Asian Elephants
Projects
Sumatra
Safeguarding Riau Province’s elephants, rhinos and tigers
The pulp and paper industry and oil palm expansion are encroaching on the last remaining habitats for Sumatra’s rare elephants, rhinos and tigers. WWF collaborates with local communities, industry and governments to achieve a sustainable balance between nature and people. We are focused on alleviating human-wildlife conflict and improving the enforcement of poaching bans, while providing alternate income opportunities for local people.
Gone in an Instant
Read how the trade in illegally grown coffee is destroying rhino, tiger and elephant habitat.
Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park
At 875,000 acres, it is Sumatra's third largest protected area and home to elephants, rhinos and tigers. Almost 30 percent of the park has been degraded due to illegal cultivation of the region's highly prized Robusta coffee, which produces nearly 20 tons of illegal coffee annually. This commodity is traded, bought, roasted and sold by some of the world's most recognized brands. WWF's work in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park focuses on strengthening the protection of this park and promoting sustainable livelihoods in surrounding communities.
Enforcing bans on wildlife trade
Wildlife poaching for illegal trade, food consumption and traditional Chinese medicine are dangerously depleting populations of endangered species. Construction of new roads is opening once-remote areas to human exploration. TRAFFIC, WWF’s wildlife trade monitoring network, is working to protect wildlife and improve transboundary enforcement of the International Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Eastern Himalayas
Protecting the North Bank Landscape
The North Bank Landscape falls north of the majestic Brahmaputra river in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas. This landscape, consisting of almost 1,160 square miles, provides a safe harbor for the single largest elephant population in Northeast India. This population is among the five largest elephant populations in Asia.
The goal of the project is to secure the elephant population for the long-term by maintaining habitat, significantly reducing existing and contiguous threats, and building support for conservation of the population and its habitat.
In addition, Bhutan’s old-growth forests extend into northeast India, where a growing population and infrastructure projects threaten some of the largest and last intact forests in Asia. WWF is applying its experiences from community-based conservation in the Terai Arc and Bhutan to protect the forests of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, restore critical elephant habitats, and reduce incidents of human-elephant conflict.
