As mentioned, elephants are keystone species. This means that conservation action for elephants has the potential to help maintain biological diversity and ecological integrity on a large scale. Let us now take a look at the efforts taken by some of the organisations to conserve elephants and their habitat.
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)’s elephant work focuses on creating a future for elephants in a landscape dominated by humans. WWF invests in anti-poaching operations, reducing impacts on elephant populations, preventing further habitat loss and, most importantly, lowering local animosity against elephants.
| What WWF is doing | Description |
| Halting poaching and stopping trade |
In response to high incidents of elephant poaching in central Sumatra, WWF and its local partners:
Additionally, the evidence collected by wildlife patrol units has also helped bring known poachers to court. WWF also works with TRAFFIC (the wildlife trade monitoring network), to reduce the threat that illegal and illicit domestic ivory markets pose to wild elephants. |
| Reducing human-elephant conflict |
WWF supports human-elephant conflict mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and awareness-building among local communities in the following three countries: In Cambodia – WWF trains, equips, and supports local staff to patrol protected areas and assess elephant distribution and numbers. In Vietnam – WWF supports an average of 20 forest guards that have been deployed by Vietnamese government authorities. WWF has also been supporting these teams with equipment and allowances so that they can better execute their duties and spend more time on patrol. In Sumatra – WWF coordinates Elephant Flying Squads. When wild elephants are seen close to villages or farms, local people can call an Elephant Flying Squad, which consists of trained elephants that scare off the wild elephants. The squads not only help bring short-term relief to the intense conflict between people and elephants, but also create support for elephant conservation among struggling communities. |
| Securing healthy forests |
Tesso Nilo National Park, a protected area, was created in 2004 in Riau Province (Indonesia) with the aim to support a viable population of the critically endangered Asian elephants, specifically the Sumatran elephants. WWF has been supporting the government effort to extend and protect the park as the last block of lowland forest by calling upon the government of Indonesia, palm-oil companies, members of the pulp and paper industry, as well as conservation organisations to work together to conserve the elephants and their unique habitat. |
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) supports and promotes elephant conservation. They collaborate with the staff of government agencies responsible for elephant conservation, helping to directly implement human–elephant conflict reduction projects, as well as law enforcement initiatives.
WCS is also working with local communities to reduce human-elephant conflict. For instance, they are pioneering innovative, evidence-based approaches to protect crops and plantations. Recent success include the promotion of low-tech, community-based guarding methods in Sumatra that have successfully drove off more than 90% of attempted elephant raids in some areas.
Asian Elephant Conservation Act
The Asian Elephant Conservation Act is designed to assist in the conservation of Asian elephants by supporting and providing financial resources for the conservation programmes of nations and projects of individuals within the range of Asian elephants.
A grants programme, the Asian Elephant Conservation Fund (AsECF), was established for awarding proposals that fulfil the purpose described by the Act. The purpose of the AsECF is to assist in the conservation of Asian elephants by enhancing the following:
- Protection of at-risk elephant populations
- Habitat/ecosystem conservation and management
- Applied research on elephant populations and habitat including surveys and monitoring
- Conservation education
- Protected area/reserve management in important elephant ranges development and execution of elephant conservation action plans
- Efforts to decrease elephant-human conflict and cross-border elephant issues
A specific limitation of the Act is that grants may not be used for captive breeding of Asian elephants other than to release them in the wild.
The Asian Elephant Foundation (TAEF) and Elephant Parade
The Asian Elephant Foundation was created as an independent, non-profit foundation, to assist in distributing funds raised by Elephant Parade – a social enterprise with a unique combination of art, business and conservation.
The Asian Elephant Foundation then auctions/sells the art pieces, where the funds are used to support various projects and organisations in the 13 Asian range countries, solely dedicated to the well-being and conservation of the Asian elephant. In addition to this, The Asian Elephant Foundation also plays an active role in awareness and educational projects around the world.
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