Asian Elephants in the Wild: Elephant Talk Proceedings & Highlights

Transcription

1 Asian Elephants in the Wild: Elephant Talk th & 6 th November Guwahati. Assam Proceedings & Highlights DAY 1: 5 th November Review of Elephant Talk 2014 Ranjit Barthakur, Chairman of Balipara Foundation, did a critical review of the 10 resolutions that were adopted at the Elephant Talk 2014, and admitted to the poor performance with regards to fulfilling them. He called for unconventional thinking on conservation planning, and to build a microcosm for conservation by developing a sort of a knowledge centre on elephants and working at a global level. Comments on Mr. Barthakur s analysis included Sandip Tiwari s (Wildlife Trust of India, WTI) ideas on capacity building of enforcement agencies, working on corridors, involving youth for conservation and captive and feral elephant management. Varun Goswami (Wildlife Conservation Society, WCS) suggested better management of elephant landscapes. While Kamal Bawa (Ashoka Trust for Research on Ecology and Environment, ATREE) advised on conservation of natural resources and Raj Phukan (Green Guard) suggested plantation of fodder for wild elephants and provision of elephant compensation. Richard Leitch (Balipara Foundation) reiterated the need to focus global concern for elephants on India. Perspectives from the Governments of India & Bhutan R.K. Srivastava, Inspector General of Project Elephant (Govt. of India), opened the talk by giving a brief introduction on the initiatives undertaken by the Project in the country and explained about the issues and threats faced by wild elephants and the conservation initiatives. He suggested that strategies like Trans boundary coordination will help in elephant conservation. Sonam Wangdi, Chief Coordinator of Elephant Conservation in Bhutan, spoke about the conservation commitments and achievements in his country and pointed out the need for both the countries to work together to protect habitats and species along the Indo-Bhutan border areas. Session 1: Living with Elephants in the 21 st Century People-Technology-Governance Reducing Stress Levels of Wild Elephant Populations in the North Bank Landscape of Assam Dr. Abhijit Rabha, Addl. PCCF, Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council. Dr. Rabha started the session by talking about the long term threats elephants have faced in the North Bank Landscape and suggested few measures to reduce the stress levels of elephants like restoring water sources and habitats and working for Private Public Partnerships. Managing human-elephant conflict: Knowing when and where to focus mitigation measures Dr. Varum Goswami, WCS. Dr. Goswami gave an overview of dynamic occupancy modeling in conflict 1 P a g e

2 incidents and how science can help in better understanding of landscape specific issues and to prioritize areas for mitigation measures across time and space. By the People, For the People, Of the People: Community-based Management of Elephant Conflict in North Kanara District, Karnataka Dr. Prachi Mehta, Executive Director, Wildlife Research and Conservation Society (WRCS). Dr. Mehta presented her study where the despite the Forest Department s active mitigation measures conflicts still continue. She demonstrated the effectiveness of innovative and low cost techniques, coupled with active community participation and vigilance for conflict management. The Honorable Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Tarun Gogoi, joined the Talk for some time and was welcomed by Dr. Kamal Bawa who is a distinguished Professor of Biology in University of Massachusetts and the founder of ATREE. Dr. Bawa recounted the fascinating biological richness of the eastern Himalayas and about the ways they sustain the lives of millions of people. He highlighted the threats posed by climate change to this biodiversity hotspot and suggested for a strategic plan for conservation, monitoring and interactions between society and natural ecosystems where sustainable landscapes, restoration and re-wilding takes place with people as an integral part of the process. HEC mitigation through Community Stewardship: Case Study from the Indo-Bhutan Border Lisa Mills, State University of North Carolina. Prof. Mills illustrated the grim situation of HEC and her work in Udalguri, which falls in the Indo-Bhutan Border. She narrated her experience of working to build the capacity of local youth in HEC monitoring and of strengthening the resolve to save the elephants in the region. She also spoke of her idea of producing Elephant Tea, which is safe for the elephants, and partnering with Mr. Ranjit Barthakur s APPL, which has been agreed upon by Mr. Barthakur. The Chief Minister appreciated the initiative of the Talk and acknowledged the delagates participation in the same. He observed that the worst affected victims of climate change and human-wildlife conflict are the poor and that it is a collective responsibility to mend the ways of indiscriminate development and balance it with sustainability and conservation of nature and indigenous traditions. Dr. Vivek Menon (WTI) thanked the Minister for attending the Talk despite his busy schedule and reiterated the most important role and responsibility that the government has in conservation of nature and people. Country wide Perspective of HEC in India Harshad Karandikar, World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-India). Mr. Karandikar presented an overview of a wide range of the HEC management practices of the organization in various landscapes of the country and highlighted the issues faced by each of them in up scaling the achievements through good governance. He recommended few strategies for better mitigation and reduction of the conflicts by means of research and proper application of dynamic pushback and physical barrier systems, coupled with a restructured system of ex-gratia. 2 P a g e

3 Session 2: Securing Vital Corridors Prioritizing & Quantifying The session began with a Special Address by Dr. Vivek Menon, who has recently been appointed as Chairman of the IUCN s Asian Elephant Specialist Group. Dr. Menon flagged two important issues in protecting wild elephants today, the emergence of poaching and blocking of wildlife corridors/movement passages, citing the recent fight to bring down a concrete wall at Numaligarh Refinery which has blocked traditional elephant movement in the area. He also directed his focus on the growing attrition of people towards elephants as a result of cultural shift. He recommended a management plan for involving collaboration with various departments, and a monitoring system to detect poaching. He spoke of an Asian Elephant Alliance which has been formed to address elephant conservation. The Session Address was delivered by Prof. Raman Sukumar of the Indian Institute of Science. Prof. Sukumar pointed at the importance of the contiguous landscape of North Bengal, North Bank of Brahmaputra, Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Landscape and Meghalaya in terms of elephant distribution. He recommended conversion of areas in tea gardens into forest plantations which will provide passage to elephants, besides promoting tourism; government funds may be used in innovative ways to preserve biodiversity, alongside securing the Indo-Bhutan elephant corridors as the Green Belt. He also reiterated the need to balance conservation with social justice, coupled with necessary development. Managing Priority Corridors Dr. Anupam Sarmah, WWF-India. Dr. Sarmah began by highlighting that economic growth is a major driver for conflicts. He illustrated the status of corridors in both the North Bank Landscape (NBL) and Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Landscape (KKL). He said that most of the corridors in NBL which are near Arunachal Pradesh are fast degrading due to various anthropogenic disturbances. He spoke of WWF-India s initiative to secure the corridors through mapping, monitoring, community engagements, Interim Relief Scheme to manage human-wildlife conflicts and capacity building support to the Forest Department. He also recommended for site-specific strong policy intervention, well informed and efficient strategy and result-oriented management plan to achieve conservation, which, at present is limited to individual/ngo level and needs to move up the list of the government s priority agenda. DAY 2: 6 th November 2015 Session 2 contd... Securing elephant corridors in India: Case Study on securing Kalapahar Daigurung Corridor, KKL Sandeep Kr. Tiwari, WTI. Mr. Tiwari said that the present day challenges of population expansion and economic growth on the path of conservation can be dealt with in the long term by effective land use management and securing corridors. He spoke about the increase in the number of corridors in the country which is a result of increased habitat fragmentation and that lack of legal protection to elephant reserves and corridors, along with lack of awareness are some of the major issues that need to be tackled immediately and effectively. He illustrated his organization s ways of conserving corridors 3 P a g e

4 through Public Initiative Model, Private Purchase Model, Government Purchase Model and Community Securement Model. Dr. Goswami and R.K. Srivastava reiterated that elephant reserves should be legalized in the country. Whereas, Dr. Dipankar Ghose (WWF-India) opined that corridor areas should be properly demarcated for better management strategies. He also suggested an economic valuation of the landscapes and focus on Meta populations of wildlife which are dependent on connectivity of small and large forests. Functional connectivity for Asian elephants in heterogeneous landscapes: challenges and opportunities Dr. Divya Vasudev, WCS. Divya presented a talk on the various known models of animal movement where animals use the least cost path for movement which is the same over time. However, she pointed out that we need to be species-centric for connectivity conservation which is based on scientific knowledge and management strategies. PR for a Quiet Client: Galvanizing Global Change Monica L. Wrobel, Elephant Family. Dr. Wrobel spoke about the inspiration behind the organization which was the story of Mark Shand s elephant named Tara. She enlightened the audience about Elephant Family s works on more space for all and global learning on vertebrate conservation and linear infrastructure development, along with cross border collaborations and skill building. Conservation Action and Interventions to Secure Elephant Populations and Habitats M. Muthanna, WCS. Mr. Muthanna spoke of the various issues of international nexus of poaching, electrocution incidents and religious tourism and of the various conservation actions undertaken by WCS where the conservation focus is to create more space for wildlife by caring more for people. Plenary Discussion: A United Front for the Asian Elephants of the Eastern Himalayas Speaker: Raman Sukumar, Professor at the Centre of Ecological Studies, IISc- Bangalore Conservation practices in isolation, without taking into account real considerations will not get us very far. We therefore must take in to account: Human populations which will only keep increasing. Cannot wish them away. Our plans for conservation need to integrate the fact that people are going to be around. There is going to be economic growth, which is also a pressing need of the hour. We cannot deny every form of development. The rhetoric of development bringing about destruction needs to end and we need bring our forces together to mitigate/manage development to the best of our abilities so as to minimise damage and degradation. Change of mindsets is needed. Often one gets to hear people saying things such as development is bad or tribals are bad and such like. Prejudices amongst conservationists need to be shed in order to be able to achieve our goals. We need to accept success but we also need to be mindful of the fact that success comes with certain kinds of implications. For instance, in Karnataka an increase in elephant population led to them taking refuge in human dominated areas 4 P a g e

5 As conservationists and experts in the field we need to highlight facts and figures rather than hide them or misrepresent them. We need to make a case for our projects without resorting to such means. We also need steer clear of moral views on things such as elephants in captivity and stick to the legal definitions that are presently applicable for such situations. Finally, it is not just how we do conservation but how well we do it. Speaker: Om Prakash Pandey; PCCF (WL) Assam Where do we go from here? Kaziranga is shrinking and cannot actively support the rising population of the animals. Community participation and acceptance is critical as rhino population will continue to increase if conservation measures continue. Acceptance of projects/programmes from forest officers and government officials is of no consequence if the community is not accepting of the conservation plans and results. A frequent question one encounters from the community is why has Project Tiger been introduced in Kaziranga? Referring to an earlier comment from the conference, there is in fact migration of elephants from NOTHING to NOTHING. We have to see what is happening in the surrounding areas of Kaziranga. Surrounding areas and protected areas are the same in parts of Chattisgarh. Speaker: Ravi Singh, CEO- WWF- India Meetings of this kind keep our sector together, to think together. Ideation works more than processes; only once an idea is born can a process be conceived out of it. Ideas are of primary importance. Things to work towards: Make a structured recommendation for a Transboundary Elephant Reserve in India, Nepal and Bhutan. We need to move beyond the local. While it is important to factor in the local it is equally important to move beyond political boundaries. We need to come together regionally. This can be easily facilitated by the institutional networks, legislations and government capacity that is already in place. Nature has no boundaries, unlike politics. In order to take this forward we need to constitute a committee with 7/8 resource people from each country. In other spheres as well, we need to work with other countries around us. We need to make governments aware of international/regional agreements/treaties. We need to exchange ideas, technology, joint efforts to stop illegal poaching and trade. 5 P a g e

6 Conservationists need to intervene in and influence the process of urbanisation in order to make it more efficient. Efficient not in the conventional way but in a way which takes in to environmental factors. As conservationists, we need to be part of policy formulation. We need to device institutional ways of bringing together all our diverse efforts. The youth will be critical in paving the way forward. Speaker: Sonam Wangchuk, Chief- Wildlife Conservation Division, Department of Forest & Park Services, Government of Bhutan Despite small size and population of Bhutan we cannot deny the challenges. We also have to think from the government s perspective during our conservation efforts, as what was manageable in the past cannot be maintained today. Bhutan depends to a large extent on external source resources and Government of India s support is crucial. The reality in Bhutan is that elephants are climbing mountains up to 3000 ft above sea level because there have been efforts at creating good habitats for them in the mountains. Species conservation measures cannot only take into account the species that is to be conserved. It involves rehabilitation and resettlements of human populations and they have to be taken on board while making conservation related considerations. Speaker: Kamal Bawa, Distinguished Professor of Biology, University of Massachusetts Consolidating success and moving forward is the key. However, this success has come at a cost communities have been left behind. Regional alliances are important and required but this will take time to materialise. In the meantime, we must strive to create "climate smart, biodiversity friendly, multifunctional landscapes". Decentralized and participatory governance would have to be the key element for managing such landscapes. A small group should develop a conservation plan about the types of landscapes we wish to maintain, and rewild or restore, and how such landscapes will be managed. Speaker: Vivek Menon, CEO- WTI & Chairman IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group. Are we talking about numbers when we talk of success? When we have someone telling us that elephants are moving from nothing to nothing this cannot count as success. Holistic view of success needs to be taken into account. We cannot simply count the numbers without accounting for the landscape. 6 P a g e

7 Our next meeting should have fewer conservationists and more social scientists, policy makers, and people from other spheres of life who are also stakeholders and should be involved in conservation planning. The youth are definitely of primary importance. The next time round, the youth should speak more at the conference and come up with one solution each. Speaker: Gunter Pauli, President- ZERI Network From where I see, a considerable amount of success has been achieved in the department of conservation, rehabilitation, etc. in Assam. However, it is not about conservation as much as it is about regeneration and biodiversity and allowing nature get back to its evolutionary and symbiotic path. More of the same does not get better. Are we willing to change the business model? We have to be more ambitious in the kind of questions we are asking of ourselves. As long as the model continues to be what is bad is cheap and therefore more profitable while what is good is expensive and therefore not practical for business we cannot go anywhere. Society, community and environment all need to be incorporated into the business model itself. Draft Resolutions for Elephant Talk 2015: A 6 Point Resolution was drafted as the outcome of all discussion and deliberations that took place. The Final Set of Resolutions would be prepared by 15 th Jan 2015 after feedback from all participants. Draft Resolutions enclosed below (next page) 7 P a g e

8 6 Point Resolutions Elephant Talk th & 6 th November Guwahati, Assam Creating Drivers for Asian Elephant Conservation 1. Asian Elephant Secretariat: Establish a regional Think Tank to drive the implementation of the major recommendations of Elephant Talk Transboundary Protection & Corridor Connectivity: Prepare a list of high priority corridors that need to be secured in the North Eastern Region of India & bordering states. Prepare an Action Plan for securing these high priority corridors 3. Human Elephant Conflict Resolution: Engage local community and other stakeholders to develop and implement a comprehensive protection plan to reduce elephant & human deaths. Prepare a Position Paper on reforms that need to be introduced to strengthen Governance Structures, Compensatory Mechanisms & Research & Technology Interventions to manage Conflict. Develop Educational & Awareness Tools for educating Local Communities on Incidence Management 4. Wildlife Protection Acts: Prepare a Position Paper on reforms that need to be introduced into the Wildlife Acts. 5. Captive Elephants: To promote the welfare of captive elephant and its management, establish a training centre for mahouts, and wildlife managers and veterinarians. 6. Generation Next: Involve Generation Next in already existing programmes and through innovative programmes. 8 P a g e