in Indonesia’s five largest cities. The government should designate and manage elephant The results of these surveys indicate that elephants santuaries are popular. The majority of rural and urban people 1% 1% surveyed answered that Indonesian culture would Agree Disagree Don’t know be diminished if elephants died out, that elephants have a right to live and that the government should set aside land as elephant sanctuaries. However, 62% Spending money so when asked to balance elephant conservation elephants can live free 35% against forest exploitation attitudes were less is worthwhile favourable. When asked to choose between forest 3% conservation and plantation development, 3 out of Aceh: (see note) Agree Disagree Don’t know 5 respondents in Aceh chose plantations, and only a third of households in the cities felt that spending

69% money on elephants was worthwhile.

Do wild elephants occur in Europe? These ambivalent attitudes may be a consequence of low knowledge levels concerning the status of 15% 16% wild elephants. When asked whether wild

Agree Disagree Don’t know elephants occurred in Europe, 15% of respondents thought they did and 69% didn’t know. A quarter of Elephants have a right to live and we must respondents in the cities thought there were still 58% leave space for them wild elephants on Java – Indonesia’s most populous We should only leave island – where they have been extinct for 400 years. space for elephnats if it brings us economic 41% Note: The Aceh survey was an activity of the FFI CELA project and benefit surveyed 1040 people in six sites. We thank ACNielsen Jakarta for kindly incorporating the city survey with their regular Omnibus household survey

The support of people living close to protected attitude - has done a lot of damage to the wildlife areas is important for enforcing conservation conservation cause. I think the wildlife department activities. One Sri Lankan described the hazards: is realising this mistake and starting to introduce ‘people in human-elephant conflict areas have more participatory approaches’ 18. deep-seated animosity towards the wildlife department as a result of their strict protection in The role of the media the past, which kept the wildlife in and safe and A free media is crucial to recognise the problem kept people out. Then they see the Pajero 17 -set from and to generate concern and will among all sectors. Colombo coming down and frolicking, and getting Newspapers are of critical importance among the drunk in the parks. They just see the parks as urban middle classes and for political will. As one playgrounds for the rich and elite and we have Indian NGO activist put it, ‘with law-makers fast to suffer the consequences. This approach - becoming law-breakers, I believe that the two other

11 A smart 4W drive car 18 Interview 97, Sri Lanka, 9 January 2003

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 21 pillars of our democracy must be activated, namely between managers and researchers on a systematic the free press and the judiciary...Without a basis that could enable on-going research-assisted supportive and sensitive press, we would be planning at the State level. nowhere’.19 This is in contrast to many of the other countries We also found evidence of the importance of where either science is not regarded as a high television in generating knowledge among the priority, or scientists are regarded as a threat. In wider population in countries where empathy was Lao, for example, the country ‘never had high, yet in Malaysia, one resident expressed the intellectuals. The French didn’t set up a university view that ‘the television shows development as the and they never had a joint research programme source of happiness …. the government has put in with the Russians. There is no intellectual the minds of people that nature is chaos, dirty and tradition. Some Lao people have been trained unhygienic, while concrete and straight lines are abroad and came back with degrees that they truly good ... and so elephants are seen as pests’.20 earned. But when they came back they couldn’t do anything. You get the idea that the government sees trained people as a threat and keeps them down’.23 On the whole, elephant stories are popular, Similarly in Myanmar, where the ministers are however the role of the media and their portrayal of from the military and ‘many do not know how to elephants gives cause for concern. There is a move deal with intellectuals: they are neglected, not from their portrayal as creatures of respect and awe consulted, marginalised and isolated from every to ones of pity, or fear. In many areas, rural day affairs. At the same time they are not allowed villagers expressed pity for the animals having to go outside the country’.24 nowhere to go or food to eat. In Thailand the very visible situation of unemployed elephants begging In Sumatra, the high level of INGO interest in its on the streets also induces pity. One government super-diverse forests has led to significant scientist expressed the view that ‘there is massive investment in science by these organisations, in public ignorance and it’s partly confused by the particular the Wildlife Conservation Society of fact of domestic elephants. I don’t think Thai people New York (WCS). know much about elephants in the wild. They don’t see the value of wild animals. Their main The need for a vision motivation is pity for the elephants’.21 There is a need to recognise that growing populations, increasing development, and One veteran conservationist in Sri Lanka expressed increasing conflict are already eroding the cultural the opinion that ‘over the last 10 years people empathy that has allowed the persistence of increasingly feel that the elephant is something to elephant populations. Governments must recognise be feared… I think it’s wrong. The media really the situation and implement strategies to deal with does not understand that they are giving this the problem. impression. What makes news is a human dead or an elephant dead. When a human is trampled they The need for effective government authority and use the word ‘beast’. This is so unfortunate because implementation has already been discussed. for so long we never thought of it as a beast and yet Internal corruption and lack of direction stifle will suddenly the term beast is being used’.22 and encourage apathy, while apathy feeds back to allow corrupt practice. Factors such as resources Status of science and knowledge and backup, enhancing status and rewarding India and Sri Lanka were the only countries performance all help boost morale and will, but on investing in science and retaining good intellectual top of this there needs to be a national vision traditions in elephant conservation, with for elephant conservation that guides strategic government research institutes and a dynamic planning, and focuses effort. community of expertise. This reflects a strong scientific tradition within these cultures. There is, An uncomfortable truth, however, is that ignoring however, no system that allows the interaction the elephant issue may suit governments. On the

19 Interview, 16, India, 14 February 2002 23 Interview, 136, Cambodia, 16 February 2003 20 Interview, 51, Malaysia, 6 April 2003 24 Interview, 66, Sri Lanka, 4 February 2003 21 Interview, 75, Thailand, 3 February 2003 22 Interview, 53, Sri Lanka, 30 December 2002

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 22 one hand, managing a reduction of elephant Without a clear vision, government action is ad populations in line with agricultural expansion hoc. In India, which is furthest along the route in would require culling or capture. The former that it has a national elephant project with would cause a public outcry and the latter has dedicated funds, ‘District Forest Officers apply for enormous recurrent costs. On the other hand, funds to the state, which then applies to the central protecting national forest estates and clamping government, but there is no mechanism for down on poaching syndicates means ending the identifying priorities within the overall vision’.27 corrupt land and trading deals of local politicians, As a result, there is a tendency to wait for a crisis army commanders and bureaucrats, and risks to happen and use money in expensive mitigating exposing the true limits of state power. activities such as compensation for crop raiding, and the filling of water-holes, and expensive trench To the non-Asian, the pragmatic approach might be construction, which could have been avoided or to decide how much space to allot to elephants, mitigated for less cost if a plan had been devised translocate displaced elephants to these areas until and followed. their carrying capacity has been met and then cull the rest. Malaysia has gone furthest down this road In Sri Lanka the government found it had a major but stopped short of culling. For most Asian elephant problem on its hands in the 1970s when it societies, it is inconceivable to sanction the official initiated a massive irrigation scheme under the killing of elephants.25 It seems that faced with the Megahwali development project in prime elephant difficult challenge of balancing the needs of habitat. In response, the government designated elephants and cultural identity against the additional wildlife sanctuaries and attempted the economic and political gain accrued from forest difficult task of driving displaced elephants into conversion, governments and perhaps society at these. Initially it looked like the Indonesian large prefers to fudge the issue. This leaves government might follow suit. When a new responsibility for dealing with marauding elephants transmigration site was overrun by elephants in the in the hands of poor settler farmers. Desperate 1980s, the government designated a new wildlife farmers, fearing for their crops, property and sanctuary, and in a nine-month long operation tried family, but also of the consequences of taking to drive more than 200 elephants to this area. direct action against a protected species, are Shortly after, Indonesia switched its policy to discreetly poisoning elephants or paying corrupt catching problem elephants and putting them in police officers to shoot them. Over time, the centres where they would be trained for productive elephants and the problem fade away. use in logging or tourism. This seemed like a win- win solution: no need to designate additional As one elephant expert put it, ‘plans are useless reserves or mount difficult driving operations and without a policy vision as you don’t know what the an opportunity to harness elephants as a contributor plans are trying to achieve. Currently all the plan to national development. Unfortunately, Indonesia says is ‘let’s conserve elephants and put an end to was already in the mechanised age, and had lost its human-elephant conflict’. But we need to look at traditions of working elephants. Compared to a the long term: what are the future trends, people’s truck or bulldozer, elephants are inconvenient to aspirations, future problems? Then we can see ‘run’. Demand for working elephants was what could be effectively conserved in the long negligible and elephants now languish in the term. For example, a forest patch is degraded and renamed conservation centres in appalling conditions. the elephants are coming out into agricultural lands. What is our policy on this? Do we want to It could be said that Peninsular Malaysia has a clear conserve them and reinstate forest…. Under what vision for elephants and an implementation circumstances? If there is a clear policy we can act strategy. As forest is cleared and conflict arises, on it, do the education, target the funds etc.…’.26 there is a system for evaluating the severity of the conflict and the most appropriate mitigation strategies. Where all else fails, a government unit 25 There is, however, another viewpoint that maintains that translocates elephants to one of four designated the public would find culling acceptable if presented as release sites. The strategy has been criticised by part of a rational strategy to manage elephants based on conservationists on the grounds that, in reality, a scientific assessment; and that the concept that culling translocation tends to be the first option rather than is not acceptable has been largely the creation of NGOs and fearful governments. 26 Interview 3, India, 27 December 2002 27 Interview 3, India, 27 December 2002

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 23 the last. In addition, no one knows the fate of the not known whether the release sites were already translocated elephants and whether they survive at carrying capacity at the start of the translocation (data from Myanmar indicates that translocated programme: the low level of poaching in these elephants only live seven years on average after areas suggests that they may have been. Overall translocation); whether they are poached; or action appears to be taken only to remove the whether they move to crop raid elsewhere as a problem from public view. result of disturbance from illegal loggers. It is also

Tuskers like this are now rare in the wild because of ivory poaching. Photo: Paul Jepson

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 24 Section IV: Conservation charities and Asian elephant conservation

This section looks at how charities can make a studies and assessment of attitudes, a combination difference and how they are currently organised, of solutions has been implemented that includes before assessing the results of the project micro-credit loans for alternative farming scorecard. combined with education in farming and management techniques, and community How NGOs can make a education. The project was well received by local difference: their role in Asian people, local government and central government. As a result, China used the model to establish its elephant conservation own National Plan for elephants. It also ensured Elephant conservation is the primary responsibility that the Simao region extended its hunting ban (on of government agencies because it is impossible for all wildlife) for another five years. NGOs to control land or mobilise resources at the scale required. Nor can NGOs issue regulations, NGOs were also seen to play an important role in make arrests or institutionalise inter-agency action. over-coming shortfalls in technical capacity, which NGOs therefore play a supporting role. ‘the is particularly acute in Cambodia, Lao and problem is when they try and replace government Vietnam, and in supplementing operational budgets because they don’t have the mandate: it’s the which are inadequate everywhere (except possibly government that has the mandate’ were the words Thailand and Malaysia). A comment from an of one Indian wildlife official.1 interviewee in Sri Lanka sums up the general picture ‘it seems that the state budget is allocated Government officers we interviewed were clearer in alphabetical order with W - wildlife at the on the role of NGOs in conservation than were the bottom’.3 Equally serious are the annual delays of NGO leaders. Several officials remarked on the 4-6 months between agreement of the state budget important role of NGOs in pushing the government and the dispersal of funds, which are commonplace machinery through standing up and telling things as in many countries. During these periods there may they are, because officials wanting to advance, or be no money for routine activities such as patrols or even survive, in the bureaucracy must play by the crop protection; salaries may be paid late and rules. contract staff laid off. NGOs can help limit the impact of these funding gaps. However, there is a A second important role of NGOs is providing the counter-argument that providing stopgap funds interface between the government machinery and helps perpetuate the problem by lessening demands the people. Government officers we interviewed in for reform. India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia in particular talked of how public distrust of government agencies Conservation charities also have a role to play in undermined public support and involvement in helping government agencies develop the will and their elephant management initiatives. They also capacity to conserve and manage elephants : noted that NGOs could work outside protected 1. By raising the profile and status of these areas where the jurisdiction of conservation agencies and their field staff in the public mind. authorities is weaker.2 2. By lobbying for adequate resources for routine In the Simao Prefecture of China there was field operations. enormous animosity between the villagers and the 3. By scrutinising the leadership to assure Forest Bureau. Staff were often attacked by professional management. villagers asking for compensation for elephant 4. By protecting field staff from intimidation from depredations. IFAW’s (International Fund for political and other vested interests. Animal Welfare) project aimed to set up a model 5. By supporting enforcement activities with field for helping local government solve the human- intelligence and prosecutions. elephant conflict here and encourage villagers to 6. By providing links to wider networks of protect elephants. Following two years of feasibility best practice.

1 Interview 85, India, 14 December 2002 3 Interview 33, Sri Lanka, 8 January 2003 2 Government conservation bodies generally have responsibility for upholding wildlife law outside protected areas, but activities relating to land use and livelihoods might be perceived as the responsibility of agricultural departments. 25 While no charities surveyed appear to be respect and appreciation among local actors’.5 He supporting in ways 1-3 above, we did find good also noted that the tourism sector could play an practice in the last three. For example, in Sri important role because it would be relatively easy Lanka, the Environmental Foundation League for a wildlife tour guide to ask around about what provides legal support to the wildlife department. is needed and bring it along on his next trip. They file cases against other departments or the government if their activities are, for example, In Thailand, where public pity for elephants creates blocking elephant corridors.The EFL will also file a lucrative environment for donations, government cases against the police or army if either is field officers perceive many NGOs as fly-by-nights obstructing a wildlife ranger in his duties. The who are out to make a quick buck through Wildlife Protection Society of India has developed publicising a crisis. As one retired wildlife officer a country-wide network of investigators that put it ‘NGOs just come and disappear; blow their collects information and assists and liaises with trumpets for a while and then go away. They use government enforcement authorities to bring about elephants to advertise their activities. I think the the arrest of offenders and the seizure of wildlife NGO people get more benefit than the elephant’.6 products. It also has a cell of lawyers that supports prosecutions, conducts training workshops and studies and maintains a database on wildlife crimes.

Government perceptions of conservation NGOs Unfortunately in many places we found unconstructive antagonism between governments and NGOs. Negative perceptions of conservation NGOs were worst in India and Thailand and among government field staff. Many felt that NGOs took the credit for government work, or as one experienced wildlife official put it, NGOs ‘want to steal the limelight’.4

Despite the chronic politicking and lack of resources, India retains a cadre of committed and knowledgeable rangers. These people on the front- line often feel undermined by NGOs who are better resourced and quick to publicise their successes, even when they rely on back-up from local forestry officers and the local knowledge of rangers.

The director of a wildlife tour agency argued that demonstrating to rangers that people outside government value their role or care for their well- Detailed local knowledge not always represented in being will enhance motivation and job GIS–generated planning and vision maps (produced by international NGOs) because of poor communication with forest performance. Recognising this point, the Wildlife departments. Photo: Paul Jepson Trust of India runs a ‘Guardians of the Wild’ project which has provided life insurance for forest guards and rangers in elephant ranges. It also In Cambodia, where, until recently, the government provides essential equipment supported by training. lacked an established wildlife service of its own Unfortunately, several rangers we interviewed and is without an active civil society, government mentioned that while they were grateful for the perceptions of international NGO motivations are equipment provided, they had not been consulted more balanced but also worrying. Two quotes from on what was needed, and felt it was more a government officials capture the sentiments: publicity-seeking opportunity for WTI. As the wildlife tour operator advised, providing support ‘They (INGOs) have positive and negative ‘discreetly without a big hullabaloo will generate impacts. We are short of budget and human

5 Interview 89, India, 10 December 2002 4 Interview 68, Sri Lanka, 8 January 2003 6 Interview 5, Thailand, 3 February 2003

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 26 resources and they bring that. But we give them 2. National NGOs employ a professional staff to many facilities, like tax exemption and visas and take forward an agenda and manage projects at a some of them seem to be just here for the high national scale. salary and nice house.’7 3. Local NGOs and citizens’ groups who work in a ‘NGOs say we want to help in your capacity particular local area and whose founders and building but they send inexperienced young people. trustees are actively involved in the everyday They come here to get experience but they want to delivery of projects. teach us. Some are not even graduated. At this stage we welcome them. We want to send our The blend of NGOs active in any one country or people to graduate school, but the NGO and donor place depends on the rules of the government community don’t support us with this.’8 concerning civil society organisations and the availability of grant aid. For example the Government and NGO partners alike are aware of governments of Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam do not the risks to credibility posed by the competition permit citizens to form NGOs but they do enter into within the NGO sector. An Indian NGO leader implementation partnerships with INGOs, commented that, ‘India has seen a fatigue of NGOs particularly if this brings funds and enables them to and nothing happening but internal politics’.9 An claim that they are meeting their obligations as a NGO leader in Thailand thought lack of unity signatory to international conventions. For INGOs, among NGOs was a consequence of passion, ‘As so the advantage of such partnerships is access often happens people who are passionate and have to government policy development and inter- drive and the will to start things up are also quite governmental conservation budgets. The combative. They get territorial and clash so disadvantage is that criticism of the government often’.10 system or advocating agendas contrary to the government line is often not permitted. Neither is These perceptions are hard to quantify but are real generating a local supporter-base or fund-raising and widespread and constitute a major impediment within the country. This makes action for to the government-NGO partnership that is fundamental reforms difficult. As a result, INGOs required to protect and manage wild elephant in these situations tend to focus on less- populations. Although building mutual trust and controversial areas of activity such as planning, appreciation is a responsibility of both parties, scientific research and training. NGOs should perhaps give much more credit to government agencies where it is due. To overcome these problems, some INGOs have established national programme offices as national How conservation NGOs with NGOs or foundations. WWF has adopted this elephant projects are organising approach and its elephant projects are conducted through national WWF organisations in India and themselves Indonesia with technical advisors from the main ‘donor WWFs’ in the US, UK and Netherlands. The structure of the NGO community Drawbacks to this approach are increased There are three broad groupings of NGOs: management costs and the emergence of closed international, national and local. shops i.e. a donor NGO in the west cannot directly fund a local NGO outside their ‘family’ even if they 1. International conservation NGOs (INGOs) are better positioned to deliver what is needed. mostly have their headquarters outside Asia and Support from INGOs within the same family can work either through local partner NGOs or in lead to complacency in the national projects partnership with government conservation because they know that donor NGOs based in the agencies. An example of the former is WWF which west need them as recipients of money for works through national WWF partners, many of operations. which are independent national NGOs. An example of the latter is The Wildlife Conservation Other INGOs form partnerships with national and Society, which works under a technical assistance local NGOs. One example is the Wildlife Trust in agreement with national governments. New York which provides funding and scholarships for talented conservation biologists 7 Interview 123, Cambodia, 13 February 2003 attached to national NGOs. Another example is 8 Interview 19, Cambodia, 14 February 2003 9 Interview 134, India, 11 December 2002 10 Interview 18, UK, 18 October 2002

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 27 WildAid’s regional office in Bangkok, which projects, and the Wildlife Trust of India and provides national and local NGOs active in fighting Wildlife Preservation Society of India are also wildlife crime with technical training and access to prominent actors. their intelligence networks. TRAFFIC, an NGO closely linked with WWF, Asia-wide elephant conservation which supports CITES implementation forms a networks link between this fourth network and WWF Four Asia-wide programmes or networks active in AREAs. wild elephant conservation have emerged. The direct involvement of these programmes in India NGO partnerships with scientific and Sri Lanka is limited because these countries institutions already have active national elephant conservation INGO programmes and networks form movements. partnerships with scientific research institutions to gain scientific guidance and credibility with The largest of these networks is WWF’s Asian donors. The exception is WCS, which has Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy (AREAS) substantial scientific capacity of its own. Research launched in 1999. WWF’s strategy, which is easily institutes are outside the scope of this audit. Within accessible and authored by leading elephant the official establishment of conservation, the conservationists, focuses on protecting elephants’ Asian Elephant Specialist Group (AESG) of the habitat through large scale planning, policy IUCN is expected to provide scientific leadership interventions and integrating elephant conservation and advice to IUCN members, which include into broader WWF reserve- management and government and NGOs. capacity- building projects. The current chair of the AESG is Professor The oldest Asia-wide elephant programme is Sukumar, an internationally recognised expert on the Cambridge (UK) based Fauna & Flora the Asian elephant. He heads the Centre for International. The FFI Asian Elephant Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Conservation Programme is currently focused on Sciences in Bangalore. His group has a history of surveys of elephant distribution in Cambodia and a elephant research. The Asian Elephant Research & project in Aceh, Sumatra, funded by a three-year Conservation Centre (AERCC), an NGO run by US$750,000 grant from the Global Environment Professor Sukumar, provides consultancy services Fund (GEF). to the FFI Asian Elephant Programme. Professor Sukumar is a trustee and scientific advisor to the The Wildlife Conservation Society of New York is WildLife Trust of India and International Fund for developing an Asia- wide elephant conservation Elephant Welfare. The AERCC was tasked to programme. The main WCS focus is scientific prepare a bibliography of Asian elephant research research and training. It operates in many ways like on behalf of the AESG. Although this has been a non-government research institute and develops compiled, a copy was not forthcoming for this research related to elephant conservation in audit. countries where it has a programme office. WCS have a three-year old elephant project in Lampung, The Wildlife Institute of India has on-going Asian Sumatra. It is currently conducting preliminary elephant research in north and central India and is a research for new projects in Lao and Cambodia and key scientific advisor to the government’s Project provides technical advisors to the recently- Elephant. Sri Lanka has a vibrant community of launched inter-government project called elephant scientists but no single research centre. Monitoring of the Illegal Killings of Elephants Several young Sri Lankan elephant biologists are (MIKE), mandated by the Convention on based at universities throughout Sri Lanka and at International Trade in Endangered Species Columbia University in New York. (CITES). The Smithsonian Institute in Washington has been A fourth network has a stronger elephant welfare an influential force in Asian elephant conservation focus. The focus is wildlife trade, investigations, since the 1970s. A series of research students have prosecutions, enforcement, media campaigns and undertaken studies in Sri Lanka, then Malaysia and rescue centres. Charities in this network tend to get now Myanmar. The lead technical adviser to the on and do their own thing but swap knowledge WWF AREAs programme is an associate scientist and team up at international conferences. Two at the Smithsonian, and they are forming a international NGOs, The International Fund scientific partnership with Wild Aid’s elephant for Animal Welfare and WildAid have elephant work in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 28 Thematic areas of conservation charities such as WCS, FFI and to a lesser extent activity WWF, now place scientific surveys at the centre of their elephant conservation activities in the We have discussed the role of NGOs in elephant countries of Indochina and SE Asia where scientific conservation and how they are organised. This institutions and data are lacking. The NGO section surveys the main thematic areas of NGO biologists we interviewed described the purpose of elephant conservation activity and who is doing scientific surveys as follows: what activities where. NGOs frame their three • to ensure the conservation agencies and donors overriding aims as 1) to protect habitat, 2) control base their strategies on accurate data and not poaching and 3) reduce human-elephant conflict. ‘fabricated government data’ The principal means to these ends are: • to design reserve and corridor configuration • to enable monitoring and modification of • Strengthening knowledge of wild elephant interventions numbers, distribution and movements as a basis • to arm government offices with facts enabling for reserve and corridor planning (see box 7, them to pursue the wildlife agenda, and to page 32) and monitoring. counter simplistic analyses (such as the • Employing international financial levers to assertion that increasing human-elephant slow forest conversion outside protected areas. conflict is a result of increasing elephant • Resettlement and forest restoration. populations) • Strengthening enforcement through prosecutions, under-cover work and the The main techniques used are transects, camera- training, leading and equipping of ranger teams trapping, radio-tracking and analysis of satellite (see box 8, page 35). imagery. These are time-consuming to implement, • Piloting community-based means to control particularly because they require government crop raiding (see box 9, page 36). counterpart staff to be trained. Costs increase with the level of accuracy required, yet the level of Table 5 shows our assessment of the activities of accuracy required is seldom discussed. Elephant NGOs and how these relate to the country population figures are a case in point. The Indian scorecard and the four focal areas that nations need Forest Service has a long -established system for to conserve elephants. The general picture we regular elephant counts which are compiled by reveal is that most NGO effort is going into Project Elephant. The elephant scientists and NGO ‘resources’ by increasing technical know-how on biologists interviewed were quick to describe their how to manage elephants and supplementing the results as ‘extremely unreliable’ and methods as ‘ad limited capacity of implementation agencies. Less hoc’ or ‘the next best thing to being made up in an effort is going into building political and public office’ 11 as a south Indian researcher commented. support. To be fair, the block count system which we reviewed in Assam had a structured method and This assessment may not be complete because large evidence of training to promote standardisation. INGOs, notably WWF, include elephant However, because methods vary across India it is conservation activities as part of broader Integrated considered ‘unscientific’ to amalgamate counts that Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs). are not comparable. WWF has moved away from single species projects and instead organises activities under a concept Despite the scientific limitations of the Indian called ecoregion-based conservation. For example, Forest service counts, the Director of Project in Cambodia, WWF has defined an area called the Elephant was able to state: ‘Just to give some idea Dry-forest ecoregion, on the basis of ecological of where we stand, the latest figure is 28,000 wild factors, and developed an integrated conservation elephants in 18 states occupying 110,000km2 of the strategy for this area. It has conducted field wildlife country’ 12 and then go on to give a region by region surveys and training and is developing ranger breakdown. Basic figures, even those with a broad patrols and alternative livelihoods. In the case of margin of error, are needed to communicate the ICDPs, assessing whether general activities do scale of the issues, urgency and strategy to decision indeed assist elephant conservation is a more time- makers. In no other country could we find someone consuming and complex undertaking and outside able to give similar basic figures. the scope of this report.

11 Interview 82, India, 23 December 2002 Counting and mapping wild elephants 12 Interview 105, India, 10 December 2002 Although this was once the domain of universities and government scientific institutions, conservation

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 29 able 5: Assessment of focal activity areas of conservation NGOs with projects to conserve wild Asian elephants to conserve wild of conservation NGOs with projects Assessment of focal activity areas able 5: T

30 The Wildlife Conservation Society’s project in officials across Cambodia using a structured Lampung province of south Sumatra has produced interview format, asking about tigers, elephants and ‘the first statistically strong population estimates in other large mammals. When they compiled the Asia’,1 but no-one can quantify the decline in the results they found the same three areas had most wild population of Sumatran elephants at a time important remnant populations of tiger, elephants when forest conversion is out-of-control and and wild cattle. The results of these surveys guided conservationists urgently need to publicise the the large INGOs to focus their activities. consequences for wildlife. Crucially, CAT reported back their findings to the hunters and invited them to become local wildlife The WCS population assessment provides an rangers. They recruited over 70 who now important testing of techniques and bench marks communicate knowledge on the status of wildlife against which to calibrate estimates elsewhere. But and relevant laws to villages and send reports for reasons of cost and complexity it cannot be back to CAT which are circulated in regular implemented everywhere at this stage. communiqués to conservation bodies.

The risk is that the pursuit of accuracy consumes Surveys designed by conservation biologists are resources that could be more effectively spent invariably framed as an integrated package of elsewhere. For elephant conservation planning survey and technical capacity building ultimately purposes, accurate figures are not needed, except at aimed at guiding routine monitoring and the local level where populations approach carrying enforcement, but the last part often fails to capacity. Relative orders of magnitude generally materialise. WildAid’s Khao Yai Conservation suffice. As a Cambodian-based wildlife biologist Project recently submitted a proposal with very put it, ‘in Indochina you wouldn’t have to know similar objectives to a project conducted in the about numbers to be making some managerial same park 17 years earlier, but with no analysis as decisions. The situation is urgent. We need more to why the transition from survey to action failed in intelligent estimates to make some crude the earlier case and why it should succeed this time management decisions and then build upon those round. and try to refine understanding from there’.2 In our view, surveys such as those used by CAT More important than precise population figures are have much to contribute in estimating the an understanding of population trends, distribution population and distribution of wild elephants, and patterns and movements, to identify broad trends over time if repeated regularly. But their use population trends and inform land-use planning and has so far been limited because of the view that targeting of enforcement resources. Only in India, ‘perception’ data is unreliable and therefore Sri Lanka and Malaysia is the distribution of Asian invalid. In our view, embracing such approaches elephants well known. In Sumatra, which is which have been used widely by development experiencing large and rapid land change, elephant agencies for over 15 years, could significantly conservation planning is still informed by rough improve impact and efficiency by enabling a rapid distribution maps created in the mid-1980s. There assessment of the situation to guide conservation is an urgent need too for new population and action. It also has the added benefit of engaging the distribution maps that are regularly up-dated. local community in the conservation vision.

Rough distribution maps can be compiled in a Employing international financial levers matter of months on the basis of interview surveys. The WWF AREAS project in Tesso Nilo, Sumatra, An outstanding example of this approach was is attempting to ‘stabilise the conversion frontier’ conducted by the Cat Action Treasury in through coercing pulp and paper companies to only Cambodia. Everyone wanted to know the status of purchase wood from legitimate sources. They do tigers after 30 years of war. Costs, security and this by applying pressure to the European banks logistics ruled out biological surveys so CAT who hold their massive debts. This is a significant decided to interview hunters who they felt would and exciting development for tropical forest know what was happening. conservation efforts generally, as it is attempting to tackle the root causes of deforestation. In 1998, CAT recruited five recent Cambodia graduates who interviewed 150 hunters and 150

1 Interview 63, USA, 18 November 2002 2 Interview 58, Cambodia, 17 February 2003

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 31 Box 7 Current issues: Planning corridors of elephant habitat

Influential conservation charities, such as WWF and WCS are now promoting landscapes as a framework for conservation action in which traditional focus on parks is expanded to include surrounding land-use. The 1990 Asian Elephant Action Plan1 promoted the concept of Managed Elephant Range. This is an early example of landscape conservation, which proposes integrated management of reserves and a ‘productive’ landscape matrix to create an area where people and elephants can live in a more harmonious relationship.

Recently, American conservation scientists have argued for the creation of biological corridors on large scales. Indeed, WWF-AREAs states the ultimate goal of landscape conservation is to connect and safeguard networks of protected areas2. Corridor planning now features prominently in the programmes of WWF, FFI, the Wildlife Trust of India, India’s Project Elephant, and the scientific institutions. However it is not a new idea, between 1954 and 1962 the Sri Lankan Ministry of Lands and Land Development designated elephant corridors3 for this purpose.

Two arguments are used to make a case for elephant corridors. 1) To maintain a flow of genes between isolated population to avoid in-breeding and maintain capacity to adapt to long-term environmental changes. 2) To maintain migrations between seasonally distributed food sources. The genetic argument is the weaker of the two because genetic mixing concerns could be met by translocating bull elephants.

There are two general aspects to corridor planning and management: i) identification, designation and protection of corridors prior to forest conversion and ii) creating or restoring corridors after conversion. The second is enormously difficult and expensive, and renders the protection of existing corridors all the more urgent. In 2001, a major EU- funded project in north Sumatra restored a 2km long 15km wide corridor between Leuser National Park and Singkil Barat Wildlife Sanctuary which involved relocating two villages. The process cost $2million. In south India, it took 16 years of persistent lobbying before the forest department secured land to allow elephant movement in the Bandipur/Mudumalai protected area complex.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be enormously helpful in planning for elephant conservation. If matched with field data on elephant movements, they can be persuasive in communicating the consequences of corridor severance. However, some organisations are investing in the production of grand visions, of corridors linking up reserves and forest patches 50km or more apart. A problem with GIS is that it can make the impossible look possible, and create an illusion of effectiveness among desk-based conservationists. The result is likely to be similar to that expressed by C.E. Norris in 1962. ‘I was overjoyed at the far-sighted planning that had been given to wildlife areas, corridors had been allotted to elephants following their traditional migratory routes. The map gave me a feeling of security. This was shattered when I realised the plan I had seen was no more than a pretty picture. On the ground, areas defined as faunal areas are being devastated’

A corridor-based conservation vision is comparable to a business vision: it will only stand a chance of success if the set of essential presuppositions can be met. To avoid a repeat of the Sri Lankan experience and a drift into fantasy conservation, we recommend that the presupposition of corridor schemes are identified and explicitly stated and that an independent and multi-disciplinary review panel attests to their validity. In Asia, typical presuppositions include: a spatial planning process exists and planning regulations can be enforced; land owners and residents within proposed corridors will accept their designation; elephants will move along designated corridors; the conservation movement can maintain the necessary levels of motivation and resource inputs over the time scales needed to designate corridors.

A view of a tiny fragment of the hundreds of kilometres of biological corridor that are a key part of the Tesso Landscape Vision 2015 being promoted in Sumatra by WWF and Conservation International. The GIS analysis on which the vision is based down-plays the reality of the complex negotiations and agreements needed to designate a corridor covering this small scene. Photo: P.Jepson

Notes: 1.UCN/SSC (1990) The Asian Elephant. An action plan for its conservation. IUCN, Gland., 2 WWF (2002) Asian Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy, 3Annon (1954) Corridors for elephants. Loris 7, 194-195

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 32 The goal of the Tesso Nilo project is the from illegal logging activities. Furthermore, the establishment of a new national park to form a project is equivocating on policy issues of great 200,000 ha elephant sanctuary and biodiversity local interest, namely whether a future national reserve in Riau province. This is one of the most park will be an elephant sanctuary for elephants bio-diverse regions on earth, where the super- that have lost their habitat elsewhere. A drawback species rich lowland forests are almost gone. Riau of the WWF organisation is that elephants are a is the site of two giant pulp and paper mills whose second tier priority and first level priorities can ‘weak due diligence procedures and unrealistic over-take promising initiatives on the ground. This growth estimates lured virtually all globally active has also happened with the ‘Terai-arc’ project in institutions to inflate the companies with massive Nepal which started as an AREAs project ‘But it’s debt’.3 The façade fell apart in 1997-1998 as a become more”climate and environment” than result of the Asian economic crisis and the fall of elephants’14 as one WWF insider noted. Indonesia’s Suharto New Order regime. The two companies are now $1.5 billion and $13.5 Resettlement and forest restoration million in debt respectively. Debt restructuring Few organisations will touch the political hot- negotiations centre on determining the cash flow potato of resettlement. We came across two each company can generate and how much of that examples of successful approaches. The first was cash should be repaid to creditors. Illegal logging is mediated by ‘The Friends of Doon’, a citizen’s rampant in Riau and the mills maximise cash flow group originally formed to protect the environment by buying timber from anyone. of the Doon valley at the foothills of the Himalayas in Uttaranchal, but also actively concerned with WWF’s tactic is to collate evidence that trucks issues surrounding the Rajaji National Park. The carrying timber cut illegally from the Tesso Nilo settlement of Gujjar tribespeople in the park forests enter the factory gate. It advises the mills on prevented it achieving full notification in law, international standards for assuring timber is not while at the same time, studies conducted by the bought from illegal sources. Then it puts the nearby Wildlife Institute of India suggested that squeeze on their creditors and buyers in Europe - heavy grazing by Gujjar cattle was preventing the particularly Germany - and Japan by pressurising regeneration of species constituting elephant food. these to demand audits of the mill’s sourcing policy Working closely with the Forestry Department, as a requirement of servicing their debt or buying Friends of Doon mediated between the parties their products. involved to find a more attractive alternative for the Gujjars, and thus kick-start the stalled relocation The Tesso Nilo project exemplifies the power of process. They subsequently helped implement and WWF’s international network. WWF Germany, oversee the relocation process, which is well FoE Holland and WWF Japan are mobilising their underway. campaign experience for the European and Japanese parts of the strategy whilst Yayasan WWF Strengthening enforcement Indonesia has mobilised its national networks to act Mention has already been made of the issues and as watchdog and negotiator with the pulp mills. project activities aimed at tackling hunting and poaching and Box 8 (page 35) adds further detail. Tesso Nilo is a landmark project, however our field Most conservation charities tackle threats to visit left us wondering whether or not elephant elephants, tiger, rhino and wild cattle concurrently, conservation is getting left behind in the urgent and many conservationists see demand for ivory attempts to secure the forest habitat. Surprisingly products as a driver of elephant poaching in Africa little appears to be known about the elephants in and Asia. Trade in ivory is controlled under the Tesso Nilo. A key management question concerns Convention in International Trade in Endangered crop raiding of village oil-palm plantations. Species (CITES). A prominent proponent of However, project staff were unsure whether the banning all ivory trading is Vivek Menon, problem lies with a) elephants displaced from executive director of the Wildlife Trust of India and neighbouring forest fragments; b) the elephant former staff of TRAFFIC - an NGO closely linked population within Tesso Nilo exceeding carrying with WWF which supports CITES implementation. capacity; c) elephants within the Tesso Nilo forest Mr Menon has amassed and published evidence to being driven to the periphery as a result of disturbance support the precautionary view to ivory trading

3 Galstra, R. (2003) Elephant Forests for Sale. Rain forest loss in the Sumatran Tesso Nilo region and the role of European banks and markets. WWF Deutschland, Frankfurt. 4 Interview 78, Indonesia, 13 April 2003

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 33 in a popular book ‘Tusker’5 and argues that policy some people’ commented one leader who went on on this issue should be debated on the moral as well to explain that their goal is to offer a more balanced as economic grounds. This is a good example of and positive perspective of the elephant: ‘[we] also an NGO tackling the inter-linked needs of try and get [the farmer] into thinking of conserving strengthening policy frameworks and political and the elephant – but to think of conserving the public will simultaneously. elephant he must see some benefit’. Sri Lankan’s see two main hopes in this respect. One is Piloting community-based means to community- based ecotourism, where farmers control crop raiding supplement their income by acting as guides. ‘I The growing conflict between farmers and constantly get called by people and local groups elephants is a serious threat to wild elephant wanting to see elephants. So there is demand – a populations (Box 9, page 36). In the words of Prof. market-- for elephant-watching’,6 commented one Charles Santiapillai ‘The number of elephants that interviewee. Another option is safaris by elephant. any protected area and its surrounding region can These are beginning in India, but are difficult to support will ultimately depend on goodwill and start up because they require specially- trained tolerance of the local communities. Not only are elephants that will stand in the face of a wild herd. elephants being poisoned and shot, but the deaths, In Sri Lanka it was also thought likely that there damage and fear inflicted on farming communities would be resistance from the politically- powerful is replacing a traditional sense of empathy with the jeep owners wishing to maintain their control over elephant and hardening perceptions of elephants as ferrying tourists around national parks. A second a dangerous pest’. possibility of thinking of elephants as a benefit is in cottage industries making paper products from Most projects covered in our survey seek to address elephant dung. This is being championed by the this issue. We found local charities and citizens Ceylon Conservation Trust. A successful groups to be particularly innovative in this area. demonstration factory employing 70 local people The general philosophy is to remind farmers that has been established by Maximus Pvt in they have chosen to settle in landscapes inhabited conjunction with Millennium Elephant Foundation. by elephants, and encourage them to see elephants Another businessman and founder of the trust as a natural hazard, and that they have a talked passionately of the need for cottage responsibility to use their ingenuity to protect their industries, not only to reduce the need to clear crops. In the words of Prof. Santiapillai again, forest but also to provide employment for the many ‘human-elephant conflict can be mitigated if villagers in the north injured in Sri Lanka’s long farmers’ perceptions of the elephant can be civil war. changed from that of dangerous agricultural pest to a dependable economic asset’. ‘Men who’ve lost an arm can still collect elephant dung, and if you’ve lost a leg you can still make the Our field visits to conflict areas in India, Sri Lanka value-added – paper cards, lampshades and so and Thailand suggested that farmers were still on…I displayed at the Ambdande trade show in willing to give elephants a chance. Despite regular Frankfurt and there is big demand for elephant crop raiding and damage to property, a dung paper products. A paper factory costs spokesperson for a group of women interviewed in $30,000 to start up. It employs 10-15 people Assam stated forcefully, ‘we have lived in a land of collecting dung, 30 on the production line, 30 for elephants and we won’t live in a land without value- added.’ elephants’. An attitude survey conducted by FFI’s CELA project in Aceh found the majority of rural An associate of the BECT and engineer with people believed elephants had a right to exist (Box Motorola believes technology can help farmers 6, page21). protect their crops. He explained that the tradition of staying up all night in watchtowers is dying, and Sri Lanka has a range of NGO activities seeking that costs and maintenance problems associated solutions to human-elephant conflict. Two local with fences make them unviable in many contexts. charities, the Wildlife Preservation and Nature In his view, ‘people are scared of chasing them Society and the Biodiversity & Elephant away because suddenly you are surprised when an Conservation Trust (BECT) are running education elephant is stood right next to you and the elephant and awareness campaigns. ‘They see [the elephant] tramples you but if you have enough warning – if as a spectre that comes at night and destroys their you know the elephant is there, it’s not too difficult crops, breaks their houses, smashes them up, kills to chase it away – people are quite willing to do

5 Menon, V. (2002). Tusker. The story of the Asian Elephant. Penguin, India. 6 Interview 53, Sri Lanka, 30 December 2002 34 that, especially in outlying areas, so a warning just place in the field …Every year we (Motorola) system is quite a good idea’ He started with ‘half have two graduates from the University of technologies’ - simple trip-wire made of fishing Engineering at Colombo who work for us for a year lines linked to an alarm. Everything needed is before they go for grad studies in the US. We also available from the local shop, and systems cost we have two interns so we have four rotating about $20. More ambitiously a system to detect researchers working full-time on the research and elephants using infra-sound is under development. development’. ‘Our goal is a $100-$200 black box that we can

Box 8 Current issues: law enforcement All Asian countries with wild elephants have laws prohibiting their hunting and have signed international treaties controlling wildlife trade, however poaching-syndicates remain a serious threat. Techniques used by conservation charities to fight wildlife crime are now being applied to elephant poaching. These include private prosecutions and under- cover operations backed up with media exposés and campaigns.

India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand have wild elephants and a free and independent judiciary. In India and Sri Lanka, NGOs not only support the prosecution of offenders but have recently used public interest legislation to take state governments to court for failing to protect elephants. Limits to press freedom restrict media eposés in most of Asia, but Thailand has the freest press in the region and the charity WildAid has launched high impact media campaigns through a partnership with an international advertising agency. These currently focus on shark fin and turtle products but a future campaign on elephants is under consideration.

WildAid is also leading one of the most significant new enforcement trends in Asia. This is the mobilisation of armed enforcement teams comprising wildlife, military and police personnel and organised by western military advisors dubbed ‘eco-mercenaries’1 in a recent New York Times article. WildAid are active in the south-west elephant corridor in Cambodia’s Cardamom mountains while Conservation International (CI) are doing likewise in the central Cardamoms. Cambodia’s military has been described as ‘a poorly organised business with guns that hires itself out as security and body guards’, but CI and WildAid point out that promoting involvement of the military in enforcement activities to uphold law will help drive desperately needed military reforms, and that the status of Cambodia’s wildlife is so perilous that without tough action, the potential for its future recovery would be lost within ten years. These are compelling arguments, and ones that resonate with the growing numbers of donors and conservationists fed-up with watching millions being poured into conservation projects while syndicates decimate the last remnants of Asia’s mega- fauna.

Embracing military tactics to protect elephants from poaching syndicates has its risks. However, unease concerning the CI-WildAid approach is present on a number of fronts. Local people are ignorant about the existence of wildlife laws and the dire state of wildlife. Without such knowledge, the appearance of enforcement units might be perceived as just another power moving in to secure an area and continue the regime of fear. There is a risk that NGOs will be perceived as establishing their own fiefdoms and justifying this on the basis that a western NGO will be more benevolent than a local Cambodian timber baron. If and when these charities pull out, the protectors might turn poachers, and when the new government wildlife department does establish a field presence, the military may be reluctant to give up their share of the funding pie. In short, the worry is that such approaches are creating all sorts of problems for the future.

1 Hitt, J (2002) The Eco-Mercenaries. New York Times 4 Aug 2002

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 35 Box 9 Current issues: Human-elephant conflict Elephants come into conflict with humans because parts of their home range are cleared, forcing them to seek food elsewhere; because crops are palatable and more nutritious than natural foods; and because disturbance by activities such as illegal logging forces them to the edge of forest patches. Among elephant experts the general perception is that human-elephant conflict has escalated in terms of distribution and intensity since the start of the 1990s. Human and elephant deaths are on the increase. It seems that many elephants react to harassment by becoming more aggressive. It is estimated that in north India 250 people have been killed by elephants in the last 2 years, whilst the 250 elephants in west Bengal are reputed to have killed more than 500 people over a 12- year period. Escalating human-elephant conflict creates fear and erodes the tolerance towards elephants that is deeply embedded among many Asian peoples on account of their long cultural association with elephants. The root problem is expansion of agriculture and settlement in the absence of wise land-use planning.

Using deterrents such as spotlights and thunder-crackers is the first-line of defense against elephants throughout Asia. However, elephants quickly lose their fear and become more aggressive. The potential of irritants as deterrents - in particular chilli powder pastes, smoke and bombs - is currently under evaluation. Physical barriers such as electric fences and trenches are widely used in India and Sri Lanka, but maintenance is a problem and elephants soon learn how to break through. Compensation is paid to farmers in many parts of India and Sri Lanka. Whilst this signifies to farmers that the government recognises the problem, bureaucratic skimming of payments is rife and the need for repeated visits to a government office can magnify the true scale of the elephant problem in the farmer’s mind. Elephant- based livelihoods (see text) and changing cropping patterns are being researched at sites in India and Sri Lanka. A major challenge is identifying crops a) which elephants don’t eat and are resistant to trampling and b) for which there is an established market and agricultural commodity chains. Another hurdle is entrenched farmer attitudes. For example, most smallholder farmers in Sumatra are convinced that cultivating oil palm will secure their livelihood. Unfortunately, elephants feed on the ‘hearts’ of 3 to 5- year old oil palms. This is a point close to first production when a farmer’s investment is at its maximum.

Dealing with crop-raiding requires a combination of the above techniques blended with the local situation and consistently applied. It requires knowledge and leadership and willingness on the part of governments and farmers to accept shared responsibility for implementation. The reality is often that no one takes responsibility. Farmers say that legal protection of elephants means they are owned by the state and therefore the government’s responsibility. Politicians and bureaucrats view elephants as a wildlife issue and delegate responsibility to chronically under-resourced wildlife departments. The response of officials may be that farmers have chosen to settle in elephant habitat and they should consider elephants as an environmental constraint, like water shortages or poor soils, and adapt their farming practices accordingly.

Once conflict between humans and elephants has escalated the solutions appear to be either to separate humans and elephants by giving the elephants space or exterminating them . If there was serious government will to deal with the issue, human-elephant conflict would not exist at today’s serious scale. Unfortunately, ignoring the problem may be a political, expedient means of solving the problem. Desperate farmers, fearing for their crops, property and family, but also the consequences of taking direct action against a protected species, will discreetly poison elephants or pay corrupt police officers to shoot them. The elephants and the issue will fade away. But not before trauma and deaths to both people and elephants have occurred.

At night groups of pioneer farmers in Assam use burning spears to drive elephants from the crops. Photo: Paul Jepson

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 36 The quality and impact of link long-term strategic objectives with short-term elephant conservation projects actions’. This statement captures the link between individual conservation projects and goals of the This section asks what is the quality of NGO conservation movement, as described above. Each elephant projects? In short, do individual projects of the four processes in the balanced scorecard have the potential to make a lasting impact? Our correlates to a system with an equivalent in the view is that elephant conservation will emerge delivery of conservation projects (Table 6). from a system of will, resources, frameworks and implementation agencies. Strengthening any one Table 6: Conceptual links between the of these elements represents an important goal for ‘Balanced scorecard’ and the project scorecard an elephant project.

Overall, the elephant conservation community needs to work on all elements of the system but we believe there is merit in individual charities and projects focusing on areas where they have particular expertise and/or which are close to their hearts.

A ‘Project Scorecard’ assessment methodology A framework was devised for assessing the performance of conservation projects and applied to the field of wild elephant conservation. The The five systems and sub systems in our project process was informed by business performance scorecard are shown schematically in Box 1 (page measurement (the balanced scorecard), systems 5). ‘Hard systems’ considers the organisational theory and consumer reports (scorecards). management systems of the charity running the project. Does it have the solid personnel and This framework allowed us to set out the relevant financial management systems, fund-raising features of the operational context with which capacity, and the physical assets of an office- base conservation movements as a whole must engage. and equipment to ensure a stable foundation for Charities can now target their efforts and expertise action in the long term? ‘Soft systems’ consider the accordingly. The framework also allowed us to people running the project: does the project have look at the process of conservation delivery - and good leadership and competent and motivated thus assess likely long-term success - by looking staff? ‘Mandate’ was also included, because this beyond short-term project activities to examine the provides projects with legitimacy, partnerships and processes that link these with the achievement of buy-in that successful conservation solutions long-term strategic objectives. require. ‘Transactions’ considers whether projects have done what they were contracted to do, either The framework is based on three key premises: under grant proposals or publicly through 1. That there is a need for change in most societies pronouncements in publicity material (i.e. track to secure the survival of endangered species, record). We considered three aspects to this: natural monuments and a healthy environment. progress with annual work plans; short-term 2. That conservation charities lead and represent a objectives; strategic objectives. ‘Transformations’ wider conservation movement seeking social considers whether the project is having wider change through the adoption of sets of values impact: is it contributing to a change in attitudes concerning the human-natural world relationship. and generating lasting and meaningful support for 3. That each conservation project should be the cause? assessed first on its specific goals and then in the context of wider conservation goals. Each element of the system was ranked on a five- point scale – very weak to strong. Reasonable The Balanced Scorecard is used in business and scores under each element are more likely to create government to help develop and measure strategy. a system with emergent properties leading to long- It places vision and strategy at its centre and term improvements in the status of wild elephant includes four management processes that conservation and management. The findings are ‘separately, and in-combination, contribute to presented in Tables 7 and 8 (pages 40 and 43).

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 37 To guide the assessment of each element, we Many charities integrate elephants as part of wider devised a suite of objectives (or processes) to projects focusing on large mammal conservation, capture aspects of these elements, and then devised wildlife crime or national park management. To sets of measures to assess the quality of each focus the scope of the audit we selected only those objective. We then weighted the importance of projects that are NGO-led and which we might each process to the overall system and set recommend to those wanting to make a direct and thresholds to assign the element on the five-point specific contribution to elephant conservation. scale. In some cases we were able to adapt Thus we included a project by the Cat Action established, organisational objectives and Treasury in Cambodia which was conceived as an measures. However, because our approach to anti-tiger poaching initiative on the basis that it is conservation is new, we formulated several more. also controlling elephant poaching, but exclude the The method was devised following a literature WWF Cat Tien project in Vietnam because review and consultation with colleagues. elephant conservation is not a central feature of the project and there is no mechanism to directly invest It should be noted that the balanced scorecard is not in their elephant work. used as a tool to compare between organisations. The Project Scorecard described above takes this A related difficulty was whether to audit the step. We believe this is valid because the five strategy, vision and team of the charity as a whole, systems appear generic to all conservation projects or only for specific activity relating to elephants. and we found it feasible to rate the strength of each This was more problematic with the larger INGOs. on a simple five- point scale. However, not all For example, the WWF Tesso Nilo elephant project projects will need strong systems in all areas to be has now blossomed into a major project to combat effective. For example, a small NGO has less need illegal logging. Ultimately, it was impossible to set for strong ‘hard systems’ than does an NGO hard and fast rules and for borderline cases the managing large projects as part of an international selection of projects and ratings reflect our programme. This means that our assessment is judgement on where to draw the line and balance more nuanced and the scorecards less simple to complex interactions. interpret. Findings of the scorecard analysis Projects considered Overall assessment of NGO wild elephant projects Our survey identified charities with projects aimed The first finding of this study is that the NGO at conserving Asian elephants in the wild. We response to the issues of wild elephant conservation included those NGOs and projects with is limited compared to the geographic scale and implementation activities extending over more than complexity of the problem. We could only identify one year and taking place during the period 2000- 21 projects with a clear elephant conservation 2003. NGOs conducting planning studies for future focus. India had the highest number (6), but projects were excluded. We also omitted from Cambodia the most–relative to the size of the consideration Integrated Conservation and country and the elephant population. Moreover, Development Projects covering protected areas most NGO action for wild elephant conservation is with elephant populations and funded by relatively recent and clearly a response to the grant development agencies, on the basis that they do not aid made available in 1999 by the US government include elephant conservation as a stated objective. through its Asian Elephant Conservation Fund Projects omitted are listed in Box 10. This (AECF) (see Box 11, page 39). The exceptions narrowed the field to a mere 21 projects. were the Wildlife & Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka which has a 100 year old history of Box 10 Projects not assessed effort, and Fauna & Flora International, which Still in planning phase commenced projects in 1994. The World Wide WCS Myanmar and Lao Fund for Nature (WWF) has mounted several Newly-established short-lived elephant projects since the mid-1970s, Ceylon Conservation Trust – see text however its current AREAs programme is a clear Wildlife Society of Orissa. Investigating changes of response to the AECF. land-use and cropping pattern in Orissa. Insufficient information for scorecard analysis Salim Ali / AVC College. Alternative livelihoods to minimise degradation of elephant habitat. Insufficient information for scorecard analysis Integrated conservation & development projects Gov. of Indonesia & Leuser Fundation., Leuser Development Project, Sumatra. Gov. of Indonesia. Kerinci Seblat ICDP, Sumatra Gov. of Vietnam & WWF, Cat Tien National Park Projects.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 38 Box 11 The US Asian Elephant Conservation Act and Fund Grant & Matching Funds In November 1997 the US government passed the Asian Elephant Conservation Act to establish a fund ‘to assist in the conservation of Asian elephants by supporting and providing financial resources for the conservation AECF Grants $1,841,010 programmes of nations within the range of the Asian 48% elephants and funding project of persons with 52% demonstrated expertise in the conservation of Asian Matching funds & elephants’. Congress appropriated US$1,944, 500 to the in-kind contributions fund between 1999-2001. The fund has been re- $1,729,070 authorised for a second five year period beginning 2003. It is managed by the Division of International Conservation of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Grant & Matching Funds The Act came into being through a partnership between a lobbyist – an ex-congressman from Florida with a sincere concern for elephants - and the Ringling Brothers Circus 35% Range country NGO who keep performing elephants. Recognising the International NGO influence of the animal welfare lobby, Feld 23% Entertainment who own Ringling felt they needed a Academic institution 5% corporate stance on elephants and lobbying for a Other government fund to support wild Asian elephant 14% conservation was part of this. The idea received cross Range country 23% governement party support because senators and congressmen recognised it would be popular with electorates and the sums involved are paltry in comparison to the overall government budget. Grant & Matching Funds

The fund has stimulated conservation NGOs to launch Surveys & monitoring 7% new projects and programmes to conserve wild elephant 24% Wildlife protection populations. WWF launched its AREAs project in 11% Applied research response to the passing of this Act and companion Act/fund for rhinos. Because virtually all conservation 14% Capacity building NGOs with elephant projects receive grants from this Conservation education fund and are required to report matching funds, the 23% 5% Habitat management reported breakdown of expenditure (opposite) provides a 16% reasonable estimate of funds being spent by elephant Conflict resolution projects managed by conservation NGOs.

The US government deserves praise for its leadership in the conservation of wild elephants because without this Source: redrawn from USF&W Asian Elephant Conservation fund their NGO activity would be extremely limited. Act Summary Report 1999-2001 India and the US are the only two governments that allocate specific budgets for the conservation and management of elephants. We urge other governments to follow their example because without a major increase in dedicated funds the Asian elephant is unlikely to survive in the long term.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 39 Table 7: Comparative rating of elephant conservation projects run by conservation NGOs

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 40 Our assessment framework rated the strength of organisational complexities inherent in larger ones. each of five systems that together create the Such complexities are magnified in some potential for an organisation or project to make international NGOs such as WWF, who attempt to meaningful and lasting contributions to the set and report a global strategy embracing wildlife, conservation of wild elephants. No projects rated environmental and sustainable development goals ‘very good’ in terms of overall potential for based on equal consensus and participation of impact, but just over half were rated as ‘good’ offices staffed by people of different cultures. according to our system. India had the most projects in this category and the most local and In fairness to the larger NGOs, they often attempt nationally-run initiatives. This reflects a key larger tasks, such as establishing new reserves, finding of this study, namely that more projects run where it is difficult to pre-define time-scales or by local and national NGOs rated as having a good assure success. There is a valid argument that potential for impact than was the case in the INGO comparative assessments such as this one will category. advantage smaller NGOs because the impacts of a more limited focus are easier to see. However, the In our assessment, this is in part a reflection of the potential social impacts of large- scale projects and smaller scale of focus (either geographic or the resources they consume are magnified. These thematic) of national NGOs, which means that projects also have greater responsibilities to issues are conceptually more tractable. Because transparency and accountability concerning staff of local NGOs are generally from the region, performance. Generally, we found smaller, locally- they tend to have deeper understandings of the based projects to be more open about their political, bureaucratic and social structures and activities and budgets than the larger projects led dynamics, which helps in targeting the nub of the by international staff and consultants. problem. Moreover, because local NGO activists live in a locality, they tend to have more personal Among INGOs, the WWF family has the largest contacts in different sectors of society who they can number of elephant projects (6), with a total annual draw on for advice or to mobilise programmes. budget estimated at $2million pa. This is far in This means that small resources can often be used excess of any other NGO project or programme. to very good effect. In our assessment, the likelihood of the impact of Box 12 Web-sites of projects assessed individual, site-based projects in the WWF Organisations with websites portfolio is mixed. While we rated projects in Tesso Cat Action Treasury (Cambodia) www.felidae.org Nilo (Indonesia) and Sabah as good, two WWF Fauna & Flora International family projects were among the worst of those www.fauna-flora.org/around_the_world/asia assessed. These were the so-called ‘North Bank’ International Fund for Animal Welfare project in Assam, India and the ‘Reintroduction of www.ifaw.org captive elephants’ project in Thailand. The former Nature Conservation Foundation www.ncf-india.org suffers from the chronic organisational WWF Asia Rhino & Elephant Strategy www.wwf-areas.net dysfunctionality that has weakened WWF India WWF India www.wwfindia.org following changes in leadership in the early 1990s. WWF Indonesia www.wwf.or.id As a result, most of the organisation’s committed WWF Malaysia www.wwfmalaysia.org and experienced conservationists have left. WWF Thailand www.wwfthai.org WildAid www.wildaidasia.org The WWF Thailand project was the only case Wildlife Conservation Society www.wcs.org where we found indications of poor professional Wildlife Trust of India www.wildlifetrustofIndia.org practice. This project is financed by an ‘Adopt Wildlife Protection Society of India Bilbou’ scheme run under the adopt-an-animal www.wpsi-india.org fund-raising campaign of WWF-UK. Elephant Other web-sites experts we interviewed recognised the basic idea of Asian Elephant Conservation Fund. returning ‘surplus’ captive elephants to forests in http://international.fws.fov.us Thailand where elephants had become extinct was Project Elephant www.envfor.nic.in/pe sound. There was, however, widespread (and sometimes scathing) concern that the project was Furthermore, local NGOs are smaller operations primarily a means to curry favour with the Thai and therefore avoid the bureaucratic and royal family and the Bangkok governing elite and

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 41 had not adhered to basic professional and scientific Overall, local NGOs rated best on strategy and standards. The technical team of WWF’s AREAs vision. This is because our assessment gave weight programme appears to have disowned the project.1 to communication of vision and values and the On hearing that we had assessed the project, WWF- knowledge base of the strategy. Both are easier to UK stopped its funding, apparently as a precaution achieve in small close-knit organisations working against any negative publicity directed to WWF as on a local area. Leaders of most projects had a good a result of this study.2 understanding of the issues surrounding elephants and the cultural and environmental context of their We are concerned that WWF may be using the operations. Although local charities commit less to appeal of elephants as a means to develop projects paper and websites, their depth of knowledge was addressing issues of greater strategic interest to the revealed when we interviewed them. organisation. The worry is that projects initially promoted as an elephant conservation initiative Our overall assessment, that systems relating to morph into something quite different with strategy and vision are fair or stronger, may be too elephants being sidelined. A case in point is the generous. There are good arguments that a key report ‘Elephant forests for sale’3 which focuses on element of this system is a written strategy and the Tesso Nilo forest but is actually about a vision document. This is needed because NGOs campaign against the pulp and paper industry. In organise their activities according to one to three- order to help assure the long-term impact of year projects and gaps and changes in personnel investments in AREAs, we recommend that WWF between projects are the norm. Moreover, the establish an independent review panel who publicly trend towards greater public transparency and report on the performance of activities claiming accountability generates a need for such to have direct relevance to Asian elephant documents. Very few NGOs assessed had a conservation. document outlining their long-term plans and vision for elephant conservation. Some feel this is Rated against our system, the chances of projects in unnecessary if the issues they are concerned with the Fauna & Flora International Asian elephant are short-term and local in nature. conservation programme achieving long term impact seems poor. In Indochina, FFI has relied on The most compelling strategy document reviewed young western biologists making the transition in terms of clarity and coherence was that of from volunteer to paid employment. By contrast, in WildAid, but this deals with wildlife crime in Indonesia, FFI has one of the largest elephant general and their elephant angle is not yet well conservation projects financed with a $300k annual developed. The most comprehensive document is budget over three years and nearly 30 staff. While that of the WWF AREA programme, whose the team has a good blend of skills and attractive strategy document and background report backgrounds, they have struggled to make an authored by leading elephant experts is available on impact in a difficult and complex socio-political their web sites. In many projects the overall vision setting. The FFI-CELA project illustrates the and strategy was not afforded enough importance important point that successful projects cannot be in communications. In the case of Fauna & Flora created simply by securing funds and appointing International, their activities appear to involve a suitably-qualified staff. portfolio of projects that fill areas where FFI sees a need.The organisation’s claims to an Asia and Strategy and Vision Indochina elephant programme were not supported Elephant conservation requires sustained action by a unifying vision and strategy laid out in any over time. A compelling, credible and document seen during this exercise. communicated vision and strategy document, written by the NGO or project concerned, is needed to maintain consistency, motivate and inspire staff, generate buy-in from other agencies and build public support.

1 Interview 78, Indonesia, 13 April 2003. 2 Phone conversation with WWF Programme manager. 3 Galstra, R. (2003) Elephant Forests for Sale. Rain forest loss in the Sumatran Tesso Nilo region and the role of European banks and markets. WWF Deutschland, Frankfurt.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 42 Table 8: Assessment of the strength of five systems that together generate likelihood of conservation impact in 21 Asian elephant conservation projects

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 43 Few projects included their principles and values as access to other staff and took an interest in the audit part of their vision, even though they are central to concept themselves. The same was true of most of motivating and guiding and actions. A notable the smaller local NGOs that we met. Cat Action exception is the century-old Wildlife and Nature Treasury even publish their budgets on their web Preservation Society of Sri Lanka. When asked site. about this aspect, the President’s response was ‘our values are contained and discussed in the writings Capacity to Act in our journal’.1 Charities with a wildlife crime and In looking at an organisation’s capacity to act, we welfare focus were stronger in this regard. were concerned with whether an organisation had the elements that would ensure the effective A notable gap in all strategies reviewed was an delivery of their vision and strategy for elephants. assessment by organisations of their own capacities By their very nature, civil society organisations and those of partner agencies. Projects receiving tend to have committed personnel, and to be open grant aid from the USF&W fund (the majority) are to learning and innovation, and this was generally subject to scientific peer review, but no system is in the case with the organisations we looked at, place to assure capacity to deliver. Attitudes however leadership varied widely. included ‘we will reduce our activities to fit our resources’ or ‘we will get the capacity from Because local NGOs are in immediate contact with somewhere when we need to’.2 This can work but is the local community, achieving a local mandate risky. In particular, projects that create unrealistic was important for the success of their operations. or unfulfilled expectations among local Hutan, for example, attributed part of their success stakeholders can lead to animosity and to the fact that they didn’t arrive with a pre- disillusionment that can be very difficult to rectify. determined programme but discussed with both the local community and the government how they Organisational systems could best use their expertise and concerns as Over the last ten years most conservation NGOs wildlife conservationists. Their policy of have improved their personnel and financial employing and training local villagers has resulted management systems. Most projects rated fair or in a dynamic and effective team. One of their above. More stringent requirements by employees attended a WWF-AREAS workshop on international donors has undoubtedly driven human-elephant conflict in India, where he realised improvements in financial management systems, that the level of conflict was still manageable in his but we found widespread recognition of the general own area. He was inspired to recruit friends and rule of thumb that once an organization grows family to build up a conflict management system beyond 15 staff it is necessary to install fashioned on the flying squads of Bengal. This is management systems. When asked about this now being developed to implement a variety of aspect, a Director of an Indian NGO expressed solutions with the aim of restoring more what is involved and the benefits ‘Oh, we’ve done harmonious relationships with elephants. all that! We’ve got everything from maternity leave to you know, everything. What happened was two This does not necessarily mean that larger years ago we hired an administrative expert. And organisations did not show some of these features, he was allowed a free reign. What he did was to but many appear detached from the local situation, look at us and say, well you’re a bunch of idiots. largely due to being constrained by centrally- But he started to structure us, he structured our generated directives and structures that are often contracts, our leave, changed our entire system, not appropriate to the realities of the local context. which is amazing. He has done a brilliant job. So Their large scale means they have to be more we can still behave like we do, but we now have a ambitious in their aims and, to guarantee funding, totally solid structure behind us. It took two years are often impatient for quantifiable results. This can to perfect it.’ 3 work against projects that are built up slowly and fine-tuned to the local context. In terms of accountability and openness, of the INGOs surveyed, WCS was the most helpful. Project delivery Staff supplied proposals, reports and budgets, This section was not just looking at whether project objectives were being delivered but the degree to which these were contributing to overarching 1 Interview 140, Sri Lanka 2 Interview 78, Indonesia, 13 April 2003 strategies. For projects with ambitious or open- 3 Interview 14, India, 16 December 2002 ended strategic goals, such as

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 44 ‘improving the capacity of the forest department’ or information has achieved notable successes in ‘increasing public awareness in areas of human- altering local attitudes to wildlife. elephant conflict’, it is more likely that the specific project activities could only partially address them. Political will in Sabah has been strengthened by One way of looking at this is to aim high and try to WWF-AREAS, who lobbied and supported the get as close as possible to achieving the ideal, and government in producing a state action plan for its this can work, however as previously noted, the elephants. Meanwhile, the WWF-AREAS project risk is that resources are channelled towards in Sumatra scored well on its support of the strategies that may be unfulfilled or unrealistic, if dynamic Indonesian NGO movement to bolster not combined with a clear analysis of all aspects of pressure for change. the situation, or if there is an unwillingness to face the implications of such an analysis because Both projects scored on their engagement with the delivering a high-impact project becomes too private sector, however we felt that there was much difficult. more scope for NGOs to engage with the private sector and mobilise support from individuals or The smaller, local NGOs often scored well because even pro-bono activities, such as the free media they tended to be focused on a clear, achievable campaign secured by WildAid in Thailand from an issue with actions well targeted to the needs of the advertising agency. situation. An example is the Nature Conservation Foundation who are examining an acute human- The Centre for Environmental Education in elephant conflict in the densely populated tea Ahmedabad, India, is focused on generating will estates of the Anamalai hills in southern India. The and so scored highly. It was also effective in using estates represent an 20,000 hectare island existing networks of local officers, NGOs and surrounded by forest, and elephants cross from one teachers to produce an educational package of side to another. By looking at the routes they take, elephant conservation materials for use in 500 understanding their needs, and then comparing schools in 12 states in India. Through these school these with the nature and incidence of conflict, the children, the messages of the project reached the project is designing a mitigation strategy that wider networks of their families and friends. There should ensure their long-term survival. was also an unforeseen bonus in that the materials produced were of such a standard that the Director The impact of local projects however, occurs at a of Project Elephant recommended their use in the small scale. There is therefore a clear scope for training of forest department staff. partnership between NGOs at all levels whereby their strengths are combined to facilitate the effective flow of funds to the ground. This is often hampered by the smaller NGOs feeling constrained by inappropriate requirements. One local NGO leader expressed frustration at not being able to recruit locally because, although there were many capable people, they had no formal qualifications, and the donor required that all staff have degrees. Such tensions were exacerbated by the feeling that the larger NGOs took all the ‘glory’.

Social Impact This measures the ability to have a lasting impact on government will and public support. Initiatives that succeeded in this tended to involve an initial appraisal of attitudes, followed by activities that helped either the government or local communities to solve a problem.

Hutan, the umbrella organisation for the elephant conflict initiative in Sabah, visited every household in the area over a period of a year to determine local attitudes to wildlife, and guided by this

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 45 End piece- reflections on conducting an independent conservation audit

So far as we are aware, this is the first attempt at an in the large conservation NGOs and d) a general independent conservation audit of a single thematic recognition that there is a need to develop and test area within conservation. Asian elephant frameworks and address issues of performance conservation was a good test case for such an measurement within conservation.2 These will not ‘audit’. This is because there is widespread public be sufficient in the future, especially once interest in the fate of the elephant; its conservation organisations realise that the results of audits might involves addressing some of the most difficult affect funding, their subscriber base and access to conservation challenges; and a range of different policy fora. If the concept of independent organisations are involved in the conservation conservation audits is to take root we suggest that it effort. will be essential to establish one or more credible audit frameworks and for these to be implemented The move towards greater accountability and by respected independent conservationists. transparency concerning the policies and programmes of NGO organisations appears to be To be credible they will also need to be modest in an inevitable consequence of globalisation and the cost and repeated at regular intervals. This audit enhanced power and influence of civil society. The cost $100,000 and has taken 20 person months of numbers, scale, reach and influence of NGOs is time. Admittedly, a substantial proportion of this expected to grow.1 The legitimacy and impact of has gone on devising the audit framework. None- civil society organisations will increasingly depend the-less, the resources needed to undertake an on systems of governance, accountability and their independent audit should not be under-estimated performance. The development of approaches, and it is important to ask whether this cost will frameworks and mechanisms to enable translate into more effective conservation on the transparency and participation is likely to be a ground. feature of the next decade. Success in this area, probably measured in terms of agreed standards Establishing an agreed framework and standards and frameworks, will indicate the coming- of- age for independent conservation auditing (and of civil society. NGOs in the humanitarian aid performance measurement) will require the sector are more advanced in this area and the conservation establishment to engage in a process conservation sector is now beginning to recognise that tackles the following issues: the need. 1. The diversity of organisations operating under Independent conservation audits have the potential the civil society umbrella and claiming to be to raise standards, establish best performance NGOs. At one end of the scale are the ‘three benchmarks and maintain public trust and unemployed graduates with a laptop’ NGOs and at confidence in NGOs. They also have a role to play the other are major international organisations such in meeting due diligence procedures, which are as WWF. A prerequisite for comparative studies likely to become more important as NGO trustee would be a classification of conservation and governing boards are held more accountable organisations. No such classification or for the policies and performance of the NGO characterisation is currently available but this executive. should not be too complex to devise and could in itself be an important contribution to transparency One important question concerns who can and accountability in conservation. Related to this, legitimately conduct an independent conservation is how to incorporate the influence of varying audit? We often asked ourselves what gave us the operating contexts into the process of scoring right to visit elephant projects, ask questions, take against the audit measures. up people’s time and then attach ‘scores’ to their work. We based our mandate to conduct this study 2. The organisation of conservation delivery is on a combination of a) our experience in often quite different to the way it is packaged to conservation (science, management and policy); b) donors, the media and public constituencies. In our commission from an elephant conservation reality many NGOs run integrated field projects charity; c) buy-in for the idea by key individuals addressing a range of related issues and financed

1 Sustainability (2003) The 21st Century NGO: 2 See for example: Randerson, J (2003) Nature’s Best In the market for change. Buys. New Scientist 1 March. www.sustainability.com/publications 46 from grants packaged to meet the priorities of many essential aspects of effective conservation are different donors. This makes it very difficult to qualitative in nature and difficult to capture in a assess any one element, such as the conservation of quantitative form. The risk of the quantitative Asian elephants. We think that NGOs will need to argument is that it assesses projects on what can be address this issue. The widespread practice of measured, not what matters. Second, our initial raising money for cause A but then running survey of elephant conservation showed that there projects that address causes B and C that might was very little consistent quantitative data also support cause A is generally accepted by available. None-the-less we subscribe to a balance institutional donors but to what degree do the of the two. We acknowledge that the present study public support such action? may be too qualitative in nature, but to change this, conservation NGOs need to produce more 3. Potential users of this study and other quantitative data on their operations and conservation audits want an assessment of cost- researchers need to identify and agree on the types effectiveness. Despite concerted efforts, we failed of data and levels of detail that are useful and to access sufficient financial data to even develop a appropriate. framework for assessing cost- effectiveness. Some NGOs provided us with project proposals, but 5. The benefits of independent conservation audits many were unable to produce any meaningful – which amount to independent peer review–have financial information. We think there were three not been established. Any audit will only be as reasons for this i) attitude of secrecy concerning good as the co-operation received from those being financial information; ii) the difficulty of assessed. Co-operation is more likely if disaggregating elephant-related income and conservation professionals see positive benefits expenditure; iii) uncertainty about standards in from the process and regard the exercise as NGO financial practices and fear of revealing constructive. Balancing this with the need to tell practices that others might consider questionable. things as they are and provide a fair assessment Yet, cost-effectiveness is likely to be one of the first to external stakeholders–in particular public areas where NGOs, especially INGOs, are expected constituencies, memberships and donors–will to demonstrate transparency and accountability. require generally–agreed professional standards and audit methodologies. 4. An important debate concerns the use of quantitative and qualitative indicators in audit Despite the problems and challenges, the process of frameworks. One school of thought argues for conducting this audit has confirmed our initial quantitative and measurable indicators on the intuition that independent audits are needed and grounds that they are more objective and have the potential to improve the performance and repeatable, and proposes that a small set of ‘solid’ impact of conservation delivery. We believe there is quantitative indicators is preferable to a large set of some way to go before independent conservation qualitative indicators. We took the alternative audits become standard practice and hope that this approach of using a large set of mostly qualitative study will be a useful contribution towards indicators for two reasons. First, we believe that reaching this goal.

State of Asian Elephant Conservation in 2003 47