U.S. lawmakers move to save Asian elephants
6/4/97
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Headline: U.S. lawmakers move to save Asian elephants
Source: Reuter
Date: 6/4/97
Byline: Vicki Allen
Copyright 1997 by Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - As a jumbo serenely munched carrots behind them,
U.S. lawmakers Wednesday trumpeted plans to save the dwindling population
of Asian elephants.
The Asian tusker is a symbol of the ``blue collar working world'' with its
long history as a domesticated draft animal, Hawaii Democrat Rep. Neil
Abercrombie said. Now its life in the wild is threatened.
``The increasing pressures of human population growth, along with the
necessary changes in land use, has caused habitat destruction that now has
elephants and people in direct competition for resources,'' Rep. Jim
Saxton, a New Jersey Republican, told a news conference on the Capitol
lawn.
Also attending were several other House members and a 26-year-old elephant
named Asia, which snacked as they spoke, oblivious to the grand if
unfamiliar setting. They aim to introduce legislation to give Asian
elephants protection similar to that enjoyed by their bigger African
relative, whose numbers have suffered from large-scale ivory poaching.
The Asian elephant, found in Thailand, Burma, India, Vietnam, Cambodia,
Laos, Sri Lankka, Indonesia and Malaysia, is listed as an endangered
species. Just 35,000 to 50,000 remain in the wild and 16,000 are in
captivity.
The lawmakers said their bill was focused on helping initiatives of Asian
countries to conserve elephants and their habitat. It would back efforts
to monitor population trends and herd movements, to crack down on poaching
laws and enforce trade bans on ivory, and to resolve conflicts with
humans.
With rapid human encroachment on elephants' habitat, conflicts are
spiraling, Asian elephant specialist Raman Sukumar said. ``The traditional
tolerance of farmers towards the elephant is disappearing in a world
undergoing a rapid socio-economic transformation,'' Sukumar said.
Poaching of male elephants' tusks is ``sweeping Asia to feed
the demand from the rich East Asian countries,'' he added. This
is throwing herds' sex ratios out of balance, reducing genetic
variation and weakening herds.
Sukumar said several countries were anxious to protect their
wild elephant populations but efforts might meet some resistance
in countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam.
The bill seeks $5 million a year for five years, but the
lawmakers said they expected just $1 million a year. Saxton said
he expected Asian elephants would be discussed at a meeting on
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES) that starts June 9 in Zimbabwe.
The Clinton administration said Tuesday it would oppose efforts by several
African nations to take their elephant populations off the endangered list
at that meeting.