English and International Media Coverage Human...

English and Int’l. Media Coverage Feb/Mar/April 2006: Human Elephant Conflict, Riau, Sumatra 1 of 78 WWF-Indonesia

English and International Media Coverage 23 February – 7 April, 2006

Human Elephant Conflict in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia Desma Murni, Species Program, WWF Indonesia

[email protected] Dani Rahadian, Tesso Nilo Program, WWF Indonesia

[email protected]

Last updated: 7 April, 2006. 05.00 PM 24 February 2006, ANTARA News Villagers' houses destroyed by tens of wild elephants in Riau 1 Mar 2006 23:29, ANTARA News Forestry ministry to relocate wild elephants to original habitat 1 March 2006, AP Six elephants found poisoned to death in Sumatran jungle 2 March 2006, DPA Six wild elephants killed by poison in Sumatra 2 March 2006, Poisoned like pests Rare elephant family killed (in case they trample crops) 2 March 2006, ANTARA News Elephants trespass on CPI's housing complex in Riau 2 March 2006, The Jakarta Post Front Page Picture: Elephant Dead Row 3 March 2006, The Australian Elephants in the wars and losing jungle March 03, 2006 The Courir Mail. Australia Elephants fight humans for jungle home By Sian Powell in Jakarta 3 March 2006, Reuters Indonesia uses chillies to protect elephants AFP, 3 mars 2006 Panique dans un village indonésien cerné par les éléphants (REPORTAGE) Par Sébastien BLANC =(PHOTO)= 4 March, The Jakarta Post Chilies enlisted to keep elephants away from farms March 6, 2006. Press Release WWF-Indonesia Forest Ministry, WWF Launch Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation Plan, Call for Immediate Halt to All Natural Forest Clearing in Central Sumatra March 6, 2006, AFP


Indonesian environmental groups launch action to curb elephant rampages March 6, 2006, ANTARA News Mitigation of elephants' conflicts protocol to be applied in Riau soon March 6, 2006 Panda.org Plan launched to reduce human-elephant conflict in Sumatra AFP, 6 mars 2006 Sumatra: des mesures pour éviter les conflits entre humains et éléphants March 6, 2006 Press Release WWF and PHKA Forest Ministry, WWF Launch Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation Plan, Call for Immediate Halt to All Natural Forest Clearing in Central Sumatra 6 March 2006, PAPERLOOP.COM Indonesia calls for immediate halt on all natural forest clearing in central Sumatra 7 March, 2006 The Jakarta Post Letter to Editor: Dead Elephants 7 March 2006. 07.55 AM Jkt time Metro TV, Indonesia. ‘Metro This Morning’(5 Minutes morning news in English. Key Messages: elephant raided houses in Balai Raja Village, Riau as their habitat converted to plantations and settlements) March 8, 2006, AFP FEATURE. As forest shrinks, Indonesian villagers fend off hungry elephants, by Sebastien Blanc March 9, 2006, The Jakarta Post Indonesian villagers fend off hungry elephants March 10, 2006. 09.27 AM. ANTARA News Forestry ministry sets aside Rp300 million to move elephants Eyes on the Forest, (EoF News) 10 March 2006 Human Elephant Conflict and Forest Clearing in Libo Block, Riau Province. http://www.eyesontheforest.or.id/eofnew/Elephant_Conflict_inLiboBlock.php Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 11 March 2006 Two more Sumatran wild elephants founded dead March 12, 2006, Bahrain News Agency (BNA) Two more sumatran wild elephants found dead March 13, 2006. Press Release WWF-Indonesia WWF opposes the capture of further elephants in Riau, calls death rate during translocations unacceptable. Immediate drive needed for herd stranded near Balai Raja March 13, 2006. Panda.org


WWF opposes elephant capture on Sumatra Mar 13 14:04 ANTARA News WWF rejects relocation of Sumatran elephants March 13, 2006 19.33 KYODO News (JAPAN) International Conservation Body Urges Indonesia to Stop Capturing Elephants. http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060313/kyodo/d8gaklv0j.html The news was picked up by: Pick up by Forest org: http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=53797 13 March 2006, Trade and Investment News Rapid Response’ Team on Sumatra Forests Information Centre and Economic Service, Kementerian Koordinator Bidang Perekonomian. Republik Indonesia Written by Mahendra Siregar/Hari S.noegroho http://www.ekon.go.id/v2/content/view/295/2/ WWF-UK, Monday 13 March 2006 WWF opposes elephant captures on Sumatra http://www.wwf.org.uk/news/n_0000002388.asp Mar 15 14:25, ANTARA News Wildlife crime unit concerned about elephants killing in Riau March 23, 2006, WWF Indonesia Press Release Elephants made homeless on Indonesian island of Sumatra Panda.Org, 23 March 2006 Elephants made homeless on Indonesian island of Sumatra AFP, Fri Mar 24, 6:26 AM ET Wild elephants suffering in Indonesia's Sumatra: WWF The news was picked up by: www.brunei-online.com/weekend/news/mar25w7 March 24, 2006, www.wwf.or.id After Being Captured Secretly: Ten Elephants Chained to Trees Without Food and Water Deutsche Presse-Agentur Elephants found chained in forest on Sumatra Mar 24, 2006, 10:54 GMT March 24, 2006, WWF US Press Release Indonesian Government Ignores Own Rules, Places Endangered Elephants in Peril US. News Wire 24 March 2006 4:36:00 PM


WWF Says Indonesian Government Ignores Own Rules, Places Endangered Elephants in Peril http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=62916 www.chinaview.cn 25 March 13:49:04 Illegal logging threatens elephants in Indonesia http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/25/content_4343905.htm The Jakarta Post, March 25, 2006 Illegal logging threatens elephants in Riau The news was picked up by: http://www.planetmole.org/06-03/elephants-under-threat-riau-sumatra-indonesia.html Eyes on the Forest (EoF News) 27 March 2006 New Interactive Map on Elephant Distribution and Conflict in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia. http://maps.eyesontheforest.or.id/Home/index.html Mar 27, 2006, WWF Germany Press Release Elephanten in Ketten (Elephants in Chains) Mar 27, 2006, Elefanten in Ketten WWF: Seit Wochen andauerndes Elefantendrama auf Sumatra spitzt sich zu http://www.umweltjournal.de/fp/archiv/AFA_umweltnatur/10203.php http://www.businessportal24.com/de/a/21165 http://www.verivox.de/news/ArticleDetails.asp?aid=26286&pm=1 http://www.pressrelations.de/new/standard/result_main.cfm?pfach=1&n_firmanr_=100979&sector=pm&detail=1&r=226712&sid=&aktion=jour_pm&quelle=0 ANTARA, Mar 27 09:04 WWF asks govt and people to stop wild elephant's capture The Daily Jakarta Shimbun, 27 March 2006 (in Japanese) Elephants Chained for "Raiding Crops" Press Release, WWF-Netherland, 27 Maart 2006 Olifanten Sumatra in het nauw http://www.llink.nl/Nieuws_LLiNK.101.0.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1185&tx_ttnews[backPid]=389&cHash=2dff7f2a8b http://www.dierennieuws.nl/nw/art/200603/nw41704.htm Telegraaf, Netherland, April 1, 2006 Olifanten in Het Nauw. Leefgebied op Sumatra Drastich Verkleind 4 April 2006, Media Advisory. WWF-International


Urgent action needed to prevent possible extinction of Sumatran elephants in Riau, Indonesia - WWF Eyes on the Forest (EoF News). April 4, 2006 Interactive Map on Elephant Distribution and Conflict in Riau, Sumatra. http://eyesontheforest.or.id/eofnew/ele_map_announcement.php Associated Press, April 5, 2006 By Michael Casey – Environmental Writer Elephant population drops by 75% in Indonesia’s Riau province: WWF The Jakarta Post (Online), April 5, 2006 Elephant population drops by 75% in Riau province http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060405172550&irec=0 Pravda News Agency (Rusia), April 5, 2006 Elephant population drops by 75 percent in Indonesia http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/05-04-2006/78369-Elephant%20population-0 Forest. Org Forest Conservation Portal http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=54862 EcoEarth.Info http://www.ecoearth.info/articles/reader.asp?linkid=54862 Panda. Org 05 Apr 2006 Mapping Sumatra's shrinking elephant habitat http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=65900 Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 5, 2006 Sumatran elephants face extinction in Indonesia The Independent UK, 6 April 2006 Sumatran elephants face extinction http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article356021.ece ANTARA, Apr 08 23:37 WWF welcomes court verdict on elephant killer www.wwf.or.id and Panda.Org. News, 11 April 2006 Open Letter to Indonesia’s President to save Sumatran Elephants in Riau http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/forests/news/index.cfm?uNewsID=66360 AFP, 11 April 2006 Indonesia-elephants-WWF WWF calls on Indonesia president to save threatened elephants AFP, 11 avr 2006 Indonésie-environnement-forêts-éléphants Déclin alarmant des éléphants de Sumatra: le WWF en appelle au président SBY


Woensdag, 12 april 2006 / 15:19 WNF: ingrijpen president Indonesië om olifanten te redden (2) N i e u w bericht, meer gegevens Press Release, 15 April 2006 First Captured Elephant Dies in Balai Raja, Riau,Sumatra. WWF calls for transparent investigation of Sumatran elephant killings and torments The Jakarta Post- National News - April 19, 2006 Elephant dies in captivity http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20060419.C07 The Jakarta Post, Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta April 20, 2006 State to get tough on elephant poachers http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20060420.C03&irec=4


24 February 2006, ANTARA News Villagers' houses destroyed by tens of wild elephants in Riau Pekanbaru, Riau Province (ANTARA News) - At least 51 wild elephants destroyed a number of villagers houses and over tens hectares of palm oil plantation area at Balai Raja, Bengkalis District, Riau in the past two days. Two villagers were hurt in the attacks by wild elephants, Balai Raja Village Head Samudji AMP told ANTARA News here Friday. In the past two months, at least five times the wild elephants ran amok, he said. However, Samudji wondered whether the elephants were wild or tamed ones because some villagers noted spots in their bodies and one of them was even still having a chain in one of his legs. He urged the provincial authorities to capture and relocate the elephants to an area far from human settlement. Meanwhile, Head of Riau Conservation Section Ali Nafsir Siregar said he had been informed about the elephants which ran amok. The village is near a protected forest which is also habitat of wild elephants. Probably some villagers have opened a farming land in the protected forest. The action might up set the elephants which later destroyed the villagers houses, he said. We will drive away the elephants to go back to their habitat in the protected forest, he said. Article at the following link: http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=9403


1 Mar 2006 23:29, Antara Forestry ministry to relocate wild elephants to original habitat Pekanbaru, Riau Province (ANTARA News) - Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban said here Wednesday his ministry would soon tame and return wild elephants which had ran amok in Balai Raja Village, Bengkalis District, Riau, to their original habitat.

"I have received a report on elephants which ran amok. The ministry`s natural resources conservation body will soon tame them and relocate them to their original habitat," the minister said.

Over the last few weeks, some 51 wild Sumatran elephants (elephas maximus sumatrana sp.) had destroyed houses and about 25 hectares of oil palm and other crop plantations in Balai Raja Village, Bengkalis District, forcing a number of villagers to take refuge to safer areas.

"Absolutely, we will move the elephants. However, the effort will cost a lot of money as the cost relocating one elephant is about Rp30 million (around US$3200). So, we need a quite big budget to move 51 of them," Kaban said.

In the past two months, at least five times the wild elephants ran amok in the village.

The village is near a protected forest which is also the habitat of wild elephants. Some villagers might have opened a farming land in the protected forest, which triggered the elephants to run amok and destroy the villagers` houses. (*)

LKBN ANTARA Copyright © 2005 Terms of Use http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=9600


1 March 2006, AP Six elephants found poisoned to death in Sumatran jungle JAKARTA (AP): Six rare, wild elephants were found poisoned to death in an Sumatran jungle Wednesday, their mouths black and covered with potassium cyanide, a conservationist said. Nurkalis Fadli from the World Wild Fund said he believed all the animals, who appeared to be from the same family, were intentionally killed. The only male in the group had its tusks removed, he said. "This is an extraordinary crime," Nurkalis told reporters in Riau province on Sumatra sland. "Whoever did this must have known that Sumatran Elephants are extremely rare and protected by our laws." The animals, including one young elephant, were found close together near Mahato, a village 300 kilometers north of Riau's capital Pekanbaru. Nurkalis said it appeared they had been dead for about a week. Their habitat is quickly shrinking because of illegal logging and land clearing, and villagers often complain the animals venture into human settlements looking for food. Pekanbaru is some 900 kilometers northwest of Jakarta. (**)


2 March 2006, Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) Indonesia-Nature/Animals/ Six wild elephants killed by poison in Sumatra Eds: epa photos available = Jakarta (dpa) - Six wild Sumatran elephants found dead with blackened mouths on the jungle floor of Mahato, Riau province, on Indonesia's Sumatra island, were believed to have been poisoned, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) official said on Thursday. "We have a strong belief that they were all poisoned," Desmarita Murni, WWF communications officer for species programs, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, adding that the WWF planned to perform an autopsy later Thursday to find out exact details on how and who might poisoned the wild beasts. Continuous conflicts between the wild beasts and villagers encroaching into the jungle have often been cited as the cause of the elephants' occasional rampages that damage houses and kill villagers in some regencies in Riau province. Environmentalists and conservation officials have said that due to destruction of their habitat for development and illegal activities, elephants have posed a constant threat to humans. "Those wild beasts are considered as pests by local villagers and farm owners," Desmarita said. "But at the same time we have to see this as the consequences of constant forest conversion into farms and villages by humans," she said. Desmarita said the last incident of wild elephants being poisoned in Riau province was in November 2004, when another six wild elephants were killed. Habitat destruction, combined with illegal poaching, have slashed the population of wild elephants on Sumatra, the only island in Indonesia where they can still be found in the wild. An estimated 4,000 of the protected species still live there. (DPA)


2 March 2006, DAILY MAIL (London)

POISONED LIKE PESTS BY RICHARD SHEARS AND MICHAEL HANLON RARE ELEPHANT FAMILY KILLED (IN CASE THEY TRAMPLE CROPS)

BY comparison, a high velocity rifle bullet would have been almost merciful. This family of elephants, among the rarest on Earth, had wandered into a jungle clearing to eat the lush vegetation. It was their last meal. The six Sumatran elephants, belonging to a breed down to its last 2,000, were about to die a slow and painful death. The leaves they were eating had been laced with potassium cyanide, an efficient and deadly poison. The elephants, including a youngster, fell one by one, keeping close to each other in a family group. When wildlife rangers stumbled on the scene on Tuesday it quickly became apparent what had happened. Six rotting corpses, swelling in the harsh sun, were victims of a conflict between Sumatra's growing human population and its dwindling numbers of pachyderms. On the only male in the group, a gaping wound had been left where its tusks had been ripped out. The killers, not content merely to poison the graceful animals, had decided to profit by the sale of the ivory. But elephants are mostly killed not by the loggers exploiting the forest's valuable hardwoods, or even by ivory poachers, but simply because they come into conflict with humans. As Sumatra's population grows, unfortunate encounters with the animals become more common, and farmers, fearful of their crops and even homes being trampled, poison the elephants as a form of pest control. 'It's heartbreaking and it seems unstoppable,' said a spokesman for conservation charity WWF in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. 'People who don't want the elephants roaming onto their land are taking it upon themselves to kill them. 'We are seeing more and more of this as illegal loggers turn the once vibrant jungle into a wasteland.' Sumatra, the second-largest island in the Indonesian archipelago, is home to one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet.


Towering forests hide tens of thousands of species of plant and insect, together with a menagerie of exotic mammals, reptiles and amphibians. These include orang-utans and the Sumatran tiger, but also the unique Sumatran elephant, a breed, or subspecies, related to the larger Asian or Indian elephant, but cut off on its island redoubt for tens of thousands of years. These are in danger of dying out as their habitat is decimated, mostly by loggers. It is illegal to kill Sumatran elephants. But the laws of a government based almost 600 miles away mean little to farmers who say they must protect their homes from wandering elephants which knock over their small huts and have killed people. 'The elephants are simply running out of space,' said the WWF's Jan Vertefeuille yesterday. ' Human elephant conflict is a huge problem in this area. 'Their forests are cut down and they become homeless, and then they raid people's crops for food.' Angry farmers coat the palm fronds with pesticide or lay out poisoned bait. Four years ago, 17 elephant corpses were found near a palm plantation, every one a victim of poisoning. Steps by conservationists to prevent the slaughter have so far made little difference. It was announced in 2004 that the jungle near the town of Riau on Sumatra had been declared a National Park. 'A significant step', said environmentalists, 'towards the protection of the elephants' habitat.' Yet it was only a few miles from the 'protected area' that the latest family of elephants to be poisoned were found. Other families continue to roam in increasing desperation through their shrinking jungle. And it may be only a matter of time before the tragedy is repeated.


2 March 2006, ANTARA

Elephants trespass on CPI's housing complex in Riau

Pekanbaru, Riau, (ANTARA News) - A housing complex of Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI/Caltex), a joint affiliation of Chevron Corporation & Texaco Inc., in Riau province was unsafe after a number of wild elephants trespassed on the complex recently. ANTARA observed here Thursday (3/2) a number of plants which were destroyed by tens of elephants after the animals came out of their habitat in a conserved forest which located near the housing complex in Bali Raja Duri area in Bengkalis district, 160 km north of here. CPI`s Head Enviroment Safety (HES) Didik Hedarianto said here PT CPI, a production-sharing contractor to state oil and gas company PT Pertamina, built a neat complex of 1,400 houses in Bali Raja Duri area which is also equipped with the 1,200-ha conserved area as a bonded zone. He said the reserved area is CPI`s concessionary forest. The elephants indeed ruined plants in the housing complex but did not damaged houses, he said adding that the incident has occurred for the past two weeks. Didik attributed the elephants` ransacking to the dwindling of their habitat within the conserved forest following the arrival of new comers to the conservation area for the past few years. He said his office will continue to protect the CPI�s housing complex from wild elephants using persuasive methods. The CPI`s concessionary forest is next to a conservation area for wild animals that has shrunk from 18,000 hectares to only 200 hectares due to land clearing projects and illegal loggings.(*)


3 March 2006, The Australian Elephants in the wars and losing jungle Sian Powell

AS autopsies began yesterday on five wild elephants poisoned in Indonesia's remote Riau province, a herd of 39 elephants rampaged through a village in the same region, crushing four houses and forcing locals to flee.

In Balai Raja, elephants on the warpath had forced 59 families to take refuge in the village hall.

"The locals haven't been able to sleep in their houses for a week," said World Wide Fund for Nature Indonesia's human-elephant conflict officer, Samsuardi.

The elephant wars in Riau are symptomatic of the plight of wild animals in Indonesia. As the population grows, people increasingly encroach on forests and jungles, squeezing the habitat of the archipelago's tigers and elephants, deer and orang-utans.

Following a spate of tiger poisonings in West Sumatra, environmentalists are concerned elephants are in farmers' sights.

Mr Samsuardi said there should be 28,000ha of jungle in Mahato district, where the elephant corpses were found, but it was estimated the unauthorised depredations of farmers had left only 10,000ha. "We don't know who did the poisoning," he said. "But there is conflict between the elephants and the local farmers. There's not enough room for the elephants, because of the habitations and garden. And this conflict is getting more serious."

It seemed the elephants had been poisoned with potassium cyanide, with a great deal of foam found on their mouths, he said, adding that conservationists would test the corpses. The poisonings were reported to the police, Mr Samsuardi said, but they had apparently taken no action. Riau police said yesterday they had not heard of the matter.

"We don't know anything about that," said Officer Azwir Anthony. "Maybe it's in another area."

The jungle around the village of Balai Raja has been sliced from 16,000ha to less than 300ha, he said, which was not even enough for a single elephant to live comfortably. The rest had been taken for palm-oil plantations.

"So with 300ha, what can we do with these elephants?" he asked. "We have seen a drastic reduction in the elephant population since the early 1980s and if it keeps going like this, in a few years they will be extinct."

Mr Samsuardi said he would try to use a type of cannon to make a loud noise and disperse the elephants from Balai Raja. "But the difficulty is among these 39 elephants there are five babies," he said.


"And the elephant mothers are very emotional."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18331723%255E2703,00.htm

3 March 2006, Reuters Indonesia uses chillies to protect elephants, Ade Rina JAKARTA, March 3 (Reuters) - They've tried everything from sticks and stones to bullets to keep elephants away from their crops. But after years of failing to keep elephants from ravaging their plantations, Indonesian farmers are now using newer and more unique methods such as fiery African chillies tied to wire fences to deter the animals. "The smell stops elephants from coming anywhere close to the farmland," said Tahirudin Hasan, administration chief of southern Sumatra's Way Kambas National Park, best known for its elephant training centre. "Some NGOs are helping us handle elephants that enter farms," he told Reuters. "They help us place torches in farms and put African chillies on the wire of farmland. As a result, the number of elephants coming to farms has been reduced." African chillies are the latest weapon in the battle to keep farmers happy while conserving Sumatran elephants, the smallest of the Asian elephants, whose numbers have fallen dramatically in recent years because of increasing encroachment of their habitat. As part of the new conservation efforts, rangers and residents also use such traditional and more animal-friendly methods as bamboo torches and beating bamboo or wooden drums to drive elephants back to the forest. In the past, villagers either shot or poisoned elephants, who often stray out of national parks and ravage plantations and houses in their search for food. According to the Riau Natural Resources and Conservation Body, the number of Sumatran elephants dwindled to about 400 in 2003 from more than 1,000 in 1985 because of deforestation, forest fires and conversion of forests to plantations. Indonesia is not alone. The number of elephants across Asia is down to 60,000 from 150,000 two decades ago because Asia's growing economies and human populations fuel demand for land and other resources, destroying the elephants' habitat and placing them at greater risk of direct confrontation with people. CONFLICT RESOLUTION Conservationists have been pressing the more than one dozen Asian nations that have elephants populations to better protect the animals, which are on the verge of extinction in some countries.


In Indonesia, animal rights experts say conservation efforts are paying off and incidents of conflict between elephants and humans have dropped. "Usually when the elephants entered farmland, they were killed instantly or they were shot and poisoned," said Desmarita Murni, a species expert with the Jakarta office of the conservation group WWF, which is working in Tesso Nillo park in southern Sumatra. "Our work focuses on how to reduce the conflict between elephants and humans .... We cannot blame elephants as it is their instinct to look for food and forest areas are getting smaller." Tesso Nillo is one of the island's largest remaining forest tracts and home to an increasingly threatened elephant population. As part of the conservation efforts, WWF has a helicopter that patrols the sprawling Tesso Nillo park, home to about 90 elephants, and alerts trainers whenever it sees a herd heading out of the forest. Authorities stepped up conservation efforts at the park after a 2000-2003 survey revealed elephants had caused damage worth 2 billion rupiah($218,000) to adjacent farmland. The efforts followed the success of Indonesia's elephant training programme launched in Way Kambas in the mid-1980s. This involved using trained elephants for tourism, such as park safaris in Way Kambas, home to around 50 types of mammals, including 250 elephants. "Last year during the Way Kambas festival we had elephant soccer and an elephant swimming race," said Hasan. "This is an effort to protect the elephants. We try to show the people that they can be useful too."


March 03, 2006 The Courir Mail. Australia Elephants fight humans for jungle home By Sian Powell in Jakarta

AS autopsies began yesterday on five wild elephants poisoned in Indonesia's remote Riau province, a herd of 39 elephants rampaged through a village in the same region, crushing four houses and forcing locals to flee.

In Balai Raja, elephants on the warpath had forced 59 families to take refuge in the village hall.

"The locals haven't been able to sleep in their houses for a week," said World Wide Fund for Nature Indonesia's human-elephant conflict officer, Samsuardi.

The elephant wars in Riau are symptomatic of the plight of wild animals in Indonesia.

As the population grows, people increasingly encroach on forests and jungles, squeezing the habitat of the archipelago's tigers and elephants, deer and orangutans.

Following a spate of tiger poisonings in West Sumatra, environmentalists are concerned elephants are in farmers' sights.

Mr Samsuardi said there should be 28,000ha of jungle in Mahato district, where the elephant corpses were found, but it was estimated the unauthorised depredations of farmers had left only 10,000ha.

"We don't know who did the poisoning," he said. "But there is conflict between the elephants and the local farmers. There's not enough room for the elephants, because of the habitations and garden. And this conflict is getting more serious."

It seemed the elephants had been poisoned with potassium cyanide, with a great deal of foam found on their mouths, he said, adding that conservationists would test the corpses.

The poisonings were reported to the police, Mr Samsuardi said, but they had apparently taken no action. Riau police said yesterday they had not heard of the matter.

"We don't know anything about that," said Officer Azwir Anthony. "Maybe it's in another area."

The jungle around the village of Balai Raja has been sliced from 16,000ha to less than 300ha, he said, which was not even enough for a single elephant to live comfortably. The rest had been taken for palm-oil plantations.

"So with 300ha, what can we do with these elephants?" he asked. "We have seen a drastic reduction in the elephant population since the


early 1980s and if it keeps going like this, in a few years they will be extinct."

Mr Samsuardi said he would try to use a type of cannon to make a loud noise and disperse the elephants from Balai Raja. "But the difficulty is among these 39 elephants there are five babies," he said.

"And the elephant mothers are very emotional."

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/story/0,20797,18331722-401,00.html

The Jakarta Post, March 02, 2006 FRONT COVER PICTURE AFP, 3 mars 2006 Indonésie-environnement-forêts-éléphants,PREV Panique dans un village indonésien cerné par les éléphants (REPORTAGE) Par Sébastien BLANC =(PHOTO)= BALAI RAJA (Indonésie), 3 mars 2006 (AFP) - Des détonations assourdissantes, des buissons en feu, des maisons dévastées, des cocktails Molotov, des hurlements. Une scène de guerre? Non, un petit village indonésien qui tente de repousser des éléphants sauvages. La nuit avait débuté dans l'anxiété à Balai Raja, un hameau d'agriculteurs au centre de l'île de Sumatra. Les habitants ont allumé des torches à la périphérie du bourg et rempli des récipients d'alcool à brûler. La veille, plusieurs dizaines de pachydermes avaient quitté la dense forêt proche pour semer le chaos dans le village, abattant des murs de bicoques, déchiquetant des matelas, déracinant des cocotiers, dévorant des bananiers. Pratiquement toutes les femmes et les enfants ont fui. Alors quand soudain fuse un cri -- "les revoilà !" -- c'est l'affolement. Des hommes avec de longues perches à l'extrémité incandescente courent incendier bosquets et fagots. D'autres agitent au-dessus de leur tête des fléaux portant des braises. Les cendres volent. Le ciel équatorial rougeoie. Les adolescents se précipitent, bouteille de carburant à la main, pour aviver les foyers. Loin derrière les flammes apparaissent des ombres massives. Une dizaine d'éléphants sont à 80 mètres. Ils n'ont pas l'air effrayé ni ne chargent. A leurs barrissements répondent des déflagrations pour les faire reculer. Celles-ci sont provoquées par l'explosion d'acétylène dans des tubes en métal posés sur le sol comme des mortiers. Junjung Daulay, 28 ans, fait partie d'une équipe d'intervention du Fonds mondial pour la nature (WWF) venue en renfort. Il possède un appareil similaire, ressemblant à un bazooka. Il le charge avec des


pierres de carbure de calcium sur lesquelles il verse un peu d'eau. Quand le gaz dégagé envahit le cylindre, Junjung le fait détoner. Asril et son épouse Nursam n'osent s'écarter de leur bâtisse en pierre. "Hier nous étions réfugiés à l'intérieur. J'ai vu une trompe passer par dessus la porte", relate le retraité de 56 ans. "J'ai très peur", confie la femme. Nurchalis Fadhli, chargé au WWF du réglement des conflits entre humains et éléphants, relativise l'hostilité des pachydermes: "S'ils essaient d'entrer dans une maison, c'est parce qu'ils cherchent de la nourriture". Les éléphants d'Indonésie sont de plus en plus en contact avec la civilisation en raison du rétrécissement inquiétant de leur habitat, rongé par l'abattage illégal et les plantations de palmiers à huile. A Balai Raja, le sanctuaire forestier couvrait 16.000 hectares en 1988. La dernière photo satellite montre qu'il a fondu à 200 hectares. Au centre de Sumatra, la province de Riau comptait selon le WWF de 1.000 à 1.600 éléphants en 1985, 700 et 1999 et 350 à 400 aujourd'hui. La forêt est morcelée en quinze poches, toutes de taille insuffisante pour les animaux. Résultat, les problèmes avec les villageois se multiplient. Cette semaine trois femelles, deux mâles et un éléphanteau ont été empoisonnés. "Les populations ne les tuent pas pour l'ivoire mais du fait des conflits (de proximité)", confirme Michael Stüwe, un spécialiste des éléphants de Sumatra. Il souligne le rôle négatif des palmiers à huile. "En créant une plantation de palmiers à huile, d'abord vous détruisez la forêt et ensuite vous générez soudain une nourriture bien plus attirante pour eux que ce que la forêt naturelle leur offre". Mais à Balai Raja la nuit s'écoule sans que personne n'appelle à supprimer d'éléphants. Au matin, les résidents exténués espèrent juste de l'aide. "Nous sommes des paysans, nous devons chaque jour trouver de quoi manger. Avec les éléphants on ne peut plus bouger ni dormir. Nous avons faim", se désole l'un d'entre eux, Johannes Sianturi. Derrière lui une maison a ses murs effondrés sur trois côtés. seb/jr eaf.tmf


AFP, March 6, 2006 Indonesia-wildlife-elephant Indonesian environmental groups launch action to curb elephant rampages JAKARTA, March 6, 2006 (AFP) - Indonesian environment groups Monday launched a programme to stop wild elephants destroying crops and villages on Sumatra island, blaming increasing human-elephant clashes on the clearing of forests. Conservation groups WWF and the Nature Conservation Agency will fund 300 rangers to be on call to scare away wild elephants from villages around Riau province's Lido Forest, they said. "Because of the clearing of forests, the elephants have no land to live on and so they are entering human settlements," Desma Murni from WWF told AFP. "If there is no strategy to deal with this, more and more elephants will be killed or poisoned," said Murni. The so-called Flying Squads will be equipped with noise and fire-making tools along with trained elephants and will immediately help out villages who have been terrorised by some 17 elephants in recent weeks. Last week six elephants were found dead in a palm oil plantation close to Lido Forest and were believed to have been poisoned by local farmers, WWF said in a joint statement with the agency. The poisonings were the latest in an increasing number of violent conflicts between humans and the endangered species. Environmentalists blame the widespread clearing of the elephants' habitat, to make way for palm oil plantations and farmland, for increasingly frequent clashes between the last of Sumatra's wild elephants and humans. "Forest conversion is the root cause of the conflict between people and animals, whether it is elephants raiding fields or tigers attacking livestock," the WWF's Nazir Foead said in the statement. The number of Sumatran elephants, Asia's smallest elephant, has plunged in Riau province, home to massive palm oil plantations, from as many as 1,600 in 1985 to 350 to 400 today, according to the Nature Conservation Agency. mak/sb/sm


Press Release, WWF-Indonesia, 6 March 2006 at 12:01 hr Jakarta

Forest Ministry, WWF Launch Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation Plan, Call for Immediate Halt to All Natural Forest Clearing in Central Sumatra

JAKARTA – 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, the global conservation organization, announced plans to immediately begin implementing a long-awaited protocol to reduce human-elephant conflict in Riau province. PHKA 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, modeled after WWF’s successful “flying squads” used near the new Tesso Nilo National Park. “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,” said 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 tomorrow 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,” says Nazir Foead, director of WWF-Indonesia’s Species Program. “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.”

### NOTES: Elephant Poisonings: 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. Crop-raiding Herd: 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 on Tuesday (6/7).


“We will be contacting Riau-based military units and the resident oil palm plantation managers to possibly participate in any large-scale operation,” said Adi Susmianto. “But even that will not be a permanent solution. Forest conversion and illegal logging in the Libo forest have to stop to maintain the elephants’ habitat and give them the peace and quiet they so desperately need to relax and not run amok through the fields and houses that now occupy their former home,” said Nazir Foead. Flying Squads: As a first, immediate action, PHKA and WWF agreed to assemble a highly mobile quick response team fashioned after the Tesso Nilo Flying Squad that will support the affected communities in case of future raids and patrol the conflict areas. The flying squad approach has been implemented in the buffer zone of Tesso Nilo National Park. “A 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,” said Nazir. 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 ($1,740) to around 1 million Rupiah ($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. For more information, please contact: Adi Susmianto, Director of Biodiversity Conservation at PHKA, tel +62-21-5720227 Nazir Foead, Species Program Director, WWF-Indonesia via Desma Murni, WWF-Indonesia species communications officer, tel +62-811-793-458 Jan Vertefeuille, communications manager, WWF International, +1 202-861-8362 Notes to Editors: • Bahasa and English version of HECM protocol available upon request

by contacting [email protected] Panda.org ,06 Mar 2006 Plan launched to reduce human-elephant conflict in Sumatra 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. 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$1,740) 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. For more information: Nazir Foead, Species Programme Director WWF-Indonesia Tel: +62 811 793 458 Jan Vertefeuille, Communications Manager WWF Tiger and AREAS Programmes Tel: +1 202 861 8362 Metro TV News Morning, 07.55.AM Five minutes news, March 7, 2006 http://panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/species/index.cfm?uNewsID=62480


ANTARA News Maret 6, 2006 16:15 Jkt time Mitigation of elephants' conflicts protocol to be applied in Riau soon

Jakarta, (ANTARA News) - The Directorate General for Forest and Nature Conservation (PHPA) and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) have agreed to implement the Protocol on Mitigation of Elephants Conflicts as a basis for the resolution of conflicts between elephants and humans that have been occurring at increasing frequency in Riau province over the past few months. "It is important to implement the protocol soon so that urgent cases can be settled," director of bio-diversity conservation at the PHPA Adi Susmianto said on Monday (3/6). He said Riau had been preparing itslef to implement the protocol for a long time and it would, among others, cover the strategy to reduce conflicts, the handling of incidents that might harm the elephants and developing a mechanism to compensate people who had been harmed or whohad incurred maerial loss by elephants. "With the implementation of the protocol soon, we hope conflicts can be minimized, people and elephants can be prevented from losing their life, and people from suffering material losses." he said. In the past two weeks, there were two conflicts beteen humans and elephants. In the first case, six elephants were found dead in a palm oil plantation in what was once the Mahato forst on the border between Riau and North Sumatra. The animlas had allegedly been poisoned. The second case involved 17 elephants that reportedly ravaged a human resettlement in Balai Raja village, Duri, Bengkalis district, Riau. Sources said the two incidents were caused by the conversion of the Libo Block forest, one of the important habitats of elephants, into a resettlement, plantation and industrial forest. "All natural forest conversion actvities must be stopped soon," Adi added. In the past seven years, the population of the Sumatran Elephant has decreased from 750 to 350. Director of the WWF Indonesia`s Species Program, Nazir Foead, also shared similar statement saying that forest conservation was the root of the conflicts between people and animal. Citing examples, he said elephants often destroyed people`s plantations and houses and tigers attacked livestock and humans. The damaging of Balai Raja forest was a real example of the conflict. he said. "The area of Balai Raja forest has decreased dramatically from 16,000 hectares in 1986 to 260 hectares in 2005," he said.(*)



PAPERLOOP.COM, 6 March 2006 Indonesia calls for immediate halt on all natural forest clearing in central Sumatra JAKARTA, March 6, 2006 (Press Release) - 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, the global conservation organization, announced plans to immediately begin implementing a long-awaited protocol to reduce human-elephant conflict in Riau province. PHKA 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, modeled after WWF's successful "flying squads" used near the new Tesso Nilo National Park. "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," said 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 tomorrow 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," says Nazir Foead, director of WWF-Indonesia's Species Program. "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." See Related Article: July 27, 2005 - Environmental groups support government review of logging practices in Sumatra, Indonesia http://www.paperloop.com/inside/stories/wk03_06_2006/08.html


AFP, March 8, 2006 Indonesia-environment-forests-elephants,FEATURE As forest shrinks, Indonesian villagers fend off hungry elephants by Sebastien Blanc =(PICTURE)= BALAI RAJA, Indonesia, March 8, 2006 (AFP) - Deafening explosions, devastated houses, burning bushes and hurled Molotov cocktails: it looks like a war zone, but this is the scene of one Indonesian village's fight against rampaging wild elephants. The night begins with anxiety at Balai Raja, a farming hamlet in the centre of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, as the men light torches filled with methylated spirits and stake them around their village periphery. The women and children mostly fled a day earlier, after dozens of pachyderms thundered from the dense jungle, smashing down the walls of homes, shredding mattresses, uprooting coconut palms and devouring banana trees. "Here they are again!" the men now cry, racing to set aflame thickets and piles of prepared firewood. Others twirl balls filled with fiery embers attached to sticks above their heads. Ashes fly as the equatorial sky reddens. Teenagers rush around, fuel bottles in hand, keeping the fires burning strong. In the distance, massive shadows have emerged. About a dozen elephants have materialized less than a hundred metres (yards) away, appearing neither afraid, nor about to charge. But as explosions shoot out of makeshift mortars towards them, they trumpet magnificently. Junjung Daulay, 28, from the conservation group WWF, is here to help the villagers out. He carries a weapon similar to a bazooka, which is packed with calcium carbide. When a little water is poured over it, gas is created and setting it alight creates a frightening bang. Villager Asril and his wife Nursam do not dare leave their home. "Yesterday we took refuge inside. I saw a horn pass by over the door," says the 56-year-old. "I am very afraid," Nursam confesses. Nurchalis Fadhli, who heads a WWF program aimed at resolving such conflicts between humans and animals, explains of the elephants: "If they try to enter a house, it's because they are looking for food." Elephants in Indonesia are being brought into ever greater contact with people as their habitat shrivels, due both to illegal deforestation and land being cleared for cultivation -- in particular, palm oil. Around Riau province's Balai Raja, elephants had some 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres) of lush forest to roam through in 1988. The latest satellite photo shows just 200 hectares remaining, parcelled out into 15 pockets, all of which are an insufficient size for the beasts. Located along the eastern edge of central Sumatra, Riau was home to some 1,000 to 1,600 elephants in 1985, 700 in 1999 and 350 to 400 today.


As a result, clashes with the villagers are escalating. This week three females, two males and a calf were poisoned by fearful villagers in the province's north. "The population kill them over the conflict and not for ivory," notes Michael Stuwe, an expert on the elephants of Sumatra. He emphasises the negative impact that palm oil has had. "By creating a palm oil plantation, you suddenly generate a food that is nicer than what a natural forest has to offer," he says. At Balai Raja, the night passes without the elephants running amok. In the morning, the residents are hopeful for more help. The women have taken to begging for food along the main road nearby. "We are farmers. We need each day to find something to eat. With the elephants we cannot move anymore, we cannot sleep. We are hungry," complains one of the afflicted villagers, Johannes Sianturi. Behind him, one of the houses barely stands, with three of its walls collapsed. seb-sb/nw


AFP, 6 mars 2006 Indonésie-environnement-forêts-éléphants Sumatra: des mesures pour éviter les conflits entre humains et éléphants JAKARTA, 6 mars 2006 (AFP) - Des responsables écologistes indonésiens ont annoncé lundi à Jakarta le lancement de mesures pour protéger les derniers éléphants sauvages de Sumatra et pour prévenir les destructions qu'ils causent du fait du rétrécissement de leurs forêts. La direction gouvernementale chargée de la protection des forêts et de la sauvegarde de la nature (PHKA) et le Fonds mondial pour la nature (WWF) financeront un corps de trois cents rangers chargés d'effrayer les éléphants sortant de leur forêt dans la province de Riau (centre de Sumatra), selon un communiqué des deux organismes. Des "brigades volantes" seront déployées dans les possibles zones de contact, équipés de moyens sonores et de dispositifs pyrotechniques censés repousser les éléphants. Ces équipes possèderont aussi des cornacs et des éléphants apprivoisés pour faire reculer les pachydermes sauvages. "En raison de la déforestation, les éléphants n'ont plus d'espace pour vivre et donc ils pénètrent sur des zones d'habitat humain", a expliqué à l'AFP Desma Murni, du WWF. "Sans mesures pour faire face, de plus en plus d'éléphants seront tués ou empoisonnés", a-t-elle ajouté. La semaine passée trois femelles, deux mâles et un éléphanteau ont été empoisonnés, vraisemblablement par des villageois excédés de les voir ravager leurs cultures. Les éléphants de Sumatra souffrent d'un rétrécissement important de leur habitat, rongé par l'abattage illégal et les plantations de palmiers à huile. Au centre de Sumatra, la province de Riau comptait selon le WWF de 1.000 à 1.600 éléphants en 1985, 700 et 1999 et 350 à 400 aujourd'hui. seb/ia


March 10, 2006. 09.27 AM. ANTARA News Forestry ministry sets aside Rp300 million to move elephants Pekanbaru, Riau, (ANTARA News)- The Riau Provincial Forestry Office has set aside Rp300 million in fund to move a herd of elephants that have disturbed residents of Balai Raja village in Bengkalis district, Riau province, over the past two weeks. The decision to move the elephants from Balai Raja forest which covers an area of 18,000 hectares to another area was reached at a joint meeting of relevant agencies, such as the Forestry Ministry, the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), the Bengkalis district administration, and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), said Berton Panjaitan, chief of a team in charge of handling elephants` attack. "The Forestry Ministry has set aside Rp300 million to move the elephants. The Bengkalis district administration also gets involved in funding the measure," he said. The appeal to move the elephants to another area came from the villagers, he said. He added, however, that the meeting had yet to decide where the elephants would be moved although 10 of them had been caught. "There has not been agreement on which forest the elephants will be moved," he said. Report had it that the elephants will be moved to Tesso Nilo National Park, some 300 km from the village. The 83,000 hectare national park covers Kampar, Pelalawan and Kuantan Singingi districts. The elephants` attack on the village had forced around 150 villagers to take refuge at the office of the Balai Raja village head. The Balai Raja forest which borders the concession of PT Chevron Pasific Indonesia (CPI) was formerly wildlife reserve under Decree of the Forestry Minister No.173/Kpts-II/1986.(*)


Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 11 March 2006 Two more Sumatran wild elephants founded dead

Jakarta - Indonesian environmentalists have demanded an investigation into the death of two more wild Sumatran elephants at a training centre in the eastern province of Riau, local media reports said Sunday.

The wild elephants were killed for their tusks, said Nurcholis Fadlli, of the Worldwide Life for Nature (WWF) in the Riau capital of Pekanbaru.

The state-run news agency Antara quoted Fadli as accusing an unnamed official at the elephant-training centre at Hutan Raya forestry park for the killings, after the beasts were captured in Siak district.

Local government authorities in Riau have recently rounded up wild elephants following a series of rampages, destroying farmlands and injuring local residents.

About two weeks ago, six wild Sumatran elephants found dead with blackened mouths on the jungle floor of Mahato, Riau province, were believed to have been poisoned. WWF activists said they would conduct an autopsy.

In late 2004, six wild elephants were killed by poison in Riau province.

Fadli urged the country's forestry minister to launch an investigation to determine whether the beasts were deliberately killed. He claimed that around 100 wild Sumatran elephants have been murdered in the past five years at Riau's elephant training centre.

'There have been a repeated deaths of captured wild elephants at the training centre so far,' said Fadli, who believed the beasts have been intentionally murdered for their tusks.

Continuous conflicts between the wild beasts and villagers encroaching into the jungle have often been cited as the cause of the elephants' frequent rampages that damage houses and kill villagers in some districts in Riau province.

Environmentalists and conservation officials have said that farms and villages are often built on paths used by elephants and, due to destruction of their habitat for development and illegal activities, elephants now pose a threat to humans.

Officials said without intensive supervision and proper care, the elephants would continue to destroy plantations and dwellings.

According to Sumatran environmentalists, about 4,000 wild elephants roaming the Sumatran jungle habitat are listed as an endangered species and protected by law.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur


http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1136465.php/Two_more_Sumatran_wild_elephants_founded_dead

March 12, 2006, Bahrain News Agency (BNA) Two more sumatran wild elephants found dead Jakarta , March . 12 (BNA) Indonesian environmentalists have demanded an investigation into the death of two more wild Sumatran elephants at a training centre in the eastern province of Riau, local media reports said today. The wild elephants were killed for their tusks, said Nurcholis Fadlli, of the Worldwide Life for Nature (WWF) in the Riau capital of Pekanbaru. The state-run news agency Antara quoted Fadli as accusing an unnamed official at the elephant-training centre at Hutan Raya forestry park for the killings, after the beasts were captured in Siak district. Local government authorities in Riau have recently rounded up wild elephants following a series of rampages, destroying farmlands and injuring local residents.


March 13, 2006. WWF Press Release WWF opposes the capture of further elephants in Riau, calls death rate during translocations unacceptable. Immediate drive needed for herd stranded near Balai Raja

WWF, the conservation organization, strongly recommends to the Riau Forestry Service that it stop capturing elephants in Riau Province and translocating them. Recent captures in Riau have had a very high incidence of death as many of the endangered Sumatran elephants die during and immediately after the capture process. The survivors are likely to leave the forest they are released in and start raiding villages surrounding it. In December 2005, eight elephants were secretly released by Riau Forestry Agency in the very small Tesso Nilo National Park. Within just four weeks, WWF’s Elephant Flying Squad filmed them raiding the fields of nearby Lubuk Kembang Bunga village, the nearest village from the park. Currently, a herd of up to 51 elephants is stranded near Balai Raja village and has been raiding crops and damaging homes in the village. The elephants are lost about 25 km away from their home, the Libo forest. Libo is being illegally logged and converted at breakneck speed. WWF calls on the government to immediately stop those activities and organize an operation that will drive the elephants back to their forest. “Unfortunately, the government is focusing on the symptom – capturing homeless elephants that come into conflict with people – rather than dealing with the underlying problem, which is the uncontrolled conversion of forests that are home to some of Sumatra’s last wildlife populations,” said Nazir Foead, the director of WWF’s Species Conservation Program. “The death rate of elephants during official translocation operations is unacceptable and capturing should be the last resort. If the elephants are captured, WWF demands that an independent observer team be with the capture team at all times.” For Tesso Nilo National Park to accommodate any translocated elephants, the full, 100,000-hectare proposed area has to be declared a national park. Since 1992, the Riau Conservation Office (BKSDA) has been calling for an elephant conservation area to be declared in Tesso Nilo but so far, only a small, 38,000-hectare area has been declared a park. WWF calls on the government to immediately declare the full proposed Tesso Nilo National Park and to stop all forest conversion, illegal logging and encroachment. “We have been working hard to stop the conflicts with elephants in our village, with the help of the flying squad. Putting elephants into our neighbouring forest cannot be accepted. These elephants will soon attack us. We are not able to clean up the mess of Balai Raja’s problem,” Radaimon the leader of Tesso Nilo Community Forum said. In 2004, NGOs and the Ministry of Forestry developed a human elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred in recent weeks. If the protocol had been in place, it would have taught communities how to mitigate human elephant


conflict without suffering losses and without the need to capture elephants. Since 2004, WWF has worked with the communities surrounding the Tesso Nilo forest to avoid losses from raiding elephants. During that time, losses declined by 80 percent, no houses have been destroyed and there have been no loss of human or elephant lives. The 2004 human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol should be immediately implemented. Riau has lost 57 percent of its forests − from 6.4 million hectares to 2.7 million hectares – over the past 23 years, many of them through illegal conversion. Riau has lost half of its elephant population in the last seven years, with the remaining population numbering only about 350. Protected areas for elephants like in Mahato and Balai Raja have been almost completely cleared illegally with no action by the local authority to stop it. WWF calls on the government to immediately stop all forest conversions in Riau. For more information, please contact: Nazir Foead, Species Program Director, WWF-Indonesia species program director, tel +62-811-977-604, email [email protected] Jan Vertefeuille, communications manager, WWF International tiger and AREAS programmes, +1 202-861-8362


13 Mar 2006, PANDA.Org WWF opposes elephant capture on Sumatra Sumatra, Indonesia – WWF is urging Indonesian forestry service officials in Sumatra's Riau Province to stop capturing and translocating elephants. Recent captures in Riau have had a very high incidence of death — as high as 85 per cent — as many of the endangered Sumatran elephants die during and immediately after the capture process. The survivors are likely to leave the forest they are released in and start raiding villages surrounding it. “The death rate of elephants during official translocation operations is unacceptable and capturing should be the last resort. If the elephants are captured, we demand that an independent observer team be with the capture team at all times," said Nazir Foead, director of WWF-Indonesia's Species Conservation Programme.” “Unfortunately, the government is focussing on the symptom – capturing homeless elephants that come into conflict with people – rather than dealing with the underlying problem, which is the uncontrolled conversion of forests that are home to some of Sumatra’s last wildlife populations.” In December 2005, eight elephants were secretly released by the Riau Forestry Agency in Tesso Nilo National Park. Within just four weeks, WWF’s Elephant Flying Squad filmed them raiding the fields of nearby Lubuk Kembang Bunga village, the nearest village from the park. Currently, a herd of up to 51 elephants is stranded near Balai Raja village and has been raiding crops and damaging homes in the village. The elephants are about 25km away from their home, the Libo forest. Libo is being illegally logged and converted at breakneck speed. WWF is calling on the local government to immediately stop those activities and organize an operation that will drive the elephants back to their forest. “We have been working hard to stop the conflicts with elephants in our village, with the help of the flying squad," said Radaimon, the leader of Tesso Nilo Community Forum. "Putting elephants into our neighbouring forest cannot be accepted. These elephants will soon attack us. We are not able to clean up the mess of Balai Raja’s problem.” In 2004, NGOs and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry developed a human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred in recent weeks. If the protocol had been in place, it would have taught communities how to mitigate the conflict without suffering losses and without the need to capture elephants. Since 2004, WWF has worked with the communities surrounding the Tesso Nilo forest — also on Sumatra — to avoid losses from raiding elephants. During that time, losses declined by 80 per cent, no houses have been destroyed and there have been no loss of human or elephant lives. For Tesso Nilo National Park to accommodate any translocated elephants, the full, 100,000-hectare proposed area has to be declared a national


park. Since 1992, the Riau Conservation Office has been calling for an elephant conservation area to be declared in Tesso Nilo but so far, only a small, 38,000-hectare area has been declared a park. Riau has lost 57 per cent of its forests—- from 6.4 million hectares to 2.7 million hectares — over the past 23 years, many of them through illegal conversion. Riau has lost half of its elephant population in the last seven years, with the remaining population numbering only about 350. Protected areas for elephants like in Mahato and Balai Raja have been almost completely cleared illegally with no action by the local authority to stop it. WWF is calling on the government to immediately stop all forest conversions in Riau. http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=63480 Trade and Investment News, 13 March 2006 Rapid Response’ Team on Sumatra Forests Information Centre and Economic Service, Kementerian Koordinator Bidang Perekonomian. Republik Indonesia Written by Mahendra Siregar/Hari S.noegroho The Indonesian Forest Protection and Nature Conservation Agency (PHKA) and the World Wildlife Fund have announced plans to implement a protocol to reduce human-elephant conflict in central Sumatra. PHKA also called for an immediate stop to the clearing of all natural forests remaining in Riau Province, site of ongoing human-elephant 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 incident occur. As an immediate first step, PHKA and WWF will assemble a rapid response team of rangers and domesticated elephants to patrol the conflict areas, modeled after WWF's successful "flying squads" used near the new Tesso Nilo National Park. "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." "All conversion of natural forests has to stop immediately," said Susmianto. "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." http://www.ekon.go.id/v2/content/view/295/2/


KYODO News, Monday March 13, 6:35 PM Int'l conservation body urges Indonesia to stop capturing elephants (Kyodo) _ An international conservation organization called on Indonesia on Monday to stop capturing and translocating homeless Sumatran elephants in a Sumatra province, saying the methods a government agency uses to capture them have caused a high level of deaths among the endangered animals.

WWF said recent captures in Sumatra's Riau Province have caused "a very high incidence of death" as many elephants die during and immediately after the capture process.

Officials of the government-sanctioned Riau Forestry Agency have recently captured homeless elephants and released them in the small Tesso Nilo National Park. The elephants fled their home, Libo forest, which is being destroyed by illegal logging.

Meanwhile, the survivors escape from the national park and raid fields and plantations in nearby villages, worsening the prolonged conflict between human and wild elephants.

"They die during and after the capture because officials of the (government-sanctioned) Riau Forestry Service use bad, careless methods in capturing the elephants," Nazir Foead, WWF-Indonesia species program director, told Kyodo News.

According to Foead, it frequently happens that elephants, who are injured during the capture, do not receive proper medical treatment for their injuries.

"The injuries then get worse and after suffering from the injuries for weeks, possibly months, the elephants die," he said.

"The capture has therefore become a kind of 'death penalty' for the elephants," he added. "Sometimes, it makes some of our colleagues express extreme opinions, like 'why don't we just shoot dead the ailing elephants so they do not have to suffer for months?'" he added.

Foead said the government prefers to focus on capturing homeless elephants, which have conflicts with humans, rather than dealing with the underlying problem of uncontrolled conversion of forests.


"The death rate of elephants during official translocation operation is unacceptable and capturing (the elephants) should be the last resort," Foead said. "If the elephants are captured, WWF demands that an independent observer team be with the capture team at all times."

Meanwhile, he said, to use the Tesso Nilo National Park to accommodate the translocated elephants, the full, 100,000-hectare proposed area has to be declared a national park.

In 1992, the government-run Riau Conservation Agency called for an elephant conservation area in the national park.

So far, however, only a small, 38,000-hectare area has been declared a park because the rest is still controlled by timber companies licensed by the government to use the park until 2020.

"Negotiations are now going on with the companies, hoping they can voluntarily give up their activities before 2020," Foead said.

Riau has lost 57 percent of its forests -- from 6.4 million to 2.7 million hectares -- over the past 23 years, mostly because of illegal logging. The province has also lost half of its elephant population in the last seven years with the remaining population numbering only about 350.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060313/kyodo/d8gaklv0j.html

The news was picked up by:

Pick up by Forest org: http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=53797


WWF-UK, Monday 13 March 2006 WWF opposes elephant captures on Sumatra WWF strongly recommends to the Riau Forestry Service that it stops capturing and translocating elephants in Riau Province, Sumatra. Recent captures in Riau have had a very high incidence of death as many of the endangered Sumatran elephants die during, and immediately after, the capture process. The translocations cause further problems as surviving elephants are likely to leave the forest where they were released and start raiding surrounding villages. Currently, a herd of up to 51 elephants is lost near the province's Balai Raja village, and has been raiding crops and damaging homes in the village. The elephants have strayed 25km away from their home - the Libo forest - which is being illegally logged at an alarming rate. The government should stop the illegal logging and drive the elephants back to their forest home. However, in December 2005, eight of these elephants were secretly released by Riau Forestry Agency into the very small Tesso Nilo National Park. Within just four weeks, WWF filmed them raiding the fields of nearby Lubuk Kembang Bunga village. "Unfortunately, the government is focusing on the symptom - capturing homeless elephants that come into conflict with people - rather than dealing with the cause - uncontrolled conversion of forests," said Nazir Foead, director of WWF's Species Conservation Programme in Indonesia. Since 1992, the Riau Conservation Office (BKSDA) has been calling for an elephant conservation area to be declared in Tesso Nilo. But so far only a small, 38,000-hectare area has been declared a national park. The park should be increased to a proposed 100,000-hectare area to ensure any translocated elephants can be accommodated. WWF is calling on the Indonesian government to make this a reality and to stop forest conversion, illegal logging and encroachment. Since 2004, WWF has been working with communities surrounding the Tesso Nilo forest to avoid human-elephant conflict. During that time, losses declined by 80 per cent, no houses have been destroyed and no human or elephant lives have been lost. NGOs and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry developed a human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau in 2004 that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred in recent weeks. If the protocol had been followed in Balai Raja, it would have taught communities how to mitigate the conflict without suffering losses and without the need to capture elephants. "Putting elephants into our neighbouring forest cannot be accepted. These elephants will soon attack us. We are not able to clean up the mess of Balai Raja's problem," said Radaimon, leader of a Tesso Nilo Community Forum. http://www.wwf.org.uk/news/n_0000002388.asp


Mar 13 14:04 ANTARA News WWF rejects relocation of Sumatran elephants Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian representative of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has asked Riau province`s Forestry Service not to catch elephants in Balai Raja village, Bengkalis district and relocate them to the Tesso Nilo National Park. In its written statement made available to ANTARA here on Monday, WWF said the alternative way that could be done was that the elephants were moved to the closest location of the Forest Libo Block, which constituted their original habitat. It said that the removal of the elephants to their nearest habitat could be done in cooperation with various relevant parties. Nazir Foead, director of the Species Program of WWF, said that the elephants should be returned to their original habitat. "WWF is concerned over the catching and relocation of the elephants seeing the fact in the past about 85 percent of caught and relocated elephants since 2000 died. Those who stayed alive would go on rampant in the nearest human settlement," he said. He cited as an example a case that happened in 2005 when eight elephants were caught secretly and were moved to the Tesson Nilo National Park. Four weeks later, the wild elephants came out of the park and attacked Lubuk Kembang Bunga village, the nearest human settlement. Chairman of the Tesson Nilo Community Forum, Radaimon also voiced rejection of the relocation of the elephants to the park because the local people feared their village would be attacked by the animal. Nazir said that catching the elephants should be the last choice and it should be done only after a comprehensive study to look into it had been carried out. He said that if the elephants were to be caught, WWF would demand the assignment of a monitoring team composing of various representatives such as veterinarian and elephant experts from abroad and at home. The Natural Resource Conservation Office (BHSD) has proposed that the Tesso Nilo area should be set as an elephant conservation park. The government has set only a small part (38,000 hectares) of it, however. The WWF hoped it would be extended to 100,000 hectares. Over the last 23 years, the forest cover of Riau has been depleted by 57 percent from 6.4 million hectares to 2.7 million hectares, most which were caused by illegal commercial conversion. In the meantime, the elephant population has also decreased over the past seven years by 50 percent from 700 in 1999 to 350 at present.(*)


Mar 15 14:25, ANTARA News Wildlife crime unit concerned about elephants killing in Riau Bandar Lampung, (ANTARA News) - The Wildlife Crime Unit (WCU) has expressed concern about the killing of elephants in Riau Province recently. "It`s true that the killing happened in Riau, but we are worried that it might also occur in Lampung Province," Lampung WCU Coordinator Dwi Nugroho said here on Wednesday (3/15). Therefore, WCU kept on encouraging the improvement of national park and protected forest area management to protect the wildlife in Lampung forests, he said. Few years ago, several elephants were found dead in Lampung for unknown reasons. "They could be killed, but no one knew," Dwi said. Conflicts between elephants and local residents were also reported in Lampung in the past few years. Wild elephants reportedly came out from their habitats in the Way Kambas National Park (TNWK), East Lampung and the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (TNBBS) in West Lampung and Tanggamus in the last few years. The big animals hurt local people and damaged plantation and human settlements located surrounding the forest areas. "We very much hope that the killing of elephants in Riau, believed to be poisoned by poachers wanting to get the elephants` tusks, will never happen in Lampung," the WCU staff said.(*)


March 23, 2006, WWF Indonesia Press Release Elephants made homeless on Indonesian island of Sumatra Jakarta, Indonesia – WWF, the global conservation organization, has discovered that ten endangered wild Sumatran elephants are being kept chained to trees without enough food or water in central Riau in Indonesia, having been made homeless by the complete destruction of their forest. The elephants were raiding crops and a nearby village before being captured by local authorities over ten days ago.

The ten elephants are part of a herd of between 17 and 51 in Riau's Bengkalis District. The Riau government said it wanted to capture and translocate all of the elephants to the newly designated Tesso Nilo National Park.

“These ten elephants are the latest casualties in the escalating human-elephant conflict in central Sumatra, the direct result of uncontrolled destruction of their forest habitat,” said Nazir Foead, Head of WWF Indonesia’s Species Programme. “Elephants need room to live in Riau, which means ending problematic pulp and oil palm development.”

Currently, only 38,000ha of the Tesso Nilo National Park have been protected out of a proposed 100,000ha. The entire area must be protected before it can possibly be discussed as a feasible location for the captured elephants, WWF says. “What we are seeing here is the result of inaction and ineptitude,” said Foead. “The local government has not implemented the Riau Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation Protocol agreed upon in 2004, nor has it committed to stop zoning elephant forest habitat for conversion. Illegal logging and encroachment is even rife in those areas that are officially protected.” Six elephants were recently found dead in an oil palm plantation at the border of Riau and north Sumatra, apparently poisoned in retaliation for raiding crops. Faced with rapidly shrinking habitat and continual conflict with local people, Riau's elephant population has been reduced from an estimated 700 in 1999 to no more than 350 individuals. This case of human-elephant conflict appears to be a direct result of forest clearing in Riau's Libo Forest, one of the few remaining retreats of the Sumatran elephant in central Sumatra. Libo is rapidly being converted into oil palm and pulp wood plantations, fields and settlements, often without the necessary licenses. The Balai Raja Wildlife Sanctuary, within the Libo forest block, contained about 16,000ha of forest when it was declared in 1986. Today, only 260ha of forest cover remain. A multinational paper company, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), uses timber cleared in Libo for its Riau mills. WWF is urging the Riau government to immediately stop all forest conversion, illegal logging and encroachment . WWF is also calling on Riau authorities to provide immediate food, water and medical treatment to the ten elephants in their custody. “Riau authorities do not have a professional team to provide proper care to the elephants,” said Foead. “A new, more competent team, for


example from Lampung, in southern Sumatra, should be brought in. We will be ready to help them.”

For further information: Desmarita Murni, Species Communications Officer, WWF Indonesia, cell +62 811 793458

Nazir Foead, Head of WWF Indonesia’s Species Programme, cell +62 811 977 604 (currently in Brazil for the Convention on Biological Diversity)

EDITORS NOTES: 1. In 2004, NGOs and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry developed a

human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred in recent weeks. If the protocol had been in place, it would have taught communities how to mitigate human elephant conflict without suffering losses and without the need to capture elephants.

2. Since 2004, WWF has worked with Riau BKSDA (Riau Province's Natural

Resource Conservation Agency) and the communities surrounding the Tesso Nilo forest to avoid losses from raiding elephants. During that time, losses declined dramatically, no houses have been destroyed and there have been no loss of human or elephant lives. WWF and BKSDA use a so-called “Flying Squad” which 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. 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$1,740) to around 1 million Rupiah (US$109) per month on average.

3. Riau has lost 57 percent of its forests from 6.4 million hectares to

2.7 million hectares – over the past 23 years, many of them through illegal conversion. Riau has lost half of its elephant population between 1999 and 2003 with possibly 350 elephants remaining. Protected areas for elephants like in Mahato and Balai Raja have been almost completely cleared illegally with no action by the local authorities to stop it. WWF calls on the government to immediately stop all forest conversions in Riau.

4. Elephant Poisonings: Results from necropsies of the apparently

poisoned elephants have been inconclusive, the carcasses from which the samples were taken had been too old. The six dead elephants lay within meters of each other and included three adult females, two adult males (both of which were found with their tusks removed) and one male calf. The group 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 protection forest in 1994. In the same general area 17 elephants had been poisoned in June 2002.


5. http://www.wwf.or.id/tessonilo/Default.php?ID=926 6. www.eyesontheforest.or.id AFP, Fri Mar 24, 6:26 AM ET Wild elephants suffering in Indonesia's Sumatra: WWF

JAKARTA (AFP) - Ten endangered wild elephants are being kept chained to trees without enough food or water on Indonesia's Sumatra island, the WWF global conservation group warned.

The Sumatra elephants were caught by authorities in Riau province after they raided crops and a village earlier this month. They were made homeless due to the destruction of forests, WWF said Friday.

"These 10 elephants are the latest casualties in the escalating human-elephant conflict in central Sumatra, the direct result of uncontrolled destruction of their forest habitat," said Nazir Foead of WWF Indonesia.

"Elephants need room to live in Riau, which means ending problematic pulp and oil palm development," he said in the statement.

The 10 elephants, captured 10 days ago, belong to a herd of up to 51 roaming in Riau's Bengkalis district. The nearby Libo forest is rapidly being converted into oil palm and pulp wood plantations, WWF said.

Six elephants were recently found dead in an oil palm plantation at the border of Riau and north Sumatra, apparently poisoned in retaliation for raiding crops.

Located along the eastern edge of central Sumatra, Riau was home to some 1,000 to 1,600 elephants in 1985, 700 in 1999 and 350 to 400 today.


March 24, 2006, Highlight. www.wwf.or.id After Being Captured Secretly: Ten Elephants Chained to Trees Without Food and Water WWF has just discovered that ten endangered wild Sumatran elephants are being kept chained to trees without food or water in Riau Province in Indonesia after they were secretly captured by Riau Forestry Service ten days ago. The ten elephants are part of a herd of between 17 and 51 in Riau's Balai Raja of Bengkalis District. The elephants were raiding crops in the nearby village before being captured by local authorities. When first found on Tuesday (March 21), the elephants are in bad condition. No food, no water, and all were chained tightly to the trees, they cannot even sit or lay down. All of them have abses - most likely infected - from dart; 3 of them have swollen legs because of untreated wound from chain; one mother is critical because of infected wound on her stomach. No one from the captured team of Riau Forestry Service or BKSDA is around. As immediate action to save the 10 captured elephants, WWF have voluntarily provided food, water and vitamin to the sick and wounded elephants. WWF have also facilitated a veterinary to provide first aid and continue monitor the condition of the elephant and provide necessary treatment and care. WWF is calling on Riau authorities to stop all further captures and provide immediate food, water and full medical treatment to the 10 elephants in their custody. None of this captured elephants can be released or relocated until they are healthy. WWF is also urging the Riau government to immediately stop all illegal logging, encroachment and conversion of forest in Riau to oil palm and pulp plantations. Forest conversion in Riau is the root causes of ongoing human elephant conflict. Relevant pictures can be found at : http://www.wwf.or.id/index.php?fuseaction=news.detail&id=NWS1143177522&language=e PANDA.Org, 23 Mar 2006 Elephants made homeless on Indonesian island of Sumatra Gland, Switzerland – WWF has discovered that ten endangered wild Sumatran elephants are being kept chained to trees without enough food or water in central Riau in Indonesia, having been made homeless by the complete destruction of their forest. The elephants were raiding crops and threatening a nearby village before being captured by local authorities ten days ago. The ten elephants are part of a herd of between 17 and 51 in Riau's Bengkalis District. The Riau government said it wanted to capture and translocate all of the elephants to the newly designated Tesso Nilo National Park. “These ten elephants are the latest casualties in the escalating human-elephant conflict in central Sumatra, the direct result of uncontrolled destruction of their forest habitat,” said Nazir Foead, Head of WWF Indonesia’s Species Programme. “These elephants need room to live, which means ending problematic pulp and oil palm development. In the short term, they should get a suitable location.”


Currently, only 38,000ha of the Tesso Nilo National Park have been protected out of a proposed 100,000ha. The entire area must be protected before it can be considered as a feasible location for the captured elephants, WWF says. “What we are seeing here is the result of inaction and ineptitude,” said Foead. “The local government has not implemented the Riau Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation Protocol agreed upon in 2004, nor has it committed to stop zoning elephant forest habitat for conversion. Illegal logging and encroachment is even rife in those areas that are officially protected.” Six elephants were recently found dead in an oil palm plantation at the border of Riau and north Sumatra, apparently poisoned in retaliation for raiding crops. Faced with rapidly shrinking habitat and continual conflict with local people, Riau's elephant population has been reduced from an estimated 700 to 350 individuals in the last seven years. This case of human-elephant conflict appears to be a direct result of forest clearing in Riau's Libo Forest, one 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. The Balai Raja Wildlife Sanctuary, within the Libo forest block, contained about 16,000ha of forest when it was declared in 1986. Today, only 260ha of forest cover remain. A multinational paper company, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), uses timber cleared in Libo for its Riau mills. WWF is urging the Riau government to immediately stop all illegal logging, encroachment and conversion of forest in Riau to oil palm and pulp plantations. WWF is also calling on Riau authorities to provide immediate food, water and medical treatment to the ten elephants in their custody. “Riau authorities do not have a professional team to provide proper care to the elephants,” said Foead. “A new, more competent team, for example from Lampung, in southern Sumatra, should be brought in. We will be ready to help them.” END NOTES: • In 2004, NGOs and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry developed a human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred in recent weeks. If the protocol had been in place, it would have taught communities how to mitigate human elephant conflict without suffering losses and without the need to capture elephants. • Since 2004, WWF has worked with Riau BKSDA (Riau Province's Natural Resource Conservation Agency) and the communities surrounding the Tesso Nilo forest to avoid losses from raiding elephants. During that time, losses declined dramatically, no houses have been destroyed and there have been no loss of human or elephant lives. • Riau has lost 57 percent of its forests from 6.4 million hectares to 2.7 million hectares – over the past 23 years, many of them through


illegal conversion. Riau has lost half of its elephant population in the last seven years, with the remaining population numbering only about 350. Protected areas for elephants like in Mahato and Balai Raja have been almost completely cleared illegally with no action by the local authority to stop it. WWF calls on the government to immediately stop all forest conversions in Riau. • Elephant Poisonings: Results from necropsies 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 protection forest in 1994. • Crop-raiding Herd: Members of Riau BKSDA 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 on Tuesday. • Flying Squads: As a first, immediate action, PHKA and WWF agreed to assemble a highly mobile quick response team fashioned after the Tesso Nilo Flying Squad that will support the affected communities in case of future raids and patrol the conflict areas. The flying squad approach has been implemented in the buffer zone of Tesso Nilo National Park. A 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. 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$1,740) to around 1 million Rupiah (US$109) per month on average. For further information: Desmarita Murni, Species Communications Officer WWF-Indonesia Tel: +62 811 793458 Nazir Foead, Head, Species Programme WWF-Indonesia Tel: +62 811 977 604 Olivier van Bogaert, Senior Press Officer WWF International Tel: +41 79 477 35 72 http://panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/species/index.cfm?uNewsID=64520


Deutsche Presse-Agentur Elephants found chained in forest on Sumatra Mar 24, 2006, 10:54 GMT

Jakarta - Ten endangered Sumatran elephants were found chained to trees without food or water in central Riau in Indonesia after their forest habitat was destroyed, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said Friday.

The elephants were raiding crops at a nearby village before being captured by local authorities more than 10 days ago, a WWF statement said.

'These 10 elephants are the latest casualties in the escalating human-elephant conflict in central Sumatra, the direct result of uncontrolled destruction of their forest habitat,' said Nazir Foead, head of WWF Indonesia's Species Programme.

Over the past 23 years, Riau's forests have declined from 6.4 million hectares to 2.7 million hectares, primarily because of illegal logging or clearing for farming. From 1999 to 2003, Riau also lost an estimated 50 per cent of its elephant population with possibly only 350 elephants remaining.

Earlier this month, six wild Sumatran elephants found dead with blackened mouths on the jungle floor of Mahato in Riau province were believed to have been poisoned. In the same general area, 17 elephants were poisoned in June 2002, and six wild elephants were killed by poison in the province in 2004.

Continuous conflicts between the wild beasts and villagers over territory in the jungle have often been cited as the cause of the elephants' frequent rampages that damage houses and kill villagers in some districts in Riau province.

The WWF said Friday that it was providing food and water to the elephants found chained Tuesday and dispatched a veterinarian to treat their wounds, including sores from their chains.

Environmentalists and conservation officials have said that farms and villages are often built on paths used by elephants, and, because of destruction of their habitat, elephants now pose a threat to humans.

According to Sumatran environmentalists, about 4,000 wild elephants roam Sumatra, the only island in Indonesia where they can still be found in the wild. They are listed as an endangered species and protected by law.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur The Jakarta Post, March 25, 2006 Illegal logging threatens elephants in Riau

National News - Bambang Parlupi, Contributor, Riau


The Sumatran elephant continues to inch toward extinction as unchecked human encroachment and illegal logging destroys its natural habitat at an alarming rate.

Only about 2,000 elephants can be found in protected wilderness zones extending from Lampung to Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, including the Way Kambas, Bukit Barisan Selatan, Kerinci Seblat, Bukit Tiga Puluh and Mt. Leuser national parks.

About 100 elephants live in the Tesso Nillo National Park in Riau, but there are questions about how long this small population can be sustained as the forest is lost to oil palm plantations, pulp and paper companies, illegal logging and human settlements.

Over the last 20 years, 182,140 hectares of forest have been lost in Riau. Now, the latest data shows the province only has 650,000 hectares forest left.

While authorities have announced a crackdown on illegal logging in the province, there has been little progress in stopping the crime, partly due to the lack of coordination between the provincial team heading the operation and local administrations.

Riau Governor Rusli Zainal said recently his administration was committed to fighting illegal logging, but admitted "the lack of coordination is a constraint".

He said he issued a regulation, dated Oct. 21, 2005, urging all regents and mayors to establish illegal logging eradication teams.

However, Riau Police chief Brig. Gen. Ito Sumadi said the regulation was vague concerning what actions to take against the financiers of illegal logging operations.

"The links between those cutting down the trees in the forest, the coordinators, financiers and implicated officials remain vague because they refuse to give evidence against each other," he said.

As habitat is destroyed, the home range and food sources of elephants are reduced. The opening of oil palm plantations in particular has led to inevitable conflicts between people and elephants.

According to the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Indonesia, quoting a WWF newsletter from December 2005, at least 15 people in Riau have been killed by elephants since 2000, and 160 elephants have been seized or killed.

Under normal conditions, the wild elephants have a home range of 165 square kilometers in a primary forest and 60 square kilometers in a secondary forest. However, as the forests in Riau have been fragmented by human activity, herds of elephants have become trapped in "islands" of forest, forcing them to migrate with the changing seasons in search of food.


To reduce human-elephant conflicts resulting from forest reclamation in Riau, WWF-Indonesia has turned Tesso Nillo into an elephant protection and conservation zone.

Covering 188,000 hectares, Tesso Nillo is one of the world's most diverse locations in terms of vegetation, with 218 plant species on every plot of 200 square meters.

Apart from elephants, WWF-Indonesia's camera traps have since 2004 spotted a number of other endangered animals in Tesso Nillo, including Sumatran tigers, tapirs, bears, wild cats and primates.

The effort to turn Tesso Nillo into an elephant conservation zone dates back to 1984. Yet, in 2004 the Forestry Ministry announced that only 38,576 hectares of Tesso Nillo's forests would be set aside as protected national park. As a result, Tesso Nillo remains under threat from illegal logging and reclamation.

One of the more innovative methods for protecting nature is to use the skills of trained animals.

WWF-Indonesia, for instance, has set up a team called the flying elephant squad to help prevent conflicts between people and wild elephants. The work of this special squad involve residents, the local administration and forest concessionaires around the Tesso Nillo National Park.

The squad itself comprises trained elephants and their handlers, who drive off wild elephants that enter plantations and farm land.

The program began April 24, 2004, with a squad of four elephants and eight professional drivers in Lubuk Kembang Bungan village, a settlement that directly borders the national park.

During the six-month operation, wild elephants encroached on plantations around the village no less than 44 times. The WWF calculated the losses incurred by residents due to the encroachments were reduced by 95 percent because of the operation.

An earlier WWF-Indonesia survey indicated three villages near Tesso Nillo sustained Rp 2 billion (about US$216,216) in material losses from 2000 to July 2003 because of wild elephants. But since the flying elephant patrols began in the area, 164.5 hectares of land have been replanted with oil palm and rubber trees.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20060325.D02


March 24, 2006, WWF US Press Release Indonesian Government Ignores Own Rules, Places Endangered Elephants in Peril WWF researchers have discovered that ten endangered wild Sumatran elephants are being kept chained to trees without enough food or water in the Riau Province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra in violation of an agreement the government signed in 2004 known as the Riau Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation Protocol. The elephants have been made homeless by the destruction of the forest they inhabited. Government authorities captured the elephants ten days ago after they raided crops and terrorized residents of a nearby village.

“In order to keep elephants from damaging property and raiding crops they must have space to live,” said Sybille Klenzendorf, lead biologist of WWF’s Species Conservation Program. “This means immediately halting the destruction of Riau’s forest habitat by loggers and developers of oil palm plantations.”

The ten elephants are part of a herd of between 17 and 51 in the Bengkalis District of Riau Province. The Riau government said it wanted to capture and translocate all of the homeless elephants to the newly designated Tesso Nilo National Park in the center of the province. Currently, only about 94,000 acres of the Tesso Nilo National Park have been protected out of a proposed 247,000 acres. The entire area must be protected before it can be considered as a feasible location for the captured elephants, Klenzendorf said.

“What we are seeing here is the result of inaction and ineptitude,” said Nazir Foead, Head of WWF-Indonesia’s Species Program. “The local government has not implemented the Riau Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation Protocol agreed upon in 2004, nor has it committed to stop zoning elephant forest habitat for conversion. Illegal logging and encroachment is even rife in those areas that are officially protected.”

Another six elephants were recently found dead in an oil palm plantation in Bengkalis District, apparently poisoned in retaliation for raiding crops. Faced with rapidly shrinking habitat and continual conflict with local people, Riau’s elephant population has been reduced from an estimated 700 to 350 individuals in the last seven years.

These cases of human-elephant conflict appear to be a direct result of forest clearing in Riau’s Libo Forest, one 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. The Balai Raja Wildlife Sanctuary, within the Libo forest block, contained about 39,000 acres of forest when it was declared in 1986. Today, only about 650 acres of forest cover remain. A multinational paper company, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), uses timber cleared in Libo for its Riau mills.


WWF is urging the Riau government to immediately stop all illegal logging, encroachment into the forest by settlers and conversion of forest in Riau to oil palm and pulp plantations. WWF is also calling on Riau authorities to provide immediate food, water and medical treatment to the ten elephants in their custody and immediately implement the Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation Protocol agreed upon in 2004.

“Riau authorities do not have a professional team to provide proper care to the elephants,” continued Foead. “A new, more competent team, for example from Lampung, in southern Sumatra, should be brought in. We are ready to help them.”

World Wildlife Fund is the largest conservation organization in the world. For 45 years, WWF has worked to save endangered species, protect endangered habitats, and address global threats such as deforestation, overfishing, and climate change. Known worldwide by its panda logo, WWF works in 100 countries on more than 2,000 conservation programs. WWF has 1.2 million members in the United States and nearly 5 million

supporters worldwide. For more information on WWF, visit www.worldwildlife.org.

For further information: Tom Lalley, Communications Officer, WWF-U.S., (202) 778-9544

Nazir Foead, Head of WWF Indonesia’s Species Programme, cell +62 811 977 604 (currently in Brazil for the Convention on Biological Diversity)

Olivier van Bogaert, Senior Press Officer, WWF International, cell +41 79 477 35 72 (currently in Brazil for the Convention on Biological Diversity)

EDITORS NOTES:

1. In 2004, NGOs and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry developed a human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred in recent weeks. If the protocol had been in place, it would have taught communities how to mitigate human elephant conflict without suffering losses and without the need to capture elephants.

2. Since 2004, WWF has worked with Riau BKSDA (Riau Province's Natural Resource Conservation Agency) and the communities surrounding the Tesso Nilo forest to avoid losses from raiding elephants. During that time, losses declined dramatically, no houses have been destroyed and there have been no loss of human or elephant lives.

3. Riau has lost 57 percent of its forests from about 15 million acres to 6.7 million acres -– over the past 23 years, many of them through illegal conversion. Riau has lost half of its elephant population in the last seven years, with the remaining population numbering only


about 350. Protected areas for elephants like in Mahato and Balai Raja have been almost completely cleared illegally with no action by the local authority to stop it. WWF calls on the government to immediately stop all forest conversions in Riau.

4. Elephant Poisonings: Results from necropsies of the apparently poisoned elephants are being analyzed. 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 half a mile from the Mahato Protected Forest, all of which has been converted into settlements and plantations since being declared a protection forest in 1994.

5. Crop-raiding Herd: Members of Riau BKSDA 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 on Tuesday.

6. Flying Squads: As a first, immediate action, PHKA and WWF agreed to assemble a highly mobile quick response team fashioned after the Tesso Nilo Flying Squad that will support the affected communities in case of future raids and patrol the conflict areas. The flying squad approach has been implemented in the buffer zone of Tesso Nilo National Park. A 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. 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$1,740) to around 1 million Rupiah (US$109) per month on average.

___________________________ Tom Lalley Sr. Communications Officer World Wildlife Fund 1250 24th Street, NW Washington, DC 20037-1193 Phone: 202.778.9544 Cell: 202.997.0899 Fax: 202.778.9747 [email protected] www.worldwildlife.org

The release was picked up by: US. News Wire 3/24/2006 4:36:00 PM WWF Says Indonesian Government Ignores Own Rules, Places Endangered Elephants in Peril http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=62916


March 27, 2006, WWF Germany Press Release Elefanten in Ketten WWF: Seit Wochen andauerndes Elefantendrama auf Sumatra spitzt sich zu Fotos zu dieser Meldung können Sie unter www.wwf.de/presse/bilder herunterladen oder telefonisch bei Jenni Glaser, WWF-Pressestelle, Tel. 069/79144-214 anfordern. Erneut machte der WWF auf der indonesischen Insel Sumatra eine grausige Entdeckung: Zehn wild lebende Elefanten - Teil einer bis zu 51 Tiere starken Herde, die seit Wochen die Bevölkerung in Atem hält - wurden vor gut zwei Wochen von den Mitarbeitern der Forstbehörde der Provinz Riau gefangen genommen und in Ketten gelegt. Seither vegetieren sie ohne ausreichende Versorgung mit Nahrung und Wasser an Bäumen angekettet vor sich hin. Die Tiere sollten in Waldgebiete umgesiedelt werden, in denen sie keine Schäden anrichten können. Zuvor hatten die Elefanten nämlich auf der Suche nach Futter Plantagen verwüstet und die Menschen in Angst und Schrecken versetzt. Einer der Elefanten, dessen Füße stark angeschwollen waren, musste sogar mit Antibiotika und Vitaminen behandelt werden. Der Forderung von WWF-Mitarbeitern vor Ort, die Ketten zumindest soweit zu lockern, dass die Tiere keine Schmerzen erdulden müssen, kamen die Behörden bislang nicht nach. Nina Griesshammer vom WWF Deutschland: „Die Elefanten sind unschuldige Opfer der rigorosen Urwaldzerstörung und der eskalierenden Konflikte zwischen den dort lebenden Menschen und Tieren.“ Der WWF fürchtet, dass die stark geschwächten Elefanten bei der geplanten Umsiedlung wegen körperlicher und seelischer Strapazen sterben könnten. Stattdessen sollten sie in ihr ursprüngliches „Zuhause“, den Libo-Wald, zurückgetrieben werden. Dort wütet jedoch die Holz-, Papier- und Palmölindustrie. „Die Holzfäller müssen schnellstmöglich raus aus dem Wald, damit die Elefanten wieder den Anschluss an ihre Herde finden können“, fordert Nina Griesshammer. Bereits Anfang März waren auf einer Plantage in Riau sechs Elefanten vergiftet aufgefunden worden. Offensichtlich hatte jemand versucht, sich die „Störenfriede“ vom Leib zu halten. Weil die Industrie für Holz, Papier und Palmöl den einst flächendeckenden Urwald zu wenigen Wald-Inseln degradierte und den Dschungelbewohnern so ihren Lebensraum raubt, dringen die vom Aussterben bedrohten Sumatra-Elefanten zunehmend in Dörfer und Felder vor. Nach Angaben des WWF ist die Zahl der Elefanten in der Provinz Riau in den letzten sieben Jahren um die Hälfte auf nur noch etwa 350 Tiere gesunken. „Aus Angst vor den hungrigen Elefanten wird Pestizid versprüht und Gift ausgelegt. Dabei sind nicht die Elefanten die Eindringlinge, sondern der Mensch stößt in Gestalt von Holz- und Palmölindustrie in die Urwälder vor und macht den Tieren ihren Platz streitig“, erläutert Nina Griesshammer. Der WWF fordert seit langem, die Vernichtung der Regenwälder auf Sumatra zu stoppen. Um kurzfristig weitere Konflikte zwischen Menschen und Elefanten zu verhindern, empfiehlt der WWF den Einsatz von speziellen Schutzpatrouillen, wie sie bereits seit April 2004 erprobt werden: Im Tesso Nilo Nationalpark gehen einst ebenfalls gefangen genommene Elefanten zusammen mit ausgebildeten Trainern auf Streife. Die wilden Artgenossen werden mit Megaphonen und Schreckschüssen von den Menschen ferngehalten. Weitere Informationen erhalten Sie über www.wwf.de oder bei:


Nina Griesshammer, Fachbereich Wald WWF Deutschland, Tel.: 069/79144194 Jenni Glaser, WWF-Pressestelle, Tel.: 069/79144-214 ANTARA, Mar 27 09:04 WWF asks govt and people to stop wild elephant's capture Jakarta, (ANTARA News) - The World Wildlife Fund For Nature (WWF) Indonesia has called on the Indonesian government and the people not to launch any arrest against wild elephants as one of the solutions in handling human-elephant conflict (HEC), a spokesperson said. The arrest is the last alternative to reduce HEC, Desmarita Murni, WWF`s Species Communication officer said here on Saturday (3/25). She said such an arrest could only be sought after the establishment of the professional catcher team and the independent observer team, the provision of the medical facility and the completion of the strategic plan over the mitigation protocol Of HEC had been implemented. WWF made such a call after it found 10 elephants tied up in the trees on March 21. All the elephants were in a poor condition with injuries due to unprofessional arrests. It predicted that these elephants had been there for 10 days. The elephants were believed to be part of the 17 elephants which entered the Balai Raja resettlement area, Riau province. WWF asked the government to stop all forest conservation activities in the natural habitat of elephant in Riau. It also asked the government to provide medical assistances for these animals.(*) http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=10567 Xinhua News. China, www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-25 13:49:04 Illegal logging threatens elephants in Indonesia JAKARTA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Elephants in Indonesia's Sumatra island continue to inch toward extinction as unchecked human encroachment and illegal logging have destroyed their natural habitat at an alarming rate, local media said here on Saturday.

Only about 2,000 elephants could be found in protected wilderness zones extending from the provinces of Lampung to Aceh, including the Way Kambas, Bukit Barisan Selatan, Kerinci Seblat, Bukit Tiga Puluh and Mount. Leuser national parks, according to the Jakarta Post.

About 100 elephants live in the Tesso Nillo National Park in Riau province in Sumatra island, but there are questions about how long this small population could be sustained as the forest is lost to oil palm


plantations, pulp and paper companies, illegal logging and human settlements, the paper said.

Over the last 20 years, 182,140 hectares of forest have been lost in Riau province. The latest data shows the province only has 650,000 hectares forest left.

While authorities have announced a crackdown on illegal logging in the province, there has been little progress in stopping the crime, partly due to the lack of coordination between the provincial team heading the operation and local administrations, according to the paper.

Riau Governor Rusli Zainal said recently his administration was committed to fighting illegal logging, but admitted that "the lack of coordination is a constraint."

As the habitat is destroyed, the home range and food sources of elephants are reduced.

The opening of oil palm plantations in particular has led to inevitable conflicts between people and elephants, the paper added. Editor: Mu Xuequan

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/25/content_4343905.htm Mar 27, 2006, Elefanten in Ketten WWF: Seit Wochen andauerndes Elefantendrama auf Sumatra spitzt sich zu Frankfurt, 27.03.2006: Erneut machte der WWF auf der indonesischen Insel Sumatra eine grausige Entdeckung: Zehn wild lebende Elefanten - Teil einer bis zu 51 Tiere starken Herde, die seit Wochen die Bevölkerung in Atem hält - wurden vor gut zwei Wochen von den Mitarbeitern der Forstbehörde der Provinz Riau gefangen genommen und in Ketten gelegt. Seither vegetieren sie ohne ausreichende Versorgung mit Nahrung und Wasser an Bäumen angekettet vor sich hin. Die Tiere sollten in Waldgebiete umgesiedelt werden, in denen sie keine Schäden anrichten können. Zuvor hatten die Elefanten nämlich auf der Suche nach Futter Plantagen verwüstet und die Menschen in Angst und Schrecken versetzt. Einer der Elefanten, dessen Füße stark angeschwollen waren, musste sogar mit Antibiotika sind Stoffwechselprodukte von Mikroorganismen, die Bakterien bekämpfen. Ihre Eigenschaften können bakteriostatisch (hemmung der Vermehrung), bakterizid (Tötung)oder bakteriolytisch (Tötung udn Auflösung)sein.


Antibiotika und Vitaminen behandelt werden. Der Forderung von Der World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) ist eine der größten unabhängigen Naturschutzorganisationen der Welt. Der WWF Deutschland wurde 1963 gegründetWWF-Mitarbeitern vor Ort, die Ketten zumindest soweit zu lockern, dass die Tiere keine Schmerzen erdulden müssen, kamen die Behörden bislang nicht nach. Nina Griesshammer vom WWF Deutschland: „Die Elefanten sind unschuldige Opfer der rigorosen Urwaldzerstörung und der eskalierenden Konflikte zwischen den dort lebenden Menschen und Tieren.“ Der WWF fürchtet, dass die stark geschwächten Elefanten bei der geplanten Umsiedlung wegen körperlicher und seelischer Strapazen sterben könnten. Stattdessen sollten sie in ihr ursprüngliches „Zuhause“, den Libo-Wald, zurückgetrieben werden. Dort wütet jedoch die Holz ist das Zellgewebe von Bäumen. Es besteht zum größten Teil aus Zellulose und zelluloseähnlichen Stoffen. Holz-, P. kann aus Zellstoff, Holzstoff, Alt-P. und Lumpen (Anteil ca. 70 Prozent) bestehen. Füllstoffe sind z.B. Kreide, Bariumsulfat, Titandioxid und Kaolin. Papier- und Palmölindustrie. „Die Holzfäller müssen schnellstmöglich raus aus dem Wald, damit die Elefanten wieder den Anschluss an ihre Herde finden können“, fordert Nina Griesshammer. Bereits Anfang März waren auf einer Plantage in Riau sechs Elefanten vergiftet aufgefunden worden. Offensichtlich hatte jemand versucht, sich die „Störenfriede“ vom Leib zu halten. Weil die Industrie für Holz, Papier und Palmöl den einst flächendeckenden Urwald zu wenigen Wald-Inseln degradierte und den Dschungelbewohnern so ihren Lebensraum raubt, dringen die vom Aussterben bedrohten Sumatra-Elefanten zunehmend in Dörfer und Felder vor. Nach Angaben des WWF ist die Zahl der Elefanten in der Provinz Riau in den letzten sieben Jahren um die Hälfte auf nur noch etwa 350 Tiere gesunken. "Aus Angst vor den hungrigen Elefanten wird Pestizid versprüht und Gift ausgelegt. Dabei sind nicht die Elefanten die Eindringlinge, sondern der Mensch stößt in Gestalt von Holz ist das Zellgewebe von Bäumen. Es besteht zum größten Teil aus Zellulose und zelluloseähnlichen Stoffen. Holz- und Palmölindustrie in die Urwälder vor und macht den Tieren ihren Platz streitig“, erläutert Nina Griesshammer. Der WWF fordert seit langem, die Vernichtung der Regenwälder auf Sumatra zu stoppen. Um kurzfristig weitere Konflikte zwischen Menschen und Elefanten zu verhindern, empfiehlt der WWF den Einsatz von speziellen Schutzpatrouillen, wie sie bereits seit April 2004 erprobt werden: Im Tesso Nilo N. sind großräumige, mindestens 1.000 ha umfassende Naturlandschaften von besonderer Eigenart, Schönheit oder Seltenheit, in einem möglichst natürlichem, vom Menschen unberührten Zustand.Nationalpark gehen einst ebenfalls gefangen genommene Elefanten zusammen mit ausgebildeten Trainern auf Streife. Die wilden Artgenossen werden mit Megaphonen und Schreckschüssen von den Menschen ferngehalten. Similar news at: http://www.umweltjournal.de/fp/archiv/AFA_umweltnatur/10203.php http://www.businessportal24.com/de/a/21165 http://www.verivox.de/news/ArticleDetails.asp?aid=26286&pm=1 http://www.pressrelations.de/new/standard/result_main.cfm?pfach=1&n_firmanr_=100979&sector=pm&detail=1&r=226712&sid=&aktion=jour_pm&quelle=0


Press Release, WWF-Netherland, 27 Maart 2006 Olifanten Sumatra in het nauw 27 maart 2006 In de provincie Riau op het Indonesische eiland Sumatra zijn tien wilde Sumatraanse olifanten met kettingen aan bomen vastgelegd zonder dat ze voldoende water of voedsel kregen. Het gaat om vijf vrouwtjes en vijf mannetjes, die geen leefgebied meer hebben door de vernietiging van het bos waarin zij leefden. De olifanten waren op zoek gegaan naar voedsel op de akkers van een nabijgelegen dorpje, en zorgden daarbij voor overlast, voordat ze elf dagen geleden door de lokale autoriteiten van Riau gevangen werden genomen. De olifanten maken deel uit van een kudde van tussen de 17 en 51 olifanten in het Bengkalis District van Riau. De overheid van Riau wil alle 51 olifanten vangen en overbrengen naar het nieuwe Tesso Nilo National Park, dat ook in Riau ligt. Het Wereld Natuur Fonds heeft er inmiddels voor gezorgd dat de dieren water en eten krijgen en dat een dierenarts hen verzorgt, maar ze staan nog steeds vast. "Deze tien olifanten zijn de laatste slachtoffers in het escalerende mens-olifant conflict in centraal-Sumatra, dat een direct gevolg is van de ongecontroleerde vernietiging van het bos", zegt Nazir Foead, hoofd van het soortenprogramma van het Wereld Natuur Fonds in Indonesië. "Deze olifanten hebben ruimte nodig om te leven en dat betekent dat er een einde moet komen aan de ongecontroleerde houtkap voor pulp en oliepalm. Voor deze dieren moet op zeer korte termijn een oplossing worden gevonden". De Aziatische olifant op Sumatra is ernstig bedreigd. Naar schatting leven er op het eiland Sumatra nog maar tussen de 2500 en 3350 olifanten in totaal. Op dit moment is slechts 38.000 hectare van het Tesso Nilo National Park beschermd gebied, in plaats van de voorgestelde 100.000 hectare. Het volledige gebied moet beschermd worden, voordat het als een geschikte locatie kan dienen voor de gevangen olifanten, aldus het Wereld Natuur Fonds in Indonesië. Overigens vindt het Wereld Natuur Fonds dat het verplaatsen van olifanten symptoombestrijding is. "De werkelijke oplossing ligt in het zoeken naar een oplossing voor het onderliggende probleem. Er moet een eind komen aan de ongecontroleerde houtkap, waarbij oerbos plaatsmaakt voor eindeloze plantages waar olifanten niet kunnen leven", aldus het Wereld Natuur Fonds. Foead: "De lokale overheid heeft helaas verzuimd het protocol voor de oplossing van het mens-olifant conflict in Riau, dat overeengekomen is in 2004, ten uitvoer te brengen. Men heeft ook niets gedaan om te


voorkomen dat steeds meer leefgebied van de olifanten verloren ging aan de landbouw. Het illegaal kappen van bossen en de aantasting van het leefgebied die daar het gevolg van is, is zelfs gemeengoed in de gebieden die officieel beschermd zijn." Onlangs werden zes olifanten dood gevonden op een oliepalmplantage op de grens van Riau en Noord-Sumatra. Kennelijk waren de dieren vergiftigd als vergelding voor het plunderen van de oogst. Door de snel afnemende natuurlijke leefomgeving en de voortdurende conflicten met de lokale bevolking is de olifantenpopulatie van Riau de afgelopen zeven jaar al teruggelopen van 700 tot naar schatting 350 dieren. Het Wereld Natuur Fonds heeft er bij de autoriteiten van Riau op aangedrongen om een eind te maken aan de vernietiging van bossen. De natuurbeschermingsorganisatie roept daarnaast de autoriteiten van Riau op om direct te zorgen voor voldoende voedsel, water en medische zorg voor de tien olifanten die gevangen worden gehouden. Bron: www.wnf.nl http://www.llink.nl/Nieuws_LLiNK.101.0.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1185&tx_ttnews[backPid]=389&cHash=2dff7f2a8b Terug naar overzicht The Daily Jakarta Shimbun, 27 March 2006 Elephants Chained for "Raiding Crops" Bengkalis District, Riau Province-- WWF Indonesia found that 10 elephants were chained to trees, suffering and unable to move after they were caught by Riau Forest Service 10 days ago for raiding crops in nearby Balai Raja Village, Bengkalis District, Riau= Photo (Provided by WWF). At the time of finding, the elephants were debilitated because they had not been given water or food. There were countless number of darts on their bodies. WWF staff who found them gave them water and food, as well as emergency treatment for them. WWF strongly urges the Provincial Authority to stop capturing elephants and provide the captured ones food and water and give proper medical treatment to the injured animals.

************* 4 April 2006. Media Advisory, WWF-International Urgent action needed to prevent possible extinction of Sumatran elephants in Riau, Indonesia - WWF The Issue: Sumatran elephants in Riau, Indonesia have declined by nearly 75 percent over the past eleven years. Without improved management, it is likely they could face extinction in another five years. Currently there are approximately 400 Sumatran elephants in Riau.


A state of the art new interactive mapping tool launched today by WWF and Eyes on the Forest shows every human and elephant death and capture in Riau, overlaid with data on elephant populations and forest clearance. See http://eyesontheforest.or.id/eofnew/ele_map_announcement.php. The main causes of population decline are: 1. Rampant destruction of elephant habitat through the, often illegal,

logging and uncontrolled conversion of forests into oil palm and pulp plantations.

2. This conversion has been creating massive conflict between humans and elephants as elephants are forced to feed on the crops that replaced their natural foods. Elephants are poisoned and shot in retaliation or die when captured by the Government

3. The incompetent handling of wild elephant captures and release. The Evidence: • A WWF investigation has found that since 2000, 45 elephants have

died in Riau from poisoning or shooting with home-made guns, and sixteen people have died in elephant encounters.

• An additional 201 elephants were captured by the government to mitigate conflict. Forty-five of those (22 per cent) died as a result of the captures.

• An additional 102 elephants disappeared without a trace after capture, and WWF teams found no evidence of them in camps or zoos. They may have also died though their death was never revealed. Evidence gathered by WWF indicates this may well be the case.

• If all 102 ‘missing’ elephants had died, capture mortality in Riau may have reached 73 per cent.

• Forty-one elephants (20 per cent) were, often secretly, released somewhere in Riau’s forests. WWF teams traced all available information and calculated this number through interviews with local residents.

• In December 2005, the capture teams apparently released 11 elephants in the Tesso Nilo forest. On 7 February 2006, three elephant skeletons were found in the forests near Tesso Nilo National Park with the marks where they had been chained to trees clearly visible (photos available). An elephant with a chain still tied around its neck was found in a shallow grave near a government facility (photos available).

The Solution: This current crisis where humans and elephants are dying is unnecessary. “WWF’s and Riau Forest Rescue network ‘Jikalahari’s’ work in one area of Riau – the 3-million hectare Tesso Nilo landscape – has succeeded in reducing the rate of forest loss from the Riau province's average of 4 to 0.8 per cent per year, with no elephant deaths having been recorded since 2001,” said Nazir Foead, WWF-Indonesia’s Director of Policy and Corporate Engagement.


WWF, with PHKA (Indonesian Directorate of Nature and Forest Conservation), has also introduced so called ‘flying squads’ to minimize conflicts between wild elephants and humans in the buffer zone of Tesso Nilo National Park. A squad consists of four rangers with noise/light-making devices, a pick-up truck and trained elephants who drive wild elephants back into the forest whenever they threaten to enter villages (photos/footage available). “This has been proven to be very effective to reduce losses suffered by local communities near Tesso Nilo,” said Nazir. 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$1,740) 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, a staging area for Tesso Nilo’s first flying squad. Future Steps This success needs to be replicated across the rest of the province if both elephants and local people are to have a future in Riau. The current crisis demonstrates the need to extend the existing Tesso Nilo National Park immediately from 38,000 hectares to at least 100,000 hectares to provide habitat. Extension of, and applying good management in, Bukit Tigapuluh National Park and Rimbang Baling Game Reserve will provide further elephant habitat. Although there is a human-wildlife conflict mitigation protocol signed by both WWF and the Riau government - it currently remains on the shelf. If this had been implemented when it was first written in 2004, several tens of human and elephant deaths could have been prevented. WWF has also developed best management practices for mitigating human-elephant conflict in and around oil palm plantations. These will be fed into the local implementation of the principles and criteria for responsible production of palm oil which were recently adopted by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. The Roundtable consists of oil palm industry players, financial institutions, environmental and social NGOs, among others. The Broader Context This escalating situation not only spells disaster for elephants, but is also a huge problem for Riau’s local people. Continued rampant forest destruction will result in increased flooding and more conflicts with elephants.


According to a report by Greenomics (2005), the Riau government already spends US$10 million per year to mitigate floods as a result of deforestation. In 2001, WWF calculated that a proposal to convert 1.5 million ha of forests would result in damage to farmland and property from elephants, equivalent to 90 per cent of Riau’s provincial budget. All the evidence demonstrates that it is not in the economic interests of Riau and its people to allow any further destruction of Riau’s forest. For example, a preliminary study commissioned by WWF in 2003 identified over 400,000ha of potential wastelands in Riau. WWF strongly recommends that government and plantation industries verify this result and use available wastelands for oil palm or industrial timber plantation development. This situation also shows the needs for stakeholders to work together to develop a spatial plan that ensures the balance between environment and economic development. This should incorporate protection and restoration of elephant habitat. Notes • The state of the art mapping tool launched by ‘Eyes of the Forest’,

a coalition of NGOs, including WWF, today shows for the first time how as the forest has disappeared from Riau, the elephant populations have shrunk and maps each human and elephant death and capture that has occurred in the province. The website also shows how Riau’s remaining forest blocks are increasingly given over to timber concessions and oil palm plantations. http://maps.eyesontheforest.or.id/Home/index.html

• One map shows the full chain of custody of timber logged from elephant habitat. http://www.eyesontheforest.or.id/eofnew/Elephant_Conflict_inLiboBlock.php.

• In March 2006, WWF found six elephants dead in the jungles of Mahato, Riau, apparently poisoned (photos available.)

• Riau’s elephant population dramatically declined from around 1067-1617 in 11 distinct ranges in 1985 to around 709 in 16 ranges in 1999 and around 353-431 in 15 ranges in 2003.

• There have only been three reported elephant deaths directly linked to poaching between 2000 and 2006. However, many poisoned elephants and most captured elephants have had their ivory removed without any information on where the ivory has gone - either stored in government vaults or traded.

• Photos available of the elephant skeletons, poisoned elephants, elephant damage to crops and villages, large scale destruction of elephant habitat, and elephant “flying squads” in action. Please see http://www.wwf.or.id/tessonilo/Default.php?ID=926 for a sample. High resolution versions available from WWF on request.

• Video footage of elephants in Tesso Nilo National Park and Mpegs of “flying squads” in action available on request.

Contacts:


Desmarita Murni, Species Communications Officer, WWF-Indonesia, mobile +62 811 793458 Soh Koon Chng, Communications Manager, Forest for Life Programme, WWF Int'l, tel +41 22 364 9018 Joanna Benn, Communications Manager, Global Species Programme, WWF Int'l, mobile +39 348 726 7313 Brian Thomson, Press Officer, WWF Int'l, Tel +41-22 364 9562 Internal News picked up: http://www.wwf-uk.org/news/n_0000002454.asp http://www.forestandtradeasia.org/posting/Indonesia/English/550/ Associated Press, April 5, 2006 By Michael Casey – Environmental Writer Elephant population drops by 75% in Indonesia’s Riau province: WWF

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP): The number of endangered Sumatran elephants in parts of Indonesia has dropped by 75 percent in the past six years, raising the possibility they could become extinct in the near future, an environmental group said Wednesday.

WWF Indonesia said in a report that the decline in Riau province - on island of Sumatra- is mostly due to the rapid conversion of forest habitat into palm oil and paper plantations.

As a result, conflicts between humans and elephants have risen, with 45 elephants either shot or poisoned since 2000 and 16 people killed by the jumbo beasts, the group said.

Hundreds more elephants were captured and removed from forest areas, often dying in captivity, WWF, also known as World Wildlife Fund, said. The remaining populations number less than 400 in Riau, down from 709 in 1999, it said.

"This escalating situation not only spells disaster for elephants, but is also a huge problem for Riau's local people," WWF said in a statement. "Without improved management, it islikely (the elephants) could face extinction in another five years."

WWF called on the Indonesian government to triple the size of the Tesso Nilo National Park to 100,000 hectares (247,100 acres) while increasing the numbers of teams - known as Tesso Nilo Flying Squad - which help avert conflicts between elephants and humans. Currently, there is one team working in Riau and another three are planned.

A squad consists of four rangers with noise and light-making devices, a pickup truck and trained elephants who drive wild elephants back into the forest if they threaten to enter a village.

"This has been proven to be very effective to reduce losses suffered by local communities near Tesso Nilo," Nazir Foead, WWF-Indonesia's Director of Policy and Corporate Engagement, said in a statement.


Meanwhile, a coalition of Indonesian non-governmental organizations know as Eyes of the Forest launched a feature on its Web site Wednesday that allows viewers to track elephant and human deaths, the loss of forest cover in Riau and the movementof the 16 elephant herds living there.

It said the aim of the mapping service is to put pressure on the government to limit the expansion of plantations in the province by exposing the levels of destruction.

On the Net: http://eyesontheforest.or.id/eofnew/ele_map_announcement.php

Similar news has been picked up by: The Jakarta Post (Online), April 5, 2006 Elephant population drops by 75% in Riau Province http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060405172550&irec=0 Pravda News Agency (Rusia), April 5, 2006 Elephant population drops by 75 percent in Indonesia http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/05-04-2006/78369-Elephant%20population-0 Elephant population drops by 75 percent in Indonesia

The number of endangered Sumatran elephants in parts of Indonesia has dropped by 75 percent in the past six years, raising the possibility they could become extinct in the near future, an environmental group said Wednesday. WWF Indonesia said in a report that the decline in Riau province on Indonesia 's largest island of Sumatra is mostly due to the rapid conversion of forest habitat into palm oil and paper plantations. As a result, conflicts between humans and elephants have risen, with 45 elephants either shot or poisoned since 2000 and 16 people killed by the jumbo beasts, the group said.

Hundreds more elephants were captured and removed from forest areas, often dying in captivity, WWF, also known as World Wildlife Fund, said. The remaining populations number less than 400 in Riau, down from 709 in 1999, it said. "This escalating situation not only spells disaster for elephants, but is also a huge problem for Riau's local people," WWF said in a statement. "Without improved management, it is likely (the elephants) could face extinction in another five years."

WWF called on the Indonesian government to triple the size of the Tesso Nilo National Park to 100,000 hectares (247,100 acres) while increasing the numbers of teams known as Tesso Nilo Flying Squad which help avert conflicts between elephants and humans. Currently, there is one team working in Riau and another three are planned. A squad consists of four rangers with noise and light-making devices, a pickup truck and trained elephants who drive wild elephants back into the forest if they threaten to enter a village.

"This has been proven to be very effective to reduce losses suffered by local communities near Tesso Nilo," Nazir Foead, WWF-Indonesia's


Director of Policy and Corporate Engagement, said in a statement. Meanwhile, a coalition of Indonesian non-governmental organizations know as Eyes of the Forest launched a feature on its Web site Wednesday that allows viewers to track elephant and human deaths, the loss of forest cover in Riau and the movement of the 16 elephant herds living there. It said the aim of the mapping service is to put pressure on the government to limit the expansion of plantations in the province by exposing the levels of destruction, reports the AP. Panda.Org. Newsroom. 05 Apr 2006 Mapping Sumatra's shrinking elephant habitat Sumatra, Indonesia – A coalition of conservation organizations, including WWF, has launched a new interactive mapping tool on elephant populations and forest cover on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Sumatran elephants in Riau have declined by nearly 75 per cent over the past eleven years as a result of a shrinking forest habitat. Without improved management, it is likely they could face extinction in another five years. In 2003, there were approximately 400 Sumatran elephants in Riau. The interactive map helps readers visualize forest loss in Sumatra’s Riau Province since 1982. In addition to identifying protected areas in the province, it also identifies companies whose operations have replaced forests and companies who hold licenses to convert additional forest. The map also shows distribution of elephants and information on elephant-human conflict. As forest cover in Riau has disappeared as a result of deforestation and land conversion, particularly conversion to oil palm plantations, elephant populations have shrunk and human-wildlife conflict has increased. A WWF investigation in Riau has found that since 2000, sixteen people have died in elephant encounters, and 45 elephants have died from poisoning or poaching. An additional 201 elephants were captured by the government to mitigate conflict. Forty-five of those died as a result of the captures. WWF recently discovered that ten endangered wild Sumatran elephants have been kept chained to trees without enough food or water in central Riau after being made homeless by the complete destruction of their forest. The elephants were raiding crops and threatening a nearby village before being captured by local authorities. The Riau government said it wanted to capture and translocate all of the elephants to the newly designated Tesso Nilo National Park. Currently, only 38,000ha of the Tesso Nilo National Park have been protected out of a proposed 100,000ha. “The entire area must be protected before it can be considered as a feasible location for the captured elephants,” said Nazir Foead, Head of WWF Indonesia’s Species Programme. “These ten elephants are the latest casualties in the escalating human-elephant conflict in central Sumatra, the direct result of uncontrolled destruction of their forest habitat. These elephants need room to live,


which means ending problematic pulp and oil palm development.” The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and NGOs developed a human-elephant conflict mitigation protocol for Riau that would avoid the kinds of cases that have occurred in recent weeks. The protocol is aimed at working with local communities on mitigating the conflict without the need to capture elephants. In addition, WWF is working with Riau Province's Natural Resource Conservation Agency and the communities surrounding Tesso Nilo to avoid losses from raiding elephants. Since 2004, losses declined dramatically, no houses have been destroyed and there have been no loss of human or elephant lives. END NOTES: • The interactive map was produced by Eyes on the Forest, a coalition of three local conservation organizations in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia: WWF’s Indonesia's Tesso Nilo Programme, Jikalahari (Forest Rescue Network Riau) and Walhi Riau (Friends of the Earth Indonesia). Eyes on the Forest was launched in December 2004 to investigate the state of Riau's forests and the players who influence it. • Data for the interactive map has been collected since 2000 by WWF-Indonesia and Indonesia’s Natural Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA) in Riau. For further information: Desmarita Murni, Species Communications Officer WWF-Indonesia Email: [email protected] Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 5, 2006 Sumatran elephants face extinction in Indonesia

Jakarta - The number of Sumatran elephants in Indonesia's Riau province has declined by nearly 75 per cent in the past 11 years and without improved management, they face likely extinction in another five years, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said on Wednesday.

The main causes of the wild beasts' declining population include rampant destruction of elephant habitat through illegal logging and uncontrolled conversion of forests into oil palm and pulp plantations, which have created intense conflict between humans and elephants as elephants are forced to feed on the crops that replaced their natural foods.

The declining population is also caused by the incompetent handling of wild elephant captures and releases, the WWF said in a press release.

Elephants are poisoned and shot in retaliation or die when captured. Currently there are approximately 400 Sumatran elephants in Riau.


A WWF investigation has found that since 2000, a total of 45 elephants have died in Riau from poisoning or shooting with home-made guns, and 16 people have died in elephant encounters.

An additional 201 elephants were captured by the government to mitigate conflict, and 45 of the wild beasts died as a result of the captures, WWF said.

The WWF has introduced so-called 'flying squads' to minimize conflicts between wild elephants and humans. A 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.

'This has been proven to be very effective to reduce losses suffered by local communities near Tesso Nilo,' said Nazir Foead, a spokesman for WWF Indonesia.

Over the past 23 years, Riau's forests have declined from 6.4 million hectares to 2.7 million hectares, primarily because of illegal logging or clearing for farming. From 1999 to 2003, Riau also lost an estimated 50 per cent of its elephant population, with possibly only 350 elephants remaining.

Environmentalists and conservation officials have said that farms and villages are often built on paths used by elephants, and, because of destruction of their habitat, elephants now pose a threat to humans.

According to Sumatran environmentalists, about 4,000 wild elephants roam Sumatra, the only island in Indonesia where they can still be found in the wild. They are listed as an endangered species and protected by law.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

The Independent UK, 6 April 2006 Sumatran elephants face extinction

The number of Sumatran elephants in parts of Indonesia has dropped by 75 per cent in the past six years, raising the possibility they could become extinct in the near future, according to an environmental group.

WWF Indonesia said the decline in Riau province - on Indonesia's largest island of Sumatra- is mostly due to the rapid conversion of forest habitat into palm oil and paper plantations. As a result, conflicts between humans and elephants have risen, with 45 elephants either shot or poisoned since 2000 and 16 people killed by the animals.

Hundreds more elephants were captured and removed from forest areas, often dying in captivity. The remaining populations number less than 400 in Riau, down from 709 in 1999. "This escalating situation not only spells disaster for elephants but is also a huge problem for Riau's local people," WWF said. "Without improved management, elephants could face extinction in another five years."


WWF called on the Indonesian government to treble the size of the Tesso Nilo National Park to 100,000 hectares (247,100 acres) while increasing the number of teams that help avert

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article356021.ece

ANTARA, Apr 08 23:37 WWF welcomes court verdict on elephant killer

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - The Riau chapter of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has welcomed a district court`s decision to sentence an elephant killer to 13.5 years in prison, a spokesman said. The verdict was passed by the district court in Pasir Pengaraiyan on Thursday on Astan bin Alimatuddin (36). It was the heaviest punishment ever meted out in Indonesia for the killing of an elephant, Nurchalis Fadil, coordinator of elephant conflicts of the WWF`s Riau chapter, said here recently. Astan was a member of a group believed to have killed many elephants in the Lindung Mahato reserved forest in Rokah Hulu district for the the animals` tusks. Nurchalis said although the 13.5-years prison sentence was 7 years lighter than what public prosecutors had demanded, the fine the defendant must pay was unchanged, namely Rp100 million (US$1,111). Nurchalis expressed hope that the sentence should not make security agencies forget to arrest other member of the elephant killers` group who had reportedly fled to Bengkulu province. Astan and four other members of the group, namely Firman bin Hadi, Dirlan bin Marasin,Yunan bin Idris, and Idit had been hunting elephants in Mahato reserved forest for their tusks. The local people and police came to know about the illegal practice only after it had been going on for some time. Police arrested Astan on August 17, 2005 in a raid in Mahato reserved forest during which Firman, Dirlan and Yurman were killed while Idit ran away. Police found six tusks, a rifle, some sharp weapons and other hunting gadgets at the location they had raided. (*)

www.wwf.or.id and Panda.Org. News, 11 April 2006 Open Letter to Indonesia’s President to save Sumatran Elephants in Riau

Your Excellency,

I am writing with regard to Sumatra’s Elephants, particularly in Riau where they are dying at an alarming pace. Poisonings and deadly captures have caused the population to decrease by 75% from 1067-1617 elephants in 1985 to 353-431 elephants in 2003. In the last two months alone, 12 Riau elephants were killed. These incidents have captured


huge global attention. Over 200 media reports were published about these elephants over the last five weeks.

Riau’s elephants have no place to go, as their forests have been cleared. They are forced to feed in plantations that have replaced the forests. As a result, both people and elephants are suffering.

Properties have been damaged and some people have even lost their lives. Some elephants have been poisoned by oil palm plantation owners or farmers. Many elephants have been captured by local authorities, often resulting in elephant deaths.

Your Excellency, we are witnessing the extinction of the Sumatran elephant in Riau. WWF has tried for six years to stop this by working closely with the Ministry of Forestry and local government in Riau. However, we have not been successful. Today, we are turning to you, Mr. President, and we ask your support to:

1. Order all Indonesian citizens to stop killing elephants; whether directly, by poisoning, shooting, or unprofessional capturing, or indirectly through destruction of their habitat.

2. Order the relevant government institutions and plantation corporations to implement the “Protocol of Human and Elephant Conflict Mitigation”, developed by the Riau Conservation Authority (BKSDA) and NGOs, including WWF. Capturing elephants should only be a last resort.

3. Order relevant government institutions, local governments and plantation corporations to stop logging (legal and illegal) in conservation areas and cancel, or return the forest conversion licenses, particularly those issued on elephant habitat. The Balai Raja Wildlife Reserve, for your information, was once declared with 16,000 hectares of forest, but has only 260 ha of forest left today.

4. Prioritize the expansion of Tesso Nilo and Bukit Tigapuluh National Parks in Riau and Jambi so they include all the elephant forests surrounding them. They are two of the last remaining retreats of elephants in central Sumatra. Loosing them would drive central Sumatra’s elephants closer to the brink of extinction. Saving their forests and managing them properly would allow elephants to survive without generating further conflict and the ensuing devastating consequences.

5. Enforce the nature protection laws already in place to protect Sumatran elephants and their habitats, and transparently prosecute those who kill or torment elephants (especially after they are captured), as well as those people who issue and execute licenses that convert habitat inconsistently with existing rules and regulations.

Your Excellency, WWF is fully prepared to assist the Ministry of Forestry and local government in Riau in implementing a comprehensive conservation plan for the Sumatran elephant.


We seek Your Excellency's support to save the Sumatran elephant, as they are part of the natural heritage of our beloved country. The support also constitute expression of Indonesia’s commitment to deliver the targets of the Convention of Biological Diversity which were ratified in 1994.

Thank you for Your Excellency's support and kind attention.

Yours sincerely,

Mubariq Ahmad, PhD Executive Director WWF-Indonesia

For further information: Desmarita Murni, Species Communications Officer WWF-Indonesia Tel: +62 811 793458 Email: [email protected] Joanna Benn, Communications Manager WWF Global Species Programme Tel: +39 06 84 497 212 Email: [email protected]

Soh Koon Chng, Communications Manager WWF Global Forests Programme Tel: +41-22 364 9018 Email: [email protected]

Panda Org: http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/forests/news/index.cfm?uNewsID=66360

www.wwf.or.id

AFP, 11 April 2006 Indonesia-elephants-WWF WWF calls on Indonesia president to save threatened elephants JAKARTA, April 11, 2006 (AFP) - The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Tuesday called on Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to help halt the rapid decline of elephants on Sumatra island. In an open letter addressed to the president, WWF executive director Mubariq Ahmad said that elephants in Sumatra, "are dying at an alarming pace." He said that the number of elephants in Sumatra, the only Indonesian island where the pachyderms are found, have decreased by 75 percent in just 18 years. As of 2003, only about 354 to 431 elephants are left, the group said. Ahmad added that 12 elephants were killed in the past two months in the central Sumatra province of Riau alone.


The WWF also called on the president to order government institutions and plantation corporations to halt all logging in conservation areas. The group also wants Indonesia to better enforce existing laws and openly prosecute those who kill or torment elephants. The group also called on the country to expand two national parks in Riau and Jambi provinces. Wild elephants are still found in the jungles of the Sumatran provinces of Lampung, Aceh, North Sumatra, Bengkulu, Jambi, South Sumatra and Riau. Conservationists say the elephant habitat is being increasingly taken over by resettlement, plantations and industrial forest estates. bs/pj AFP, 11 avr 2006 Indonésie-environnement-forêts-éléphants Déclin alarmant des éléphants de Sumatra: le WWF en appelle au président SBY JAKARTA, 11 avr 2006 (AFP) - Le déclin alarmant des derniers éléphants de Sumatra a conduit mardi le Fonds mondial pour la nature (WWF) à écrire au président indonésien Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, surnommé "SBY", pour lui demander d'intervenir. Selon l'organisation écologiste, les éléphants de Sumatra "meurent à un rythme alarmant". "Dans ces deux derniers mois seulement, 12 éléphants de (la province de) Riau ont été tués", s'inquiète le WWF dans une lettre ouverte au chef de l'Etat indonésien. Les éléphants de Sumatra souffrent d'un rétrécissement important de leur habitat, rongé par l'abattage illégal et les plantations de palmiers à huile. Par conséquent, ils sont de plus en plus en contact avec les humains, excédés de voir leurs cultures ou leurs habitations détruites par les pachydermes. Au centre de Sumatra, la province de Riau comptait selon le WWF de 1.000 à 1.600 éléphants en 1985, 700 et 1999 et 350 à 400 aujourd'hui. "Votre excellence, nous sommes les témoins de l'extinction de l'éléphant de Sumatra", écrit le WWF en soulignant que ses efforts depuis six ans se sont conclus sur un échec. L'organisation demande notamment à SBY d'interdire à tous les Indonésiens de tuer de nouveaux éléphants et d'agir contre la déforestation illégale dans les zones protégées. seb/phc Woensdag, 12 april 2006 / 15:19 WNF: ingrijpen president Indonesië om olifanten te redden (2) N i e u w bericht, meer gegevens ZEIST (ANP) - Het Wereld Natuur Fonds (WNF) heeft de hulp van de Indonesische president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ingeroepen om de laatste olifanten te redden in de provincie Riau (Sumatra). Volgens het WNF zullen er in Riau over vijf jaar geen olifanten meer in het wild leven, als niet snel actie wordt ondernomen. De situatie is volgens de organisatie uitermate precair. Recent zijn er weer skeletten van olifanten aangetroffen en er zijn ook zeker tien


olifanten aangetroffen die zonder verzorging waren vastgeketend aan een boom. "De situatie rond deze olifanten is nog ernstiger dan ik had gedacht. In 2000 waren er nog circa zevenhonderd olifanten, nu nog maar een kleine vierhonderd", zegt Gerhard van den Top, directeur natuurbescherming van het WNF. "De recente ontdekkingen van de skeletten zijn een absoluut dieptepunt. Aan de schuurplekken op de bomen kun je afleiden wat er moet zijn gebeurd. Zelfs babyolifanten komen zo aan hun eind." Uit cijfers van het WNF blijkt dat sinds 2000 al 45 olifanten in Riau zijn vergiftigd of gedood. De lokale overheid heeft circa 201 olifanten gevangen, waarvan er 45 dat niet hebben overleefd. Ongeveer 102 olifanten zijn spoorloos. Het Wereld Natuur Fonds vreest dat die dieren ook dood zijn. Het leefgebied van de olifanten in Riau wordt steeds kleiner, doordat op grote schaal bos wordt gekapt om plaats te maken voor palmolieplantages en plantages voor de papierindustrie. Het gevolg is dat olifanten gaan dolen in hun zoektocht naar voedsel. Ze komen daarbij in conflict met mensen. Het WNF heeft de president per brief gevraagd om de illegale houtkap aan te pakken en het aantal beschermde gebieden snel uit te breiden. De provinciale overheid van Riau moet bovendien er onmiddellijk mee ophouden olifanten die ronddolen te vangen en te doden. (c) ANP 2006 alle rechten voorbehouden Press Release. WWF-Indonesia. 15 April 2006 First Captured Elephant Dies in Balai Raja, Riau, Sumatra. WWF calls for transparent investigation of Sumatran elephant killings and torments PEKANBARU—One elephant died yesterday (14/4) in Balai Raja, Riau, Sumatra. It is one of 10 elephants captured by the Provincial Forestry Service several weeks ago. The 9 year old elephant bull collapsed three days ago, diagnosed with tetanus. It died from infected deep wounds on his legs cut by extremely tight, rusty chains and a deep wound on his thigh inflicted by a blunt, not disinfected capture dart shot with too high velocity. WWF calls for an immediate, public investigation of those responsible for its death. “This young elephant is only a sad statistic. Many wild elephants have died after being captured and mistreated here. This malpractice has been going on for many years,” said veterinary Wisnu Wardhana who has been providing medical treatment for the elephants after a WWF team had found 10 elephants chained to trees without food, water and medical treatment. The ten elephants had been part of a larger herd forced to feed in crops of a nearby village in Riau's Bengkalis District that had replaced their forest. Although the elephants are now receiving food, water and medical care, for some this help may be too late. “The wounds are too deep, the infections have been working in their bodies for too long. The


brutality of their capture and the complete lack of immediate post-capture treatment has simply been too much,“ said Wisnu. According to him, the remaining elephants with infected wounds may only have a 25% chance to survive. All nine elephants are receiving intensive medical treatment, though one mother elephant is already critical. “There is no need to capture these elephants. WWF’s Tesso Nilo Elephant Flying Squad has shown that wild elephants can be stopped from leaving their forest and, if need be, can be driven back into their forest. Tesso Nilo’s Flying Squad has dramatically reduced damage to fields and plantations next to the national park. No people and no elephants have come to harm there since the Squad began operating. Capture of wild elephants has to remain the very last tool when mitigating conflict. It should only be done by a well trained professional team with veterinary support following a well thought through strategy,” said Desmarita Murni, WWF Indonesia’s Species Program Communication Officer. WWF has obtained information that at least 201 elephants were captured in Riau since 2000. Nine are being treated in Balai Raja. Forty-six (23%) are reported to have died either at the capture site or at locations they had been shipped to. Forty-one (20%) are reported to have been released in other forests. But they were never checked upon and their fate remains unknown. Some may have died from their capture wounds just like the 9 year old male elephant in Balai Raja. 103 (51%) of the 201 elephants have disappeared. Their capture was reported but they are neither in Riau’s notorious elephant camps nor are there any records that they have been shipped out of the province. “WWF calls for an immediate and transparent investigation and prosecution of those who violate existing nature protection laws by ordering captures, killing and tormenting elephants after capture, mishandling capture funds, and / or collecting and trading the ivory removed from the dead elephants,“ said Desma. WWF also calls on government to investigate and prosecute those who issue and execute licenses that convert elephant habitat against existing rules and regulations. For further information, please contact: drh Wisnu Wardhana, Veterinary Surgeon / Medical Consultant for WWF on elephants, Ph +62 812 6737553, e-mail: [email protected] Desmarita Murni, Species Communications Officer, WWF Indonesia, hp +62 811 793458, [email protected] Note: Please check, WWF Press Release, 13 March 2006 WWF opposes the capture of further elephants in Riau, calls death rate during translocations unacceptable Immediate drive needed for herd stranded near Balai Raja http://www.wwf.or.id/index.php?fuseaction=press.detail&language=e&id=PRS1142213989 Relevant information on Sumatran elephant in Riau can be found at http://www.wwf.or.id/tessonilo/Default.php?ID=926 and http://eyesontheforest.or.id/eofnew/ele_map_announcement.php


Photos and relevant footage are available upon request. Please contact, [email protected] The Jakarta Post- National News - April 19, 2006 Elephant dies in captivity

JAKARTA: One of the 10 wild elephants captured by the Riau Forestry Office several weeks ago died Friday, three days after it was diagnosed with tetanus, it was announced Tuesday.

The nine-year-old had deep wounds on its legs caused by tight, rusty chains and one on its upper thigh inflicted by a blunt, unclean dart shot, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said.

The organization urged the government to investigate the elephant's death. Deaths of elephants in captivity were frequent due to neglect by their human captors, it said.

The 10 elephants were part of a larger herd found raiding crops of a nearby village in the Bengkalis district after the herd's forest habitat was destroyed.

After being captured the animals have been left chained to trees without food, water or medical treatment, the WWF said. -- JP

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20060419.C07 The Jakarta Post, Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta April 20, 2006 State to get tough on elephant poachers The government is promising to hunt down and arrest people who harm rare Sumatran elephants to protect the estimated 2,000 beasts remaining in the country. "We will pursue people who hunt these animals for their ivory; those who purposely kill elephants in revenge for destroying their homes, along with those who illegally clear forest areas where the elephants live," Forestry Ministry director general for conservation Arman Mallolongan said Wednesday. To enforce the law, the government would cooperate with officers from the National Police bomb squad, Arman said. The bomb squad officers would be used because they were specialized in using sniffer dogs and forensics techniques to locate suspects, he said. "Perpetrators will be charged under the forestry and conservation laws that carry minimum jail terms of five years." Arman said during the past few months, 12 elephants had died because of


conflicts with humans in Riau province, pushing the already rare species closer to extinction. Earlier last month, a group of elephants raided village areas in Bengkalis regency, Riau, destroying several houses and parts of a palm oil plantation. Angry residents struck back and six elephants were later found dead of poisoning. Environmentalists and conservation officials have said the elephants' aggressive behavior was driven by the destruction of their habitat by humans. Arman said the ministry was trying to protect the population and encourage new breeding to make up for elephant losses during the past two decades. "In the last 20 years, we have lost over 50 percent of the population of Sumatran elephants," he said. Ministry data shows that in 1985, the population of the elephants was estimated at 4,500 compared to 2,000 this year. The elephants live in national parks in seven of 10 provinces in Sumatra, as well as recreational parks and zoos across the nation. "About 150 elephants are also kept by logging companies to help carry out timber they cut down," Arman said. The government also planned to relocate and extend elephants' present habitats, he said. "We also agree with the World Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) suggestion that we should avoid capturing the elephants to mitigate conflicts with humans," he said. On Tuesday, WWF Indonesia sent a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asking him to order Indonesians to stop killing or hurting elephants; apply safe procedures to mitigate human-elephant conflicts and speed up the relocation process. WWF spokeswoman Desmarita Murni said 10 elephants captured recently by authorities in Balairaja, Riau, were being neglected. Left attached to trees, they had developed serious infections from metal bands tethering them and one had already died of tetanus, while another was sick, Desmarita said. "Their conditions show that people are ignorant of how to properly capture these animals. We are calling on everyone to stop hurting (the elephants). Capture should be the last resort," she told The Jakarta Post. Article at the following link: http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20060420.C03&irec=4

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