The Asian elephant is of such outstanding universal significance that its survival is the responsibility of all humankind. As an organisation dedicated solely and exclusively to saving the Asian elephant from extinction in the wild, Elephant Family works with local partner organisations, who in turn work with local communities, corporations and governments to help them fulfil their responsibilities for saving Asian elephants.
We also have a number of policies that guide our work, that are detailed below, and have developed a Survival Charter for the Asian elephant, which we believe outlines all the actions required to save the Asian elephant. Delivering on every action outlined in this Survival Charter lies beyond the reach of any single organisation to deliver on its own, even a new and highly ambitious one like Elephant Family. The role that we can play is to mobilise public opinion in Asia and the West to encourage others to contribute, particularly through our petition to save the Asian elephant, for example. This will help demonstrate the level of support there is for Asian elephants around the world, making it easier for governments in particular to take the necessary action to save them. This could be anything from investing in conservation projects, designating protected areas, or changing and enforcing legislation to protect elephants etc.
Some countries already have well developed plans for saving Asian elephants, and the petition will help the implementation of these, while in the long-term we will work with our local partner organisations, who in turn will work with their governments to develop elephant survival plans wherever these are required. While we are currently using the Survival Charter as our manifesto, it is also available to be developed and adopted by others, as a template for developing their plans.
We will meanwhile demonstrate by example how the basic tenets of the Survival Charter can be implemented through our projects in Asia. By working with partner organisations in the target countries, we are implementing a range of innovative projects based on a new multi-disciplinary approach to elephant conservation.
Position Statements:
Ivory
Ivory poaching is an increasingly significant threat to Asian elephants, but this is far outweighed by the threats of habitat loss and increased conflict between people and elephants. Countering these threats is the main objective behind most of our projects.
If the poaching of ivory from Asian elephants were to ever become as rife as it has been for African elephants the consequences could be even more devastating, as only male elephants have tusks, and their targeted hunting would reduce the ability of populations to reproduce.
However, when one thinks of ivory poaching, one thinks of the catastrophic impact it has had on African elephants. Our work draws the attention of the public towards the plight of the Asian elephant, whose overall numbers are less than a tenth those of African elephants.
In terms of any legal sales of ivory, we are not in favour of any action that could exacerbate the trade in illegal sales of ivory, thereby placing Asian elephants in greater jeopardy, especially as a great deal of ivory from Africa is destined for Asian markets. However, this becomes irrelevant if laws are not enforced in the first place, and we acknowledge that greater law enforcement is required to curb the poaching of ivory.
Zoos
While some of the best zoos in the world do raise considerable awareness and can play a very important role in the captive breeding of smaller endangered species that are on the brink of extinction, Elephant Family does not support the keeping of elephants in zoos, because their requirements can never be adequately met. Furthermore, unless it can be proven that the breeding of domestic elephants in Asia can reduce those taken from the wild, it is our belief that the captive breeding of elephants is otherwise currently of little benefit to wild elephant conservation, and that at present all efforts should be put into their conservation in the wild.
Elephant Welfare
Improving the welfare conditions of captive elephants currently has little or no impact on the conservation of their relatives in the wild, and this is unlikely to change at least in the near future. Every elephant in captivity represents a failure of conservation efforts.
However, on account of the vast number of Asian elephants in captivity, often in poor conditions, Elephant Family has historically invested in improving their welfare, predominantly for humane reasons, but also where there is even a slight chance that doing so may prevent further elephants being taken from the wild.
In addition, if it were not for the inspiration of the captive elephant Tara and the close relationship she developed with Mark Shand while travelling across India, Mark would never have developed his passion for Asian elephants and gone on to found Elephant Family. Tara continues to act as an important ambassador for her wild relatives.
We continue to support improved welfare of domestic elephants to some extent, but for as long as Asian elephants remain in the wild, the often considerable sums of money spent on welfare would be far better spent on conservation efforts.
Carbon Offsetting
Elephant Family makes every effort to keep its CO2 emissions to a minimum, but does not offset its current emissions. The danger with carbon offsetting is that it does not effectively reduce the overall level of CO2 emissions on its own, but just redistributes the problem, and currently has a number of flaws. There are also several frameworks that need to be explored further, which could have a far greater positive impact on the global environment than any offsetting scheme at present, such as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). Elephant Family argues that the most important thing for the environment is to curb CO2 emissions while protecting tropical forest that still remains. In terms of the latter, our most positive effect on the global climate is by helping preserve forests.
Biofuels
Along with numerous other conservation organisations, Elephant Family believes that the rush to produce biofuels is not the panacea for reducing CO2 levels that others would have us believe. In many areas it is destroying natural habitats rich in biodiversity – particularly where palm oil is being used – and is therefore even exacerbating the problem rather than curing it.
Palm Oil
Forest in Sumatra and Borneo with some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world, including elephants, is being cleared at an alarming rate to make way for oil palm plantations. Palm oil is found in countless common food and cosmetic products, and is now positioned as one of the world’s leading biofuels. However, by clearing the forests, the growth of palm oil as a biofuel is actually increasing overall CO2 emissions rather than reducing them.
A boycott of products containing palm oil, or companies using palm oil in their products is unfortunately not a feasible way of addressing the problem. Instead pressure must be applied to prevent oil-palm concessions being granted in forested areas, and to ensure that companies only source their palm oil from non-destructive plantations. This is the approach taken by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, and while Elephant Family is not a member of the RSPO it supports their aims and objectives.
