Understanding Local Impacts to Inform Wildlife Conservation

It’s 16:30 in rural Myanmar and my field crew, who had spent the day surveying for elephant dung, are racing our caravan of motorbikes back to the field camp before dusk descends. As the day fades tempering the oppressive heat, elephants emerge from the shade of the forest to begin foraging, sometimes in the sugarcane and rice paddies that are increasingly spreading across the country. Running into one of these giants as they too use the network of dirt roads to travel through the landscape can be fatal, necessitating a strict policy of returning to camp before dark for the safety of the team. While my field season lasts a short three months, this is one of many concessions residents are forced to make or risk their lives encountering an elephant as night falls.

It is unsurprising that most of the remaining endangered charismatic mega fauna are in some of the poorest areas on earth. It is in these areas where wildlands still exist, and the lack of economic development has prevented the boom of industry and infrastructure that could spell the end for remaining mega herbivores and carnivores. It is also in these areas where the people tasked with the burden of living with the species disproportionately bear the brunt of human-wildlife conflict. Though local community members indicate they value elephants for religious and cultural reasons, as well as the important role they play in the ecosystem, increasing human-elephant conflict may lead to a greater acceptance of elephant poaching as a way to prevent crop-raiding and reduce human injury and death from run-ins with their giant neighbors.

I began using satellite-GPS collars to monitor elephant movements in 2015 with the hope of using this data to inform conservation policy and develop ways to mitigate human-elephant conflict. Instead, these collars turned into beacons that allowed us to locate the carcasses of the elephants after they had been killed by poachers. Further groundwork revealed an astounding rate of elephant poaching occurring throughout Myanmar. And what’s more, poachers aren’t just killing elephants for their ivory- elephant skin, genitals, and other parts are increasingly being sought after for export into neighboring countries such as China.

To Chinese markets

Grey, dry, and wrinkled. Cut into palm-sized pieces, hard as a rock, yet lighter than expected. You would be forgiven to mistake it for any of the countless kinds of roots and herbs also laying on the table – if it weren’t for the thick black hairs sprouting out. This is what elephant skin looks like in a Chinese market. A few inconspicuous chunks nestled among dried seahorses, pangolin scales, muntjac antlers, and gibbon skulls. Typically, elephant skin is turned into a powder by mixing with talcum and applied externally to treat muscle soreness, ulcers, and open wounds. Of course, this is all very illegal. Elephant poaching and trafficking are prohibited and China’s recent decision to shut down its ivory trade was a milestone for the conservation community. But old habits are pervasive, and traditions die hard.

Traditional Chinese medicine has an extremely long history dating back thousands of years and its practitioners number among the millions, many of whom are old, live in the rural countryside and have relied on these sorts of medicines all their life. Never heard of aspirin, but a regular shot of snake wine to improve constitution is common knowledge. Chinese demand for exotic animal ingredients is a primary driver of illegal poaching, not just in China, but in other countries including bordering Myanmar. Exacerbated by the rise of the Chinese middle class, this demand has created a biodiversity crisis in Southeast Asia and is a direct threat to many protected and endangered species around the world. Fortunately, growing domestic environmental concerns and calls to protect natural resources have resulted in greater focus on these issues in recent years with China’s new wildlife protection law taking effect in 2017.

One popular form of traditional Chinese medicine involves steeping plant and animal material in high-proof alcohol for days to years. Steeping is thought to extract the medicinal properties into the liquor and often endangered animal parts are used including bear gall bladders and tiger bone. These ingredients can be degraded or removed prior to sale, which makes monitoring difficult. In collaboration with the Wildlife Forensics Center of the Yunnan Endangered Species Commission and the South China DNA Barcoding Institute at the Kunming Institute of Zoology, I am currently working to develop a genetic method to identify which animals are being used directly from the liquor itself.

Conservation is local first

Cultural attitudes, long-standing traditions, and the economic realities of life in rural developing nations contribute to the realities of human-wildlife conflict and the illegal wildlife trade. Conservation is inherently a multi-faceted, human issue that involves many kinds of stakeholders. Conservation policy doesn’t work when foreign scientists simply come in and tell the locals what they can and cannot do. In order to reduce conflict and achieve coexistence, scientists need to engage with local communities and include their input in wildlife management strategies. Scientists can gather the data needed to answer specific questions and develop methods to solve specific problems, but we need buy in from local communities to implement effective mitigation and anti-poaching programs. Successful conservation programs require sensitivity to local cultures and working with communities to fully understand the challenges they face when saving a species: whether it’s the danger wildlife pose while they are alive or the value they hold when they are dead. As conservation scientists, we need to be open to addressing the needs of people to ultimately protect the wildlife under our care.

Dr. Christie Sampson is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Clemson University, working in collaboration with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute to address issues of human-wildlife coexistence and poaching. More information about her work in Myanmar can be seen at: arcg.is/0HjnLS. You can follow her on twitter at @WildEcology.

Charles C.Y. Xu is a Ph.D. student in the Redpath Museum & Department of Biology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He is interested in using genetics to discover, study, and protect biodiversity. For more information visit his website or follow him on twitter at @CharlesCongXu or on instagram at @DRYBAR.

Science Network Voices gives Equation readers access to the depth of expertise and broad perspective on current issues that our Science Network members bring to UCS. The views expressed in Science Network posts are those of the author alone.

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Human-elephant conflict in Xishuangbanna Prefecture, China: Distribution, diffusion, and mitigation

Abstract

The conflict between humans and wild animals is a special type of phenomena between human development and wild animal conservation, not only leading to massive economic loss to local residents, but also imposing severe impacts upon the production and living activities and even personal safety of the residents. Human-elephant conflict has existed as a phenomenon of human settlement development for more than 20 years in Xishuangbanna, China. There are periodic incidents of wild elephants hurting/killing people as well as feeding on and destroying subsistence and cash crops. It is an increasingly urgent and important issue for China to resolve while protecting and managing Asian elephants. Our study employed an Ecological-Niche Factor Analysis model to perform a risk assessment of areas where the Asian elephant currently is distributed and to predict future risks. It employed a Circuit Theory model based on random walk theory to predict multiple potential movement or migration pathways of Asian elephants within Xishuangbanna. The results indicated that: (1) the regions with human-elephant conflict risk in Xishuangbanna Prefecture had an area of about 4349.08 km2, accounting for 22.77% of the total prefecture area, with the risk regions primarily present in the middle and north parts of Menghai County and Jinghong City and in Mengla County in which there was a wide geographical distribution covering from the south to the north; (2) The regions of agriculture and garden that were close to Asian elephant distribution and roads were likely occurring risk; (3) There were more potential movement paths of elephants within Mengyang and Menghai distribution regions, which indicated that the connection of these areas was better. While the potential movement paths of elephants within Mengla and Shangyong were little; (4) There were some potential movement paths between different distribution areas of Asian elephant, but the migration possibility of elephants in different distribution areas was decreasing due to natural barriers (Mengyang-Menghai has Lancang river) and discontinuous potential paths between Mengla and Shangyong. Additionally, we discussed that created ecological corridors between different natural reserves to allow more dispersal and gene flow of elephants and diminish conflict between human and elephant. We also put forward compensation suggestions in different risk area. We hope our analytical methods can be applied, improved and expanded to other areas with similar wildlife damage.

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"Canteens" ease tensions between elephants and humans

KUNMING, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Environmental workers in southwest China's Yunnan Province have opened a number of "canteens" for wild Asian elephants to reduce conflicts between villagers and the endangered animal.

This year, staff from Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve have created a total of around 100 hectares of the elephant's favorite food, such as bamboo and paper mulberry, in three different sites.

On July 5, a canteen has received its latest guests -- 20 Asian elephants. They enjoyed their meal, which lasted around two hours.

In Pu'er City, more than 253 hectares of sugarcane, bananas and maize have been planted for the elephants.

Authorities hope the open-air canteens can help draw elephants away from human settlements to prevent conflicts between the animal and villagers.

The wild Asian elephant is an endangered species. In China, the animals mainly live in Xishuangbanna, Pu'er and Lincang in Yunnan. The population of the species in China has grown from over 170 in the 1990s to around 300 today.

"The canteens provide a safe place for elephants to munch on food plants far away from villages where they might come into conflict with humans. Fewer elephants seek food in village crop fields now," said Wang Bin, a senior engineer from the nature reserve.


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One dead, one injured in wild elephant attack

KUNMING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- A villager died and another injured after being attacked by a wild elephant in southwest China's Yunnan Province, local authorities said Saturday.

The tragedy occurred on Friday morning in Mengla County, Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna, when a woman was working at her vegetable plot, according to the statement released by the county's publicity department.

She died at the site after she was attacked by an elephant that intruded into the village. The elephant injured another villager and damaged several houses as it fled.

In recent years, there have been frequent reports of attacks by wild elephants causing casualties and property losses in Yunnan.

Yunnan has purchased commercial insurance for people in some regions. The government pays the premiums, and the insurers compensate people when animals cause trouble.

Wild Asian elephants are placed under top state protection in China, with a population of about 300, mainly scattered in Xishuangbanna, Pu'er and Lincang in Yunnan

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