Author - marina

Asian elephants prefer habitats on the boundaries of protected areas

Issued by Danau Girang Field Centre

18 October 2022, Kota Kinabalu: New research, offering the most comprehensive analysis of Asian elephant movement and habitat preference to date, finds that elephants prefer habitats on the periphery of protected areas, rather than the areas themselves. The findings were published yesterday in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology.

An international team of researchers have analysed the movement and habitat preferences of 102 Asian elephants in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo (Sabah), recording over 600,000 GPS locations. They found that the majority of elephants spent more than half of their time outside of protected areas, preferring slightly disturbed forests and areas of regrowth.

However, protected areas still played an important role, with the elephants’ biggest preference being for areas within three kilometres of protected area boundaries.

It’s thought that the preference for disturbed forest is related to food habits. Elephants like to eat grasses, bamboo, palms and fast-growing trees, which are common in disturbed environments, but relatively scarce under the canopy of old-growth forests.

Dr Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden and the University of Nottingham in Malaysia, and one of the lead authors of the study said: “Our results show that protected areas are very important, but not enough as an overall strategy for Asian elephant conservation.

“Given their preference for habitats outside the protected areas, elephants will inevitably come into conflict with people. This highlights the importance of promoting human-elephant coexistence around protected areas.”

The authors make clear that their findings do not diminish the importance of protected areas, a cornerstone of global conservation strategies. Professor Benoit Goossens from Danau Girang Field Centre and Cardiff University, the other lead author added: “We believe protected areas are the most effective tool for biodiversity conservation in general. In the case of Asian elephants, protected areas provide long-term safety and represent the core areas for elephant conservation.

“Our results show that elephant conservation strategies need to be realistic and acknowledge the nuances of elephant habitat needs and preferences, integrating holistic human-elephant coexistence approaches outside protected areas.”

“Based on our findings, added Goossens, we make three key recommendations for Asian elephant conservation:

1. Include large protected areas with core areas where elephants can find safety
2. Incorporate ecological corridors to connect networks of protected areas
3. Mitigate against human-elephant conflict, especially around protected areas, with emphasis on protecting people’s safety and livelihoods, as well as promoting tolerance towards elephant presence.”

The Sundaic region, where the research took place, is a global hotspot for biodiversity. However, it is estimated that only 50% of the region’s original forest remains and less of 10% (but almost 30% in Sabah) of it is formally protected. Asian elephants are endangered and live in highly fragmented landscapes in this region.

Because of the extensive home ranges of Asian elephants, they can often find themselves in human dominated landscapes, which inevitably leads to human-elephant conflict.

In the study, the researchers analysed the movement of 102 Asian elephants, recording over 60,000 GPS locations across the Malay peninsula and Borneo. The data was compiled from over a decade of fieldwork by three research groups.

The researchers then compared this data with the locations of formally protected areas to see how much time elephants spent in these areas and the areas around them.

Protected areas can range dramatically in the level of protection they receive. In this study the authors only included protected areas listed in the World Database of Protected Areas in their analysis. They did not include exploited forest reserves which are used for logging.

Speaking on the next steps for research in this area and Asian elephant conservation, Dr Antonio de la Torre, first author of the study, said: “Human-elephant conflict is now the main threat for Asian elephants, yet we know surprisingly little about the effectiveness of different mitigation strategies and how to promote long-term and sustainable human-elephant coexistence.

“Understanding how we can reduce the costs of this conflict for both people and elephants, and how to increase people’s tolerance towards elephant presence, should be the top research priority in the area.”

The paper is Open Access and can be downloaded at the following link: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.14286 .

-ENDS-

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For more information on this press release, please contact:

Dr Benoit Goossens
Danau Girang Field Centre

contact@dgfc.life

 

Half-Earth doubles gains for orangutans

A joint press release from HUTAN and Danau Girang Field Centre

16 October 2022, Kota Kinabalu: A new study in Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation assesses what would happen to Bornean orangutans in the next decade under different management assumptions. 

The study looks at three scenarios: Business As Usual (BAU), which is the continuation of on-going management practices; the Half-Earth vision, a concept launched by E.O. Wilson in which half of the land and sea would be protected to manage sufficient habitat to reverse the species extinction crisis and ensure the long-term health of our planet; the Whole-Earth approach, also known as “Sharing the Planet” vision, which advocates the global integration of conservation agenda with other societal goals.

The group of 20 experts from Malaysia, Indonesia and overseas participating in the study concluded that under current management practices orangutan populations may decline by around 27% between now and 2032 in Borneo. This would represent several hundreds of orangutans for Sabah alone.

Professor Benoit Goossens, Director of Danau Girang Field Centre and affiliated with the Sabah Wildlife Department, commented that “business-as-usual in orangutan conservation is clearly insufficient to support the protection of the species. Luckily there appear to be better strategies, with especially a Half-Earth approach to conservation predicted to strongly reduce orangutan declines in the next decade”.  

Half-Earth, with a goal of protecting at least half of Borneo, would be comparatively easy to achieve and would reduce the decline in the orangutan population by 2032 by at least half compared to current management. “Indeed, 65% of Sabah’s landmass is forested, and Sabah is committed to ensuring that at least 50% of its landmass is designated and protected for sustainable forest exploitation, environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, and socio-economic well-being,” added Goossens.

The Whole-Earth approach, a fundamentally different approach to conservation focused on equitable land management, finance, and governance, was, however, foreseen to lead to greater forest loss and ape killing and a 56% population decline within the next 10 years across Borneo. Whole-Earth approaches are valuable but may not be workable for the short-term orangutan conservation needs, because of political and economic realities on the ground.

Dr Marc Ancrenaz, HUTAN Scientific Director and also affiliated with the Sabah Wildlife Department, said “the good news is that this analysis predicts that, if orangutan killing and habitat loss were stopped, orangutan populations could rebound and reach 148% of their current size by 2122. The recent surveys by the Sabah Wildlife Department and their partners show that the size of most orangutan populations is stabilizing in the State. Despite large population declines over the past 20 years, we start to see glimmers of hope for orangutans. Indonesian and Malaysian deforestation rates are down, as are expansion rates of oil palm and other crops.”

However effective conservation investment and management are needed to ensure that orangutan habitats would remain permanently forested, and that the other key threat – unsustainable killing – is effectively addressed. To prevent killing, more effective engagement with rural communities on Borneo is urgently needed, and this is where elements of the Whole-Earth approach are helpful – particularly in prompting a long-term overhaul of orangutan conservation’s scientific, ethical and funding models. 

The authors encourage both the Indonesian and Malaysian government to build on their commitments to setting aside at least half the land area of their countries for conservation, while enforcing the policies that ensure forests are conserved and orangutan killing is halted and the degradation of its habitat is halted and reversed. They also call on the Global North to match these commitments from the tropics by restoring natural areas. At the same time, they highlight the importance of adopting more holistic, equitable Whole-Earth style approaches when designing long-term strategies for orangutan conservation.

It is not an easy path ahead, but solutions exist that can ensure the long-term survival and even population recovery of the Asian red ape.

The article Restoring the red ape in a whole- or half-earth context is available in Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation. Publication of this article was sponsored by the SSC–Oryx Partnership Fund.

The paper is available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S003060532200093X.

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For more information on this press release, please contact:

Dr. Benoit Goossens
Danau Girang Field Centre

contact@dgfc.life

 

Protecting all remaining forests and abandoning the Sukau bridge project crucial for the future of Kinabatangan elephants

Press release from Danau Girang Field Centre, Forever Sabah, HUTAN and Seratu Aatai

1 August 2022, Kinabatangan, Sabah: Protecting all remaining forests and abandoning plans for a public road through the Kinabatangan elephant range is of prime importance if we want to safeguard this highly threatened population. A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports also stresses out that effectively managing areas outside of protected areas is also necessary for the long-term survival of the Kinabatangan elephant population.

In this study, the authors used GPS collared data for 14 elephants and developed land use/land cover data to assess how these elephants use the oil palm dominated landscape in the Kinabatangan floodplain. “With these data, we identified the distribution and hot spots of 11 females and three males living in the Lower Kinabatangan from 2010 to 2020. We also estimated the proportion of time spent within differing land use categories within the elephant’s hot spots and compared this with their known ranges,” explained Dr Nicola Abram, from Forever Sabah. “We also looked at time spent by elephants in different oil palm estates to identify where better management strategies are needed to improve habitat permeability and reduce human-elephant conflicts,” said Abram.

“Moreover, identifying the location of hot spots, or areas most frequented by the elephants, is essential in designing appropriate management practices in collaboration with land users and identifying the best location for elephants corridors; something that all our organisations, HUTAN, Seratu Aatai, Danau Girang Field Centre and Forever Sabah, together with Sabah Wildlife Department and Sabah Forestry Department have been working on for several years,” said Dr Nurzhafarina Othman, Senior Lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sabah and founder of Seratu Aatai.

In the Lower Kinabatangan, 49 km 2 of unprotected forest being on state land and various land titles are at risk of being converted.

“Protecting these forests is an essential and efficient way to secure key elephant habitat since all collared individuals were using these forest fragments in their entire range. On average, 24% of time was spent in unprotected forests within hot spots. In fact, five females had large proportions of their hot spot extents in unprotected forests, spending substantial periods of their time (33-61%) within these threatened areas,” added Othman. “It is therefore critical for the survival of the elephant population in the Kinabatangan that these unprotected forests are preserved and acquire protection status as soon as possible,” stressed Othman.

“Another significant issue faced by these elephants is the threat from the controversial Sukau bridge and road/highway that is set out in the Sabah Structure Plan, said Professor Benoit Goossens from Cardiff University, and director of Danau Girang Field Centre. “Currently, a new road is under construction on the northern bank of the village of Sukau, and this has already cleared areas of unprotected forest. This public road could link to a potential new bridge that would cross over the Kinabatangan River, cutting through unprotected forest and a protected area (Lot 3 of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary), before going through palm oil estates,” added Goossens. “For the Kinabatangan, creating a public highway will cut the elephant population range into two parts. All collared elephants use this area, as it is a key bottleneck and the only alternative option to pass around Sukau village. Our analyses suggest that if the road/highway (and the bridge) goes ahead it will have a significant impact on the elephants’ behaviour. By disturbing their ranging patterns and segmenting the entire elephant range, there will be dire consequences for these animals and their family groups. The existing road in Batu Putih has already proven to be an impassable barrier for this population. It is our hope that this study illustrates the importance of protecting all forested habitats, effectively managing areas outside of protected areas and completely abandoning the plan for a new cross-Kinabatangan bridge
as stated in the recent Cabinet-approved Bornean Elephant Action Plan 2020-2029,” concluded Goossens.

The collaring of the elephants in the Kinabatangan was mainly supported by Houston Zoo, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Elephant Family, Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong, US Fish and Wildlife Service Asian Elephant Conservation Fund and the Asian Elephant Foundation.

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For more information on this press release, please contact:

Dr. Benoit Goossens
Danau Girang Field Centre

contact@dgfc.life