Timber Trade and Illegal Logging

The international timber trade is now the primary cause of forest degradation and loss of forest biodiversity. As a result of these human activities, the highly threatened forest home of wild Asian elephants continues to be lost at rapid rates through illegal logging.

illegalloggingkalimantancompost112841_368081Since 1950s, the vast tropical forests of Southeast Asia have been steadily depleted by the growing demand for wood in the giant economies of Japan, the United States, Europe, and China. When China implemented the logging ban in 1998, the decrease in domestic timber production causes the country to face a shortage of timber. Thus, pressure was placed on the resources of the forests in Southeast Asia to meet the insatiable demand for tropical timber, leading to its dramatic decline in forest products.

Today, only about half the land area in Southeast Asia is covered by forest and most of the countries in the region have experienced rapid declines in forest area. In addition, it is calculated that the region is losing about 1.2% of its remaining forest area each year, with Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines reporting annual losses of 2% over the last five years.

All of these countries are undermining the rapidly disappearing forest home of wild species, including the critically endangered Asian elephant. As a result, their population is shrinking because the remaining forested areas may not be able to support all of the displaced elephants in addition to the normal populations that are already there. They, the refugee elephants, could eventually become stressed and may starve, die, or be killed, due to insufficient amount of food and/or unoccupied land for home range and feeding ground. Displaced elephants, for example, have been observed to cause a “shock wave” of refugee crowding in adjacent forests leading to increased physiological stress and reduced reproduction.

53396727Besides losing their habitat to logging, Asian elephants are also used for illegal logging operations. These animals are often severely misused and in many cases, overworked. According to the Cambodia’s Wildlife Protection Department, there are cases of elephants where they had been “worked to death,” thereby further threatening their population.

Read More: Threats, Habitat Loss, Capture of Wild Elephants