Helping the elephant, ecosystem to thrive

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Below article has relevance to Asian countries and

might be of interest to some people.

 

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20020625wo73.htm

 

Helping the elephant, ecosystem to thrive

The Yomiuri Shimbun

 

This is the second installment in a series of articles

on restoring the Earth's environment.

 

Elephants with long mammothlike tusks still roam the

savanna of the Tsavo National Park in Kenya. The vast

savanna, located right on the equator, spreads as far

as the eye can see, its 20,000-square-kilometer size

representing an area slightly larger than Shikoku.

 

Herds of elephants are scattered throughout the park

and in a day's tour on a four-wheel-drive vehicle, it

is possible to see about 200 elephants a day.

 

In Tsavo, the number of elephants sharply decreased

from 20,000 in the 1960s to only 6,500 in the late

1980s. Recently, however, there has been a shift in

this downward trend and the number of elephants is now

gradually increasing.

 

In the 1970s, there were about 1.35 million elephants

in Africa. This number plunged to 600,000 by the late

1980s, due to ivory poachers.

 

The destination for much of the poached ivory is Asia

where ivory has been a popular material for seals and

piano keyboards. This is especially so in Japan, which

has imported as much as 500 tons of ivory a year,

leading to harsh criticism of this country.

 

However, the suspension of the ivory trade in 1989,

based on the Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, put a

brake on the decrease of elephants.

 

This convention, also known as the Washington

Convention, has led to a sharp decrease in poaching

and in Tsavo the number of elephants has recovered to

about 9,000.

 

Researcher Chiaki Nakamura, 43, who has studied

African elephants for 13 years, mostly in Tsavo, said,

" Elephants knock down trees and eat more than 100

varieties of plants. "

 

Other animals eat fruit from the fallen trees, while

elephants' feces contain various seeds that enhance

the diversity of plants. In these and other ways, the

elephant plays an important role in Africa's

ecosystem. Thus, to preserve elephants is to preserve

the biological diversity of the area.

 

Ten years ago, the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro

adopted the Convention on Biological Diversity. This

convention has also helped efforts to preserve

elephant populations in East Africa.

 

Researcher Hideo Obara said, " The decisive factor in

saving the elephant was cooperation among developed

countries, and we must not let these sparks of

enthusiasm die out. " He emphasized the effectiveness

of international treaties. " We should not ease

regulations, " he said.

 

In fact, the number of species in danger of extinction

in the world has increased over the past 10 years.

 

How can humankind coexist with other species? The

implementation of guidelines to facilitate that

coexistence is expected to be an important issue at

the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

 

The continuing decline in the number of African

elephants, which have a crucial role in maintaining

the savannas, has slowed in recent years, but the

population still stood at only about 500,000 in 1998.

 

The main factor in the decline, according to Hisako

Kiyono of World Wide Fund for Nature Japan, is the

" reduction in the elephant's habitat due to the

expansion of human use of land and desertification. "

She said the habitat was 7.32 million square

kilometers in 1979, but had been reduced 20 percent to

5.79 million square kilometers by 1995.

 

The Convention on Biological Diversity is trying to

preserve the ecosystem as a whole. In an ecosystem,

the survival of large animals such as elephant and

rhinoceros is dependent on the presence of smaller

animals and plants, as well as to bacteria in the

soil. The goal of the convention is to preserve the

relationships between species.

 

Forests also play a crucial role in the environment.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization,

the world's forested land was reduced by 94 million

hectares in the decade up to the end of the year 2000.

Tropical rain forests, believed to have the largest

biological diversity of any forests, are shrinking at

the rate of 14.2 million hectares a year.

 

Worldwatch Institute, a U.S. environmental think tank,

pointed out that the figures also include forests

planted for commercial purposes. If that data is

excluded, the rate of reduction is even larger.

 

In a worst-case scenario, the decrease in the area of

forested land will result in the expansion of deserts.

Even if that doesn't happen, the decrease in forested

land will result in a fall in the number of plant and

animal species.

 

The 2000 Red List of Threatened Species, compiled by

the International Union for Conservation of Nature and

Natural Resources, states that 5,435 animal species

and 5,611 plant species are in danger of extinction.

The union also warns that 24 percent of mammals and 12

percent of birds are likely to disappear in the near

future.

 

In Africa, regional conflicts have caused great

poverty. Reports say wild animals such as elephants

have been killed for food while forests have been

cleared for fuel.

 

The Sixth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to

the Convention on Biological Diversity was held in

April in The Hague. A strategy to drastically reduce

the loss of biodiversity by 2010 was adopted at the

conference.

 

While it is obviously impossible for humankind to live

without utilizing some natural resources, if these

resources are not used in a sustainable manner, they

will quickly be exhausted.

 

Working to save the elephant from extinction is one

example of trying to maintain biodiversity.

 

Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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