GOOD NEWS! ELEPHANTS RELEASED

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This message was recieved from : WWF Conservation Action Network

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GOOD NEWS! ELEPHANTS RELEASED

 

Dear Azam,

 

Good news! Eight of 10 endangered Sumatran elephants that had been

captured by government translocation teams were recently released

into Tesso Nilo National Park, seven weeks after they were found

chained to trees without food or water in central Riau, Indonesia.

However, a firm commitment to secure their habitat is still needed.

 

WWF Activists Spoke Out

 

Nearly 38,000 people from around the world signed a WWF petition

urging the Indonesian government to end all logging, encroachment,

and conversion of elephant forests in Riau, and asking the

government to expand Tesso Nilo National Park. Thank you!

 

The Elephants' Saga

 

Local forestry officials had captured the elephants after they had

damaged crops and homes near Libo Forest. WWF, which provided daily

care and medical treatment for the elephants after their discovery,

accompanied the authorities as they released the elephants to ensure

that the release was done safely.

 

Of the 10 elephants found on March 21, en eight-year-old male died

of an acute infection and a pregnant female escaped after four

weeks. The remaining eight were released into Tesso Nilo National

Park in good health after intensive medical care provided by WWF,

but in late May WWF learned that one of the females that had been

treated for tetanus died not far from where she had been released.

 

Implementation Needed Soon for Tesso Nilo Expansion

 

WWF is concerned that Tesso Nilo is not a suitable release site as

it is too small to provide habitat for more elephants. WWF fears

that the release of the elephants into the park without an expansion

and a plan to stop encroachment will simply shift the human-elephant

conflict to other villages near Tesso Nilo.

 

Fortunately, good news came at the end of May when the Indonesian

Ministry of Forestry and the government of Riau Province publicly

committed to expand Tesso Nilo from 94,000 acres to 247,000 acres,

as WWF activists had urged. This will provide much larger habitat

for the elephants and help ensure that future conflicts with humans

can be reduced. WWF urges the governments to officially decree and

begin implementing the park expansion as soon as possible.

 

WWF applauds the quick action of the Indonesian authorities in

showing a strong commitment to protect remaining elephant habitats

in Riau and also prosecuting those who have killed elephants or

destroyed elephant habitats. Recent police seizures of ivory in

Medan, North Sumatra, are a good indication of this commitment.

However, we are still calling on the Indonesian government to adopt

and enforce legitimate human-elephant policy and protocol from here

on out.

 

Thank you to everyone who took action. With your help, we are making

a real difference.

 

Sincerely,

 

Sybille Klenzendorf, PhD

Species Conservation Program

World Wildlife Fund

Washington, D.C.

 

Learn more about

 

The ten captured elephants in Sumatra

 

A project to use squads of domestic elephants to keep wild elephants

away from people in Sumatra

 

The creation of Tesso Nilo National Park, which includes some of the

last remaining forest for Sumatran elephants

 

The launch of a plan to reduce human-elephant conflicts in Sumatra

 

The highlights of WWF's 2005 work on the islands of Southeast Asia