Sumatran elephant on the brink of extinction

WWF is calling for an immediate moratorium on habitat conversion in Sumatra in order to protect the future of the country’s elephants. The Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) has been uplisted from ‘endangered’ to ‘critically endangered’ after losing nearly 70 per cent of its habitat and half its population in one generation. The decline is largely because of elephant habitat being deforested or converted for agricultural plantations.

IUCN has classified the Sumatran elephant subspecies as critically endangered on its Red List of Threatened Species. There are only an estimated 2,400 to 2,800 of the animals remaining in the wild, meaning numbers have halved since the 1985 population estimate. Scientists say that if current trends continue, Sumatran elephants could be extinct in the wild in less than 30 years.

The latest report from the IUCN Red List says: ‘Although as a species Sumatran elephants are protected under Indonesia law, 85 per cent of their habitats which are located outside of protected areas, are outside of the protection system and likely to be converted to agricultural and other purposes.’

Sumatra is thought to hold some of the most significant populations of Asian elephants outside of India and Sri Lanka. Yet within the Asian elephant’s range, Sumatra has experienced perhaps the most rapid deforestation rate. Sumatra has lost more than two-thirds of its natural lowland forest in the past 25 years – the most suitable habitat for elephants – resulting in local extinctions of the elephant from many areas.

‘The Sumatran elephant joins a growing list of Indonesian species that are critically endangered, including the Sumatran orangutan, the Javan and Sumatran rhinos and the Sumatran tiger,’ said Dr Carlos Drews, director of WWF’s Global Species programme. ‘Unless urgent and effective conservation action is taken these magnificent animals are likely to go extinct within our lifetime.’

WWF is calling on the Indonesian government to prohibit all forest conversion in elephant habitats until an elephant conservation strategy is in place. The organization recommends that the government conduct an assessment to determine large habitat patches and designate them as protected areas. Additionally, smaller habitat areas should be linked with conservation corridors, and areas of possible habitat expansion or restoration explored.

In Sumatra’s Riau Province, where pulp and paper industries and oil palm plantations are causing some of the world’s most rapid rates of deforestation, elephant numbers have declined by a staggering 80 per cent in less than 25 years. Habitat fragmentation has confined some herds to small forest patches, and these populations are not likely to survive in the long term.

The EAZA IUCN/SSC Southeast Asia Campaign supports the Sumatran rhino project in Way Kambas National Park in southern Sumatra. This project also benefits the survival of the Sumatran elephant.

Source: mongabay.com