Fw: (VN) Mission to save Vietnam's elephants

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1572000/1572361.s

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Sunday, 30 September, 2001, 22:12 GMT 23:12

UK BBC Online

Mission to save Vietnam's elephants

 

The elephants have lost out on the push to increase farmland

By Hanoi correspondent Clare Arthurs

 

A big bull elephant swings slowly down a forested path in

Vietnam's southern coastal province of Binh Thuan.

 

His days, and those of his small herd, could be numbered

as their forest home shrinks slowly under the spread of

maize plantations.

 

Next month, the Government

of Vietnam, assisted by

experts from Malaysia, will

use massive trucks to move

the small herd to the province

of Dak Lak, on the Cambodian

border.

 

The bull and his group will

become the second herd in

the area. It is currently supporting Vietnam's largest herd of

Asian elephants, numbering less than 40.

 

Decades of war, poaching and now habitat loss have

reduced Asian elephant numbers in Vietnam to the point

that conservationists predict they could all be gone within

20 years.

 

Most live in small groups, some without a male and all are

confined to increasingly small and unconnected fragments

of forest.

 

" Elephants continue to be poached, they continue to be

killed as revenge for human-elephant conflicts, and we

have continuous loss of habitat which is the major

problem, " said the Indo-China programme manager of

Fauna and Flora International (FFI), Frank Momberg.

 

" Now we have about 80 left in the country and the trend is

still downward. We haven't entirely given up hope but

Vietnam has to take drastic measures or we can't do much

about it, " he said.

 

Last 'weakhold'

 

The Communist rulers of Vietnam are aware of the problem.

 

In mid-September, senior officials from the Agriculture and

Rural Development department hosted a conference with

regional conservationists and officials from Cambodia in

Da Nang.

 

The meeting agreed that co-operation is a vital step

towards preserving elephant numbers in the border region.

 

The elephants from Binh

Thuan will be moved to Dak

Lak, which FFI's Frank

Momberg describes as the

last stronghold - he calls it a

" weakhold " - of Vietnam's

elephants.

 

But managing the continuing

spread of farms and the

immigration which goes with

the economic development

of the region is still posing a

problem.

 

FFI argues that Vietnam needs to plan for sustainable

development, managing both its wildlife conservation and

ensuring that the businesses which are established also

have long-term sustainability.

 

Mr Momberg says reforms to the system of land title as

well as management of the renovation of state forestry

enterprises, are just two of the areas which need to be

looked at.

 

Push-pull effect

 

Then there is the competing needs of the elephants for

sizeable ranges, and the need to lift local people from

poverty.

 

Their activities create a push-pull effect on wildlife. The

elephants are pushed out of the forests by encroaching

and sometimes illegal farming, and pulled into villages by

the sweet temptation of easy food supplies including sugar

cane and young rice.

 

The clash with human settlement leads to damage and

sometimes death on both sides.

 

Conservationists argue that with proper planning, clashes

between human settlements and wild elephants don't have

to happen.

 

" There are a lot of different goals. To achieve anything for

elephant conservation, [the government] needs to address

all these needs and bring all stakeholders together in an

integrated planning process, " Mr Momberg said.

 

The agreement out of the conference with Cambodia has

demonstrated that Vietnam is working on the problem.

 

But the conservationists say the need for action is urgent.

The survival of the elephant in Vietnam is at stake.

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