06/03/2006 - Jakarta,
Indonesia – In the wake of a herd of endangered
Sumatran elephants being killed and continuing
clashes between elephants and residents
in central Sumatra, the Indonesian Forest
Protection and Nature Conservation Agency
(PHKA) and WWF announced plans to immediately
begin implementing a long-awaited protocol
to reduce human-elephant conflict in Riau
province. PHKA has also called for an immediate
stop to the clearing of all natural forests
remaining in Riau, site of the ongoing conflict.The
protocol is a conflict management strategy
designed to reduce the number of incidences
of human-elephant conflict and minimize
damage to people and elephants should an
incidence occur. It also provides for compensation
for elephant damage. As an immediate first
step, PHKA and WWF will assemble a rapid
response team of rangers and domesticated
elephants to patrol the conflict areas,
modelled after WWF’s successful “flying
squads” used near the new Tesso Nilo National
Park.modelled after WWF’s successful “flying
squads” used near the new Tesso Nilo National
Park.modelled after WWF’s successful “flying
squads” used near the new Tesso Nilo National
Park.
A "flying squad" consists of
four rangers with noise and light-making
devices, a pick-up truck and trained elephants
who drive wild elephants back into the forest
whenever they threaten to enter villages.
It has proven to be very effective to reduce
losses suffered by local communities near
Tesso Nilo. Since it began operating in
April 2004, one Tesso Nilo Flying Squad
has reduced the losses of a local community
from elephant raids from approximately 16
million Rupiah (US$1,1000) to around 1 million
Rupiah (US$109) per month on average.
“Since the flying squad began operating,
I have started to sleep well again,” said
Salim, owner of a rice field and a small
oil palm grove in Lubuk Kembang Bunga village,
staging area for Tesso Nilo’s first flying
squad. Before he had to stay up all night
to guard field and plantation.
“The human-elephant conflict mitigation
protocol is very important and has to be
implemented immediately to address the escalating
conflict evident from the recent cases,”
said Adi Susmianto, director of Biodiversity
Conservation at PHKA. “We expect implementation
of the protocol to reduce human-elephant
conflict cases, avoid death of humans and
elephants, and minimize material losses.”
Six elephants were found dead last week
in an oil palm plantation at the border
of Riau and North Sumatra, apparently poisoned.
At least 17 elephants (and as many as 51,
according to some media reports) have repeatedly
raided Balai Raja village in Rau’s Bengkalis
District. Both cases appear to be a direct
effect of forest clearing in Riau’s Libo
Forest, one of the most important of the
few remaining retreats of the Sumatran elephant
in Central Sumatra. Libo is rapidly being
converted into plantations, fields and settlements,
often without the necessary licenses. A
multinational paper company, Asia Pulp and
Paper (APP), uses timber cleared in this
forest block for its Riau mills.
“All conversion of natural forests has
to stop immediately,” added Adi. “Conversion
of forest into plantations, fields and settlements
and rampant illegal logging are threatening
some of the most important habitats of our
endangered elephants and tigers.”
Both species have run out of places to
go. Pursued by plantation managers and villagers,
Riau’s elephant population has been reduced
from an estimated 700 to 350 individuals
in the last seven years. An emergency meeting
will be held to determine how to best contain
the herd of 17 elephants, which have destroyed
a number of houses and oil palm trees in
the past two weeks.
WWF has been working in Riau for six years
and helped secure the protection of the
last large block of lowland rain forest
there, Tesso Nilo, as a national park in
2004. But there are 14 other isolated populations
of elephants in Riau living outside areas
that are protected from forest conversion
and illegal logging.
“Forest conversion is the root cause of
the conflict between people and animals,
whether it is elephants raiding fields or
tigers attacking livestock,” said Nazir
Foead, director of WWF-Indonesia’s Species
Programme.
“The Balai Raja Duri Wildlife Sanctuary,
site of the recent conflict, is an all-too-dramatic
example for what is happening in Riau. Forest
cover of the sanctuary was about 16,000
hectares when it was declared in 1986. Today,
only 260 hectares remain. Fields and settlements
have replaced the forest that the elephants
once owned."
END NOTES:
• Results from necropsies done last Thursday
of the apparently poisoned elephants are
being analysed. The herd of six consisted
of three adult females, two adult males
(both of which were found with their tusks
removed) and one male calf. The herd was
found dead in an oil palm plantation in
Mahato village, on the border between Riau
and North Sumatra Province. Mahato village
is about one kilometre from the Mahato Protected
Forest, all of which has been converted
into settlements and plantations since being
declared a protected area in 1994.
• Members of Riau BKSDA (Riau Province’s
Natural Resource Conservation Agency) and
WWF’s Tesso Nilo Flying Squad, with two
shifts of 300 men each of security forces
from the nearby Chevron Pacific Indonesia
(CPI/Caltex) oil and gas concession, are
currently volunteering to contain the 17
lost elephants near a small remaining patch
of forest. The teams prevent them from moving
toward houses and fields and only allow
them to move towards the forest. The herd
will have to be driven back to the area’s
largest forest, Libo, which will require
a major military-style operation, options
for which will be discussed at an emergency
meeting.
