Saving Giants in Myanmar

While Nomi Prins is best known as the author of books such as Jacked, Other People’s Money, It Takes a Pillage, and, coming May 2018, Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World, she is also a devoted animal conservationist and member of the advisory board of The Elephant Project, a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to preserving Myanmar’s timber elephants. The Santa Barbara Independent caught up with Prins ahead of The Elephant Project’s fundraiser on November 9.

How did you become involved in The Elephant Project? For as long as I can remember, I’ve been interested in animal conservation. As a teenager, I passed out leaflets in Grand Central Station to save dolphins from tuna nets. A few years ago, I joined the board of Born Free U.S.A. and worked on the campaign that sought an end to the use of elephants in circuses. That experience led me to this project.

What is the scope of the threat to Burmese elephants? One threat is the overall political and economic situation in Myanmar, one of the poorest nations in Asia. Poaching, loss of habitat, and the use of elephants in illicit logging are the major threats. Our focus is on saving some 3,000 elephants that are owned by the government timber entity and then loaned on a subsidized basis to handlers. As the government phases out the subsidies, the squeeze is put on the handlers. The elephants, obviously through no fault of their own, are caught between these forces.

Talk about how the project’s financial structure differs from donor-based funding. A big challenge is to create a framework that is economically sustainable, that has a reliable flow of funding to keep the conservation and education work going but also mitigates the very real impact of removing elephants from the economic chain. That’s key. The initial focus is raising money through fundraising so we can identify and secure land that can be used as [elephant] sanctuaries, and then collaborate with other local groups to build facilities for ecotourism and other revenue-generating activities. The goal is to reach a place where a protected elephant has more value than a dead one.

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Largest elephant conservation camp in region to be constructed in Ye Nwe reserve forest

An elephant conservation camp which can accommodate 5,000 elephants will be constructed at the Ye Nwe Forest Reserve in order to be able to implement an ecotourism zone, according to a report in the Myawady Daily yesterday.

The project will be undertaken with an aim to create the largest elephant conservation camp in the Southeast Asia.

About 5,000 elephants from private companies and the Myanma Timber Enterprise will be cared for at the Ye Nwe Forest Reserve.

“The government has suspended timber extraction since 2014. Therefore, there were difficulties in feeding the elephants.

So the largest elephant conservation camp will be implemented with the assistance of Four Paws International,” said Dr.

Phone Win, the chairman of Mingalar Myanmar Organisation. The elephant camp will include a baby elephant care centre, elephant hospitals and a home for aged elephants.

The government provides the land while Four Paws International provides financial assistance, technical assistance and other aid.

The project will be completed within 10 years and will be constructed with eco-tourists in mind.

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Myanmar donates elephant to Sri Lanka

Myanma Timber Enterprise donated an elephant to Sri Lanka yesterday to be used in religious ceremonies.

“Pann Shwe Maung”, the male elephant, was handed over to Sri Lankan diplomats at the Yangon Zoological Garden.

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Captive elephants in Burma may be released to boost numbers

Hundreds of unemployed elephants in Burma, laid off from the once-booming timber trade, have emerged as potential saviours of the animal population.

One of the largest surviving wild elephant populations in Asia is being pushed to the brink as hunters feed demand for their hides in neighbouring China. Dozens of carcasses, stripped of their skins, have been found by villagers in recent months.

Campaigners have warned that hunters are increasingly targeting mothers and their calves, which will accelerate the slide in elephant numbers. In many cases, the poachers have used poisoned arrows to bring down their quarry, causing a slow, painful death.

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Myanmar's first elephant hospital underway

YANGON

THE COUNTRY'S first hospital for sick and ageing elephants is being built in Taungoo, Bago Region, but needs more funding, according to U Zaw Min Oo, manager of elephant sector of the Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE), under the Forest Department.

"I am looking for funding to finish the hospital. The government has supported us with some funding but more is needed," he said, adding,"We mainly need to upgrade the dirt road to a coal­tar road so it can be used in the rainy season."

The hospital and home for aged elephants which is being coordinated by the Elephant Department of the MTE, Asia Elephant Support, and Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad is 60­70 percent complete.

Most of the shelters for the staff have been built, the grasses for the elephants' food have been planted, a water hole has been dug, and solar energy has been installed for power.

The government chose Taungoo as the site of the hospital because its forests have the biggest population of privately owned elephants.

According to the government, about 3014 elephants are government­ owned and about 2500 are privately owned. A government ban on timber logging in the country for the past year, except by the MTE, has left these 2500 privately owned elephants out of work. The MTE will hire some of the private elephants if they don't have enough for this year's logging.

According to the Elephant Department, the hospital will not only treat sick animals and shelter old ones, but will also be part of conservation efforts, research and public education programs.

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