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Govt urged to boost its protection of Sumatran elephants
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia, an environmental conservation and restoration organization, has asked the government to increase its protection of Sumatran elephants, which are included in the critically endangered species category on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list
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T
he World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia, an environmental conservation and restoration organization, has asked the government to increase its protection of Sumatran elephants, which are included in the critically endangered species category on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list.
'Without tougher law enforcement against their excessive hunting and killing, Sumatran elephants can go extinct within less than 10 years,' WWF Indonesia species conservation expert Sunarto said as quoted by Antara in Jakarta on Thursday.
A dead elephant with an amputated trunk and without tusks was discovered on Monday in Kareung Hampa village, Lam Balek district, West Aceh regency, around 150 meters away from oil palm plantation areas owned by PT Agro Sinergi Nusantara.
Sunarto said the discovery had added to a long list of Sumatran elephant deaths. Based on WWF Indonesia data, 36 elephants had been found dead in Aceh since 2012.
He said most of the elephants had died of poisoning while in several cases, they were killed of electrocution or being snared.
Sunarto said the number of elephants killed in areas across Sumatra Island during the last three years nearly reached 200 individual animals, or more than 10 percent of the total Sumatran elephants currently living in their natural habitat.
'We urge and are ready to support law enforcers to immediately reveal the case so the perpetrators can be held responsible for their heinous act,' he said.
The cases of elephant deaths cannot be separated from ongoing human-wildlife conflicts caused by changes in function of their natural habitat, including forest-to-plantation conversions.
Sunarto said there should be comprehensive improvements and a reorganized plantation zoning system so that the presence of plantations did not threaten protected wildlife habitats. (dyl/ebf)(+++)
