Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 25 april 2018
Asian elephants said at risk from Chinese demand for skin

By KAWEEWIT KAEWJINDA mately 2,000. Quoting fig-
BANGKOK (AP) — A report ures from Myanmar's For-
by a British-based conser- est Department, the group
vation group says rising Chi- says that wild elephant
nese demand for products deaths there have risen sig-
made from elephant skin is nificantly in recent years,
driving poaching and pos- from 26 in 2013 to at least 61
ing an even greater threat in 2016, most of them due
to Asia's wild herds than the to poaching. Many were
ivory trade. found with the skin stripped
The group Elephant Fam- from the carcasses. The
ily says the threat is cur- timescale fits in with the ap-
rently greatest in Myanmar, pearance of elephant skin
but warns that the Asian products online.
elephant could become "You can get quite a lot of
extinct in half of the areas skin off a single elephant,"
where it now ranges in the said Stewart-Cox. "And
region if the problem esca- if you get a single killing
lates. It says the threat ex- of 25 elephants, which is
ceeds that from the ivory what happened one time
trade because poachers in Myanmar, that's a lot
are targeting any elephant, of skin." "The ivory trade
not just those with tusks, doesn't threaten the Asian
and threatens elephants In this Feb. 16, 2018, photo provided by conservation group Elephant Family, skin stripped el- elephant as severely as it
that are scattered in poorly ephant limb lies in southern Ayerawady division, Myanmar. Associated Press threatens the African el-
protected areas. ephant because only male
The report's authors say their long been a very, very mi- mar officials to address the there is no time, Myanmar is Asian elephants have tusks
research shows that the el- nor incidental or local mar- issue. losing too many elephants, and quite a lot of those do
ephant's skin is ground into ket trade of no great scale, "It is our intention to facili- too fast." not have tusks anyway, or
powder and sold in China or no scale that was threat- tate collaboration if pos- Elephant Family puts the little tusks; we don't get the
as a cure for stomach ail- ening, anyways." sible," she said. "I think we current size of Myanmar's really big tusks as much
ments, as well as being Researchers identified 50 should pull together on this, wild population at approxi- anymore," she said. q
fashioned into beads for individual Chinese traders
necklaces, bracelets and selling through social me-
pendants. dia forums. They said labels Census finds increase in Mekong
The products are sold in are printed in Chinese, pric-
physical markets and in- es are quoted in Chinese
creasingly over the inter- currency and sales online River's Irrawaddy dolphins
net, where the report says are conducted in Manda-
sellers post videos showing rin.
workers in backyards in The report — "Skinned: the 20 years but the animals still
Myanmar and Laos cutting Growing Appetite for Asian face serious threats, Cam-
up and carving elephant Elephants" — also said that bodia's government and a
carcasses, to vouch for the China's State Forestry Ad- major conservation group
authenticity of their wares. ministration has apparently said Monday.
Belinda Stewart-Cox, El- licensed some products A joint statement issued by
ephant Family's director of that contain elephant skin. the World Wide Fund for
conservation, told reporters "At a time when China Nature and Cambodia's
at a news conference on has shown commitment to Fisheries Administration said
Tuesday that from the time ending its domestic trade a 2017 census pegged the
the group started monitor- in elephant ivory, it would population of the freshwa-
ing in 2014, there has been be troubling and perverse ter dolphins along a 190-ki-
"a major ramping up of the to find that, at the same This July, 2016, photo provided by World Wildlife Fund, shows lometer (118-mile) stretch
advertising, the promotion- time, it is creating a new, dolphins in the Mekong river near Kratie province in the north- of river from Kratie in Cam-
al pitches and the appar- legal demand for elephant eastern of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. bodia to the Khone Falls in
ent sales." skin products," it said. Associated Press Laos at 92, a 15 percent in-
She said it seems as if "there Stewart-Cox said her orga- By SOPHENG CHEANG cally endangered Irrawad- crease over an estimate of
are marketers and profi- nization has reached out Associated Press dy dolphins along a stretch 80 made in 2015.
teers behind this looking to to Chinese officials and has PHNOM PENH, Cambodia of the Mekong River has in- "The Mekong dolphin is
ratchet up what has, I think, worked closely with Myan- considered our country's
(AP) — The number of criti- creased for the first time in living national treasure and
the results of this census
reflect our many years of
continuous efforts to pro-
tect this species," said Eng
Cheasan, the director-gen-
eral of the Fisheries Admin-
istration. "We will continue
our conservation efforts to
rebuild its population by
eliminating all threats to the
survival of this species."q