Saving Sumatra's elephants

Saving Sumatra's elephants

Are the days when Sumatra's wild elephants can freely roam
about over? One cannot help but foresee such a picture after
learning of a proposal from Transmigration Minister Siswono
Yudohusodo a few days back that culling the elephants' numbers is
the only way of controlling the Sumatran pachyderm population.

Siswono's plan includes shooting elephants with tusks longer
than 30 centimeters. He hopes his scheme will be able to achieve
a balance between the number of animals -- there are about 4,000
elephants roaming 44 areas in Sumatra -- and their dwindling
habitat, mostly caused by development of the region.

As anyone can surmise, the battle between Sumatra's wild
elephants and development has been a one-sided affair. For
decades, population growth, the expansion of agriculture and
livestock raising, pollution, and the building of cities and
roads have diminished the quantity and quality of natural
habitats worldwide.

The case of Sumatra's wild elephants is no exception. They are
not only considered an obstruction to development but also a
pest: Some 14 people were reportedly killed by rampaging
elephants in Lampung province between 1989 and 1993. Over the
last three years, more than 850,000 hectares of plantations in
Riau province were ransacked by the animals. Farmers, plantation
owners and forest concession holders have for years cried out for
revenge.

And Minister Siswono's culling plan seems to be the
government's likely solution. But, perhaps, to prevent an even
greater outcry from environmentalists who oppose the proposal,
yesterday Minister of Forestry Djamaloedin Soeryohadikoesoemo
announced a softer policy for handling the Sumatran elephants.
While it outlines a plan for elephant utilization for tourism and
plantations, it says that "overpopulation of elephants in certain
regions could be solved by using population control through
conservation procedures under the auspices of the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences (LIPI)."

Although Djamaloedin's statement did not mention the specific
issue of "overpopulation", it hinted that some 700 elephants now
live outside their natural habitats in Lampung province and thus
one can guess that they would be the first group to be culled.

We question whether culling and population control are the
only solutions to solving the problem? In this age of
"development" it is understandable for people and government
decision-makers to put economic considerations above everything
else. Since agriculture, plantations and roads seem to have a
greater economic value then the conservation of nature, a case
can be made for sacrificing wild elephants in the name of
"progress."

But one should not forget that admirable pledge stipulated in
the World Charter for Nature, adopted by the United Nations in
1982. It says, among other things, that "humankind is part of
nature, that every form of life is unique and warrants respect
regardless of its worth to human beings, and that lasting
benefits from nature depend upon the maintenance of essential
ecological processes and life-support systems and upon the
diversity of life forms."

On top of that, people need to recognize that the reasons for
the existence of species and ecosystems may be more subtle and
inscrutable than simply supporting the economic desires of the
current generation of consumers.

Besides, it has been proven lately that biological resources
have vast economic potential. So one should not underestimate the
fact that preserving Sumatra's wild elephants, and hence also
Sumatra's rainforests, may have a future economic value that is
far greater than merely as lots to be given away for the
resettlement of people.

In other words, while we do not know for sure what the actual
price of our biological resources is, we should not be too hasty
in making decisions on the basis of our current needs alone.
Otherwise, one day when the dust finally settles, we could be
left with nothing but our greed.