Vietnam's Elephants are in Danger
9/29/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Vietnam's Elephants in Danger
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 29, 1999
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnam's remaining wild elephants are in
danger of extinction if no action is taken to protect them, a
conservation group said Wednesday.
Frank Momberg, chief representative of Britain-based Fauna and Flora
International's Hanoi office, said 98 wild elephants have been
confirmed living in Vietnam's fragmented forests, mostly in the
central and southern parts of the country.
The overall total of wild elephants could be 150, based on interviews
with local villagers, down considerably from an estimate of 1,500 to
2,000 in 1990, he said. An ivory trade boom took its toll, but the
main culprit since 1992 has been loss of habitat.
FFI's study showed that half of the 100,000 acres of the elephant's
native forests in the southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Thuan
has been converted to agricultural land by state farms in 1992-98,
Momberg said. The remaining forests in the two provinces are
fragmented, making it difficult to create an elephant sanctuary.
Momberg said most of the remaining elephant herds have no more than
five individuals each, raising the problem of inbreeding.
Earlier this year, FFI and Vietnam's Forest Protection Department
conducted a feasibility study on establishing a nature reserve for
wild elephants in Dong Nai.
However, the study failed because the two latest surveys showed that
there are only six elephants in the area, five of which had moved on
to neighboring Binh Thuan province.
In 1993, the Vietnamese government hired a team of Thai and
Singaporean elephant tamers to relocate a herd in Dong Nai province.
All but one of the captured pachyderms died.
About the same time, the remaining elephants, which local villagers
had been able to approach, have become very aggressive. Thirteen
villagers in Dong Nai and Binh Thuan have been trampled to death
since then, including five so far this year.
Momberg said creating a sanctuary in the two provinces is not
feasible because it is extremely difficult and costly to relocate
30,000 people who live in the remaining forests and to build an
electrified fence around the area.
He said FFI will begin a feasibility study on creating an elephant
training center in the central Daklak province, where most of
Vietnam's domestic elephants are.