<DOC>
[105th Congress House Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:45140.wais]
H.R. 1787, CONSERVATION OF ASIAN ELEPHANTS
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES CONSERVATION, WILDLIFE AND OCEANS
of the
COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
on
H.R. 1787
TO ASSIST IN THE CONSERVATION OF ASIAN ELEPHANTS BY SUPPORTING AND
PROVIDING FINANCIAL RESOURCES FOR THE CONSERVATION PROGRAMS OF NATIONS
WITHIN THE RANGE OF ASIAN ELEPHANTS AND PROJECTS OF PERSONS WITH
DEMONSTRATED EXPERTISE IN THE CONSERVATION OF ASIAN ELEPHANTS
__________
JULY 31, 1997, WASHINGTON, DC
__________
Serial No. 105-49
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Resources
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COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES
DON YOUNG, Alaska, Chairman
W.J. (BILLY) TAUZIN, Louisiana GEORGE MILLER, California
JAMES V. HANSEN, Utah EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts
JIM SAXTON, New Jersey NICK J. RAHALL II, West Virginia
ELTON GALLEGLY, California BRUCE F. VENTO, Minnesota
JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee DALE E. KILDEE, Michigan
JOEL HEFLEY, Colorado PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon
JOHN T. DOOLITTLE, California ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
WAYNE T. GILCHREST, Maryland Samoa
KEN CALVERT, California NEIL ABERCROMBIE, Hawaii
RICHARD W. POMBO, California SOLOMON P. ORTIZ, Texas
BARBARA CUBIN, Wyoming OWEN B. PICKETT, Virginia
HELEN CHENOWETH, Idaho FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey
LINDA SMITH, Washington CALVIN M. DOOLEY, California
GEORGE P. RADANOVICH, California CARLOS A. ROMERO-BARCELO, Puerto
WALTER B. JONES, Jr., North Rico
Carolina MAURICE D. HINCHEY, New York
WILLIAM M. (MAC) THORNBERRY, Texas ROBERT A. UNDERWOOD, Guam
JOHN SHADEGG, Arizona SAM FARR, California
JOHN E. ENSIGN, Nevada PATRICK J. KENNEDY, Rhode Island
ROBERT F. SMITH, Oregon ADAM SMITH, Washington
CHRIS CANNON, Utah WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
KEVIN BRADY, Texas CHRIS JOHN, Louisiana
JOHN PETERSON, Pennsylvania DONNA CHRISTIAN-GREEN, Virgin
RICK HILL, Montana Islands
BOB SCHAFFER, Colorado RON KIND, Wisconsin
JIM GIBBONS, Nevada LLOYD DOGGETT, Texas
MICHAEL D. CRAPO, Idaho
Lloyd A. Jones, Chief of Staff
Elizabeth Megginson, Chief Counsel
Christine Kennedy, Chief Clerk/Administrator
John Lawrence, Democratic Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans
JIM SAXTON, New Jersey, Chairman
W.J. (BILLY) TAUZIN, Louisiana NEIL ABERCROMBIE, Hawaii
WAYNE T. GIL.CHREST, Maryland SOLOMON P. ORTIZ, Texas
WALTER B. JONES, Jr., North FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey
Carolina SAM FARR, California
JOHN PETERSON, Pennsylvania PATRICK J. KENNEDY, Rhode Island
MICHAEL D. CRAPO, Idaho
Harry Burroughs, Staff Director
John Rayfield, Legislative Staff
Karen Steuer, Democratic Legislative Staff
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held July 31, 1997....................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Abercrombie, Hon. Neil, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Hawaii............................................ 2
Farr, Hon. Sam, a Representative in Congress from the State
of California.............................................. 4
Miller, Hon. George, a Representative in Congress from the
State of California, prepared statement of................. 2
Saxton, Hon. Jim, a Representative in Congress from the State
of New Jersey.............................................. 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 2
Young, Hon. Don, a Representative in Congress from the State
of Alaska, prepared statement of........................... 4
Statement of Witnesses:
Dinerstein, Dr. Eric, Chief Scientist and Director,
Conservation Science Program, World Wildlife Fund.......... 16
Prepared statement of.................................... 55
Ireland, Andy, Senior Vice President, Feld Entertainment,
Inc.,...................................................... 26
Prepared statement of.................................... 73
Jones, Marshall P., Assistant Director for International
Affairs, United States Fish and Wildlife Service;
accompanied by David Ferguson, Chief, Branch of Middle
East, South Asia, and South African International Affairs,
United States Fish and Wildlife Service.................... 5
Prepared statement of.................................... 34
Maple, Dr. Terry, President/CEO, Zoo Atlanta................. 13
Prepared statement of.................................... 36
Pearl, Dr. Mary, Executive Director, Wildlife Preservation
Trust International........................................ 25
Prepared statement of.................................... 39
Stuwe, Dr. Michael, Research Associate, Conservation and
Research Center, Smithsonian Institute..................... 23
Prepared statement of.................................... 64
Sukumar, Dr. Raman, Chairman, IUCN/SSC Asian Elephant
Specialist Group........................................... 14
Prepared statement of.................................... 37
Additional material supplied:
Johnsingh, Dr. A.J.T., and A. Christy Williams, Wildlife
Institute of India, prepared statement of.................. 79
Memorandum................................................... 50
Text of H.R. 1787............................................ 41
HEARING ON H.R. 1787, TO ASSIST IN THE CONSERVATION OF ASIAN ELEPHANTS
BY SUPPORTING AND PROVIDING FINANCIAL RESOURCES FOR THE CONSERVATION
PROGRAMS OF NATIONS WITHIN THE RANGE OF ASIAN ELEPHANTS AND PROJECTS OF
PERSONS WITH DEMONSTRATED EXPERTISE IN THE CONSERVATION OF ASIAN
ELEPHANTS
----------
THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1997
House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Fisheries
Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans, Committee on
Resources, Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:08 a.m., in
room 1334, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Jim Saxton
(chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding.
STATEMENT OF HON. JIM SAXTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM
THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Mr. Saxton. Good morning. The Subcommittee will come to
order. The purpose of today's hearing is to discuss H.R. 1787,
the Asian Elephant Conservation Act of 1997, which Mr.
Abercrombie and I and 17 other members have introduced on June
4, 1997.
The fundamental purposes of this legislation are twofold:
one, to create an Asian Elephant Conservation Fund, and, two,
to authorize the Congress to appropriate up to $5 million per
year to this fund to finance various conservation projects for
each of the next five fiscal years.
This legislation is modeled after the highly successful
African Elephant Conservation Act of 1988 and the Rhinoceros
and Tiger Conservation Act of 1994. The new authorization would
be separate from those funds appropriated for African
elephants, rhinos, and tigers.
Under the terms of H.R. 1787, the Secretary of Interior
would carefully evaluate the merits of each proposed
conservation project, select those that best enhance the future
of the Asian elephant, and give priority to those projects
whose sponsors demonstrate the ability to match some portion of
the Federal funds.
In addition, the bill stipulates that the Secretary may
accept donations to assist Asian elephants and shall spend no
more than 3 percent of the amount appropriated to administer
the fund.
Unless immediate steps are taken to conserve this
magnificent animal, it will surely continue to disappear from
much, if not most, of its traditional habitat. We cannot allow
the Asian elephant, which has such a direct impact on so many
other species, to become extinct.
The goal of H.R. 1787 is to stop the decline and hopefully
rebuild the population stocks of this irreplaceable species by
financing with a small amount of Federal money a limited number
of conservation projects. I look forward to hearing from our
witnesses. And at this time, let me turn to the Ranking Member,
Mr. Abercrombie.
[Statement of Mr. Saxton follows:]
Statement of Hon. Jim Saxton, a Representative in Congress from the
State of New Jersey
Good morning. The Subcommittee will come to order. The
purpose of today's hearing is to discuss H.R. 1787, the Asian
Elephant Conservation Act of 1997, which Mr. Abercrombie and I
and seventeen other Members introduced on June 4, 1997.
The fundamental purposes of this legislation are twofold:
(1) to create an Asian Elephant Conservation Fund; and (2) to
authorize the Congress to appropriate up to $5 million per year
to this Fund to finance various conservation projects for each
of the next five fiscal years.
This legislation is modeled after the highly successful
African Elephant Conservation Act of 1988 and the Rhinoceros
and Tiger Conservation Act of 1994. The new authorization would
be separate from those funds appropriated for African
elephants, rhinos and tigers.
Under the terms of H.R. 1787, the Secretary of the Interior
would carefully evaluate the merits of each proposed
conservation project, select those that best enhance the future
of the Asian elephant, and give priority to those projects
whose sponsors demonstrate the ability to match some portion of
Federal funds. In addition, the bill stipulates that the
Secretary may accept donations to assist Asian elephants and
shall spend no more than 3 percent of the amount appropriated
to administer the Fund.
Unless immediate steps are taken to conserve this
magnificent animal, it will surely continue to disappear from
much, if not most, of its traditional habitat. We cannot allow
the Asian elephant, which has such a direct impact on so many
other species, to become extinct. The goal of H.R. 1787 is to
stop the decline and hopefully rebuild the population stocks of
this irreplaceable species by financing with a small amount of
Federal money a limited number of conservation projects.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses, some of whom
have traveled great distances to be here today.
[H.R. 1787 may be found at end of hearing.]
[Memorandum may be found at end of hearing.]
STATEMENT OF HON. NEIL ABERCROMBIE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF HAWAII
Mr. Abercrombie. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I have
a statement from the ranking member, Mr. Miller, which I would
like permission to submit for the record at this point.
Mr. Saxton. Without objection.
[Statement of Mr. Miller follows:]
Statement of Hon. George Miller, a Representative in Congress from the
State of California
I would like to thank Mr. Saxton and Mr. Abercrombie for
taking the initiative in sponsoring H.R. 1787, the Asian
Elephant Conservation Act of 1997, and in holding this hearing.
I am sure we will hear testimony about the threatened status of
Asian elephants throughout Asia, and how this legislation can
play an important role in the protection of this species.
The need for legislation such as the Asian Elephant
Conservation Act of 1997 has greatly increased due to the
recent decision by the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) to down list
several popu-
lations of African elephants as well as to allow a one-time
ivory sale in the near future. Many countries, including many
in Africa and Asia that still harbor populations of wild
elephants; scientists; and non-governmental organizations have
expressed their concern that this decision will result in an
increase in elephant poaching throughout all elephant range
states. This legislation should help provide the infrastructure
necessary to prevent such an increase in Asia.
The successful implementation of the recent CITES decision
to down list elephants will depend upon the members of the
Resources Committee continuing to assume a leadership role in
protecting elephants and other wildlife by creating innovative
funding mechanisms, and effective wildlife conservation and
protection programs. H.R. 1787 is but one example of the many
types of programs that will be needed to protect elephants
throughout the world under the new CITES regime.
In another example of environmental leadership, this week I
and 40 of my colleagues including Mr. Abercrombie, one of the
sponsors of the Asian Elephant Conservation Act, introduced the
Endangered Species Recovery Act. ESRA recognizes that U.S.
actions overseas can play a major role in conserving endangered
and threatened species--or can contribute to moving them closer
to extinction. The legislation would require that Federal
agencies consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service or the
National Marine Fisheries Service before taking any action that
might undermine the recovery of a threatened or endangered
foreign species.
All efforts to protect endangered species are important and
as such, H.R. 1787 deserves our support. I look forward to
hearing the testimony from our panel speakers, and thank them
for their efforts to conserve Asian elephants.
Mr. Abercrombie. Mr. Chairman, I believe that you have
succinctly summarized all the elements associated with this
legislation. In particular, I think that it is important to
recognize, and I think we do in the persons of Mr. Jones and
Mr. Ferguson, that the responsibility of the United States of
America and, by extension, the responsibility of our overall
Committee and this Subcommittee is not just national but
international in scope.
The United States has been given by fate and history the
responsibility of taking a lead role with respect to the
preservation and protection of species not only in this country
but across the world. We know, of course, that species are
interconnected.
We are all interconnected and that borders, as such--that
is to say geographic borders--political borders--even regional
considerations, are not the sole criterion, let alone the
scientific basis, for making decisions with respect to species
preservation and protection.
So this Committee--this Subcommittee I should say, Mr.
Chairman, particularly when it comes to questions of
transnational considerations I think has taken a lead under
your leadership with respect to understanding the relationships
of species throughout the world. And to the extent and degree
the United States of America can participate on a worldwide
basis in this activity, I think that it is our obligation and
opportunity.
And I am delighted to be here with you today and to be a
co-sponsor of this bill. I look forward to the Asian Elephant
Conservation Act being, if you will, the next step after the
original Act where the African elephant was concerned in
proving that there can be success international cooperation
which hopefully will extend into other political and social
areas as well. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Saxton. I thank the gentleman from Hawaii. We have been
joined by the distinguished gentleman from California, Mr.
Farr, who I believe also may have an opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. SAM FARR, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM
THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Mr. Farr. Well, thank you very much. I don't have an
opening statement, more of an observation and comment, Mr.
Chairman, and I appreciate you having this hearing on this very
interesting issue.
I think I feel as you do and others do on this Committee
that these breeding programs, if they indeed support animals in
the wild, are appropriate. The concern I have, and as we get
into the discussion today and as we draft the bill--get into
the markup, I hope that none of the moneys that become
appropriated from these funds would be used for captive
breeding programs if there is no possibility of reintroduction
of the animals into the wild.
I don't think we ought to be breeding animals in sustained
captivity and use taxpayers' moneys to do that, that
essentially be used for commercial purposes. And I don't think
the moneys ought to go to organizations or entities that breed
elephants for commercial purposes. And I hope you will keep
that in consideration.
As we ban the import of animals from the wild, what we are
doing is then wanting to increase the stock in a lot of areas.
And what we do is we use--it ends up that we end up even with
zoos selling their stock for commercial purposes. And I hope
that that is not the intent and that we prohibit any moneys
from being used for that kind of purpose. Thank you.
[Statement of Mr. Young follows:]
Statement of Hon. Don Young, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Alaska
Mr. Chairman, as a cosponsor of H.R. 1787, I am pleased
that you are holding this hearing on our legislation to create
an Asian Elephant Conservation Fund.
This measure is modeled after the highly successful African
Elephant Conservation Act of 1988 and the Rhinoceros and Tiger
Conservation Act of 1994. It will authorize up to $5 million
per year to be appropriated to the Department of the Interior
to fund various projects to conserve the Asian elephant.
This flagship species of the Asian continent is in grave
danger of extinction. According to international experts, there
are less than 45,000 Asian elephants living in the wild. On a
daily basis, these animals face the loss of their forest
habitat, poachers who kill them for their bones, hide, ivory
and meat, capture for use in Burma's timber industry, and
conflicts between elephants and man. While Asian elephants are
found in 13 countries in South and Southeast Asia, nearly half
of the wild population reside in India. Unless immediate steps
are taken to help conserve this species, it will continue to
disappear from its historic habitat.
By enacting this legislation, it is my hope that the
Department of the Interior will fund projects to update census
figures, monitor known populations of Asian elephants, assist
in anti-poaching efforts, develop improved conservation
management plans, translocate highly endangered elephants, and
educate the public on the value of protecting this species.
This small but critical investment of U.S. taxpayer money
will be matched by private funds and will significantly improve
the likelihood that wild Asian elephants will exist in the 21st
Century.
We should not idly sit by and allow this magnificent animal
to disappear from this planet. H.R. 1787 will not solve all of
the problems facing the Asian elephant but it is a positive
step in the right direction.
Mr. Saxton. I thank the gentleman. We will now move to our
first panel which is, of course, as Mr. Abercrombie noted, made
up of Marshall Jones and Dave Ferguson, both of the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service. Mr. Jones is Assistant Director for
International Affairs, and Mr. Ferguson is Chief, Branch of
Middle East, South Asia, and South African International
Affairs. Mr. Jones, please proceed.
STATEMENT OF MARSHALL P. JONES, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE;
ACCOMPANIED BY DAVID FERGUSON, CHIEF, BRANCH OF MIDDLE EAST,
SOUTH ASIA, AND SOUTH AFRICAN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, UNITED
STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE
Mr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a written
statement which I would like to ask your permission to have
entered into the record. I will try to be brief in my remarks.
Mr. Chairman, when it comes to the Asian elephant, I think
the important word to focus in on is opportunity. Right now, we
are missing those opportunities to be a positive force for
conservation from the U.S. Government because we don't have a
specific authorization or a specific program. We have a lot of
projects which in one way or another have benefited Asian
elephants.
On my right is Dave Ferguson, who administers our program
in India, which uses Indian rupees, which have accumulated and
are dedicated to wildlife purposes--we have had a 10-year study
of Asian elephants under that program, for example.
I also have with me here, Dr. Susan Lieberman from our
CITES Management Authority. She and Mr. Mark Phillips, who
administers our African elephant program, are involved also in
our CITES implementation where we have done things that will
benefit Asian countries in terms of their CITES implementation.
We have some indirect benefits to Asian elephants from our
rhino-tiger program. Fred Bagley, who administers that program,
is also here working with Dave. But, Mr. Chairman, we don't
have any specific way to provide direct assistance to countries
outside India if they come to us to ask for help with, for
example, dealing with Asian elephant habitat needs; surveys of
the population; work with local communities to help find ways
to resolve conflicts between elephants and local villagers.
We don't have a specific authorization, and we don't have a
source right now for a program that will enable us to be a
partner with all of the other organizations that are
represented here today, many of whom are already very active in
doing what they can to help. So, Mr. Chairman, we think that is
a missed opportunity.
On the other hand, thanks to you and to Mr. Abercrombie and
the other co-sponsors of this bill, what you have put before us
now is a chance to capitalize on an opportunity; for us to step
forward to work in partnership with the range countries where
Asian elephants occur; with nongovernmental organizations; with
the corporate sector, like Ringling Bros., organizations that
are genuinely interested in the conservation of Asian elephants
in their native habitat.
Mr. Chairman, we are prepared to do our best to take
advantage of that opportunity, to work with you and this
Subcommittee, with the Congress as a whole and with all of
these partners if this bill is enacted.
You will hear later today, Mr. Chairman, from a number of
organizations that can tell you about the plight of the Asian
elephant. I think it is also very nicely dramatized in the
graphics that we have here today.
Something else that really affected me, Mr. Chairman, is
that very recently I had the opportunity to go through the
exhibit that is in the lower level of the National Gallery of
Art right now on the Angkor civilization of Cambodia. And in
the very last room of that exhibit there is a statue right in
the center of the room. It sits on a pedestal so that it is
just about at the height of your eyes. It is a statue of the
god, Ganesha, which has the body of a human but the head of an
elephant.
And, Mr. Chairman, I stood there for a few minutes very
recently when I was there at the exhibit just looking at that
statue. And that statue looks so powerful you almost feel like
it could leap right off the pedestal and run through the room.
And I thought about what that meant, Mr. Chairman. An artisan
almost a thousand years ago was inspired by the power and the
grace and the beauty of the Asian elephant to make that
sculpture and has given us that feeling that he or she had in
carving it.
And I was even more affected, Mr. Chairman, when I found
out that the name Ganesha means the resolver of difficulties.
And I thought what you have done here with this bill, Mr.
Chairman, has given us in the executive branch the opportunity
to be resolvers of difficulties ourselves.
And so we think that the spirit of that Asian elephant god
is what should motivate all of us to be resolvers of
difficulties, to work together, to extend a helping hand to the
people in Asian countries who need our help to conserve this
precious resource, and we are prepared to do our best to
implement this bill if it is enacted into law. Mr. Chairman,
with that, I think I will close and be prepared to answer any
questions that you may have.
[Statement of Mr. Jones may be found at end of hearing.]
Mr. Saxton. Thank you very much, Mr. Jones. I can tell by
your testimony how dedicated you are to these issues--not just
your testimony, but by your history of your activities in these
matters, and we appreciate that very much. We know that these
programs that we put into law work because folks like you and
Mr. Ferguson are here to see to it that they are implemented in
an effective way, and we appreciate that. Mr. Ferguson.
Mr. Ferguson. I have no comments at this time. No. Thank
you.
Mr. Saxton. OK. Then we will begin with some questions. Mr.
Farr brought up an interesting subject which, frankly, I had
not contemplated, and that is whether or not we are somehow
helping to subsidize commercial enterprise. And I think this
kind of leads me to a series of questions.
Obviously, the $5 million, if it is to be appropriated in
each of the 5 years, or some part of that $5 million will go a
long way toward providing a spark I suspect to encourage a
variety of other entities to become involved in the
conservation program and those efforts by other governments, by
other conservation groups. And I suspect that in some cases we
are hoping to encourage the participation of commercial
enterprises in the conservation project as well.
So can you describe for us how you see these moneys being
used and the relationship that they will have to other
countries, other conservation groups, and other commercial
enterprises?
Mr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, Mr.
Chairman, I would note that the bill itself says that its
purpose is to provide for the conservation of Asian elephants,
and it has a definition which we think is very well-
constructed. It is a definition that uses concepts which are
already found in other legislation tracing back to the
Endangered Species Act and the African Elephant Act and the
Rhino and Tiger Act and probably others too.
So I think the bill itself, first of all, sets a very clear
ground rule that any project we would approve must contribute
to the conservation of the species, and there are a number of
specific activities which are defined within the bill as
constituting conservation.
Now, Mr. Chairman, we are definitely not prejudiced against
commercial enterprises, and we are looking forward to having
opportunities to work with them. Those joint efforts would be--
need to be ones that fit within the definition and the scope of
the bill, and that is conservation of the species.
We also see a tremendous role, of course, for
nongovernmental organizations; not only nongovernmental
organizations in the United States such as the ones that will
be testifying and the ones that have helped bring this bill
along, but also sometimes smaller nongovernmental organizations
within the range countries themselves, ones that are sort of
grassroots organizations.
There is an opportunity we think for everyone to
participate in this. There are international controls on
commercial trade in species that are listed under CITES, the
Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species.
Appendix I of CITES generally prohibits commercial trade.
On the other hand, there are legitimate exceptions in CITES
for species that have been bred in captivity and meet certain
standards, and we have been trying to work with, for example,
the circus community to find ways to be able to help them in
their efforts with captive breeding and, where it is possible,
to look ahead to legitimate trade under CITES that fits within
the broad provisions.
Commercial trade between two Asian countries for animals
that would be used as beasts of burden probably would be and
should be prohibited by CITES, and we would have no intention
of being part of any program that was only for using elephants
as commercial or work animals and didn't have a conservation
aspect to it.
Mr. Saxton. Mr. Farr----
Mr. Farr. Mr. Chairman----
Mr. Saxton. Go ahead, please.
Mr. Farr. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Well, I am a
little concerned with that response because I think it is
pretty broad. You know, I am used to preserving the mountain
lion that is not in my district and certainly the California
condor. There is never anything in those programs where you do
habitat preservation or management that allows for some
commercial spinoffs of that, to allow to breed the mountain
lions either or provide habitat so that they can be used for
any kind of commercial purpose.
And I think unless you really put the emphasis on
reintroduction of the animals in the wild and preserving the
wild, then the pur-
pose for this legislation is inappropriate. I would like to see
you tightening it up so that these captive breeding programs--
that there isn't any--if there is no possibility of
reintroducing the animals to the wild or protecting the wild,
then we ought not to be funding that program. Private sector
funding can take care of that.
Mr. Saxton. Let me reclaim my time, and let me just pursue
a couple of items on this point. It is not our intent, and I am
sure it is not your intent, Mr. Jones, to subsidize a breeder
of Asian elephants that has in the United States or elsewhere a
facility which is intended to breed and raise Asian elephants
for sale or strictly for commercial purposes. Is that correct?
Mr. Jones. Yes, Mr. Chairman. This bill is focused on the
conservation of the Asian elephant in its range country. And I
would say, Mr. Farr, I don't disagree with anything that you
have said. I said we were looking for ways that we could work
with the private sector. That is separate from this bill. We
have other ways that we work with the private sector where they
are interested in contributing to the conservation of Asian
elephants in their range countries.
All of the grants that we would give under this program we
would want to be focused on enhancing the conservation of Asian
elephants in their range countries. That means protecting their
habitat. It certainly does not mean that we would somehow be
subsidizing or financing captive breeding operations, for
example, in the United States.
That is a completely separate thing. We do seek to work
with circuses and other entities where we can to encourage
responsible breeding in the United States, but that is a
separate thing. And that is not something that would come under
the scope of this bill.
Mr. Saxton. Mr. Jones, let me just ask one other question.
A very important part of the program as you see it, I assume,
is trying to involve and encourage the participation of
commercial enterprise, private sector investment.
And, therefore, it would seem to me that we need to be very
careful in addressing Mr. Farr's concerns not to exclude those
folks who you seek to involve in the program from being
involved because they are commercial and inclined to take part
in a conservation effort.
In other words, if we are to put in place language that
prohibits the very activities that we are trying to encourage,
we would be counterproductive. And I just want to make sure we
all agree on that point.
Mr. Farr. If I may, Mr. Chairman, I don't think we ought to
use taxpayers' moneys to subsidize the breeding of elephants in
captivity to be used for circuses or for shows. I mean, I don't
think that is the intent of having that animal on this earth. I
do believe in the idea of preserving the habitat, as we are
with the condors or with other kinds of endangered species, and
I applaud that.
I think, frankly, you are going to have to buy up habitat,
and we are going to have to protect it and manage it and give
people economic training on how ecotourism can be a replacement
for the subsistence economy that so many of these rangelands
have to live on.
Mr. Abercrombie. Mr. Chairman?
Mr. Saxton. Mr. Abercrombie.
Mr. Farr. I support that but I don't support, you know,
subsidizing----
Mr. Saxton. I think we are all agreeing. Mr. Abercrombie.
Mr. Abercrombie. We are. Yes. If you would yield to me, Mr.
Chairman, perhaps I can help relieve Mr. Farr's very legitimate
concern. And perhaps, Mr. Jones, if you could engage in a bit
of dialog with me, perhaps you as well, Mr. Ferguson. Both of
you are aware--Mr. Jones, in particular--I believe you are
aware of the hearing we had previously--an informational
hearing--Asian elephant or information that came to us about
habitat and clash, the competition for habitat between--
particularly as urban areas expand in south Asia. You are
familiar with this whole situation, are you not?
Mr. Jones. Yes, sir. Although I didn't participate in that
hearing, I am familiar.
Mr. Abercrombie. But you understand the concept. Yes. Here
is the point. As I said, Mr. Farr has a legitimate concern. The
intent of this legislation and the way it is written is not to
subsidize in any way, shape, or form commercial enterprise.
However, in order to gain the cooperation of nations,
regions, municipalities, areas, organizations, private sector,
corporations, for that matter--you know, in other words, the
whole range of social and economic infrastructure that is
emerging in Asia, which, by definition, clashes with,
confronts, constricts, restricts--any combination thereof--the
Asian elephant in what might otherwise be its natural habitat,
wanderings, existence.
We have to encourage local entities, regional entities,
whether they are political or social or economic or some
combination, to work with us on this, to work with Dr. Sukumar
and others in the scientific community and in the preservation
community who might otherwise not have any leverage whatsoever
to be able to withstand that kind of competition.
The Asian elephant has always existed, has it not, in a
context within which its contact with human beings is fairly
frequent, fairly consistent. Now, in some instances, of course,
domestication takes place. Right? And we know it takes use in
logging. That may still have a very efficacious relationship.
It may be that the Asian elephant will go the way of the draft
horses of even my youth.
Draft horses were still used to some degree when I was a
young boy, but almost by definition at the time of my
grandfather that use of draft horses had disappeared and they
became--in order to preserve the draft horses. Are you familiar
when I say a draft horse--one of the world's most magnificent
animals?
They made appearances at county fairs in what you call
horse-pulling contests, the pulling of weight. I don't know if
you have ever seen one. It is one of the great sights between
human beings--I mean, relationships between human beings and
animals that it is possible to see--a test of strength and
cooperation and all the rest of it. But they had become
anachronisms.
My grandfather was very reluctant to give in to the
internal combustion engine, and they actually delivered baked
goods, for example, in Buffalo, New York, by horse-drawn carts
right up past World War II, and he stayed with it as long as he
could--stayed with the horses.
Now, it may be the Asian elephant is going to be in that
category of I am going to say an artifact, and I don't mean
that in any kind of pejorative sense or any kind of sense where
they end up being a statue in a display at the National
Gallery. But in order to do that, we have got to make sure that
we can attract the favorable attention of those who are being
impacted by the clash, if you will, of Asian elephants and
modernity throughout south Asia.
I am sorry to have taken so long with this preamble, but I
hope you see where I am going. I agree entirely with Mr. Farr,
but we don't want to write legislation in such a way as to
actually inhibit us being able to attract these other entities
into supporting our conservation efforts. Is that making sense?
You have these kinds of--is that the kind of thing you are
doing now in India?
Mr. Jones. Mr. Abercrombie, let me turn to Dave Ferguson in
a moment to talk about some of the things we have done in
India. But I would say that, in general, we are looking for
partners who are committed to the same conservation goals that
you are in the drafting of this bill. And those partners could
be from the private sector.
They can be other organizations in the private sector.
Those can be nongovernmental organizations, and they certainly
also could be commercial enterprises. But, of course, they have
got to be committed to the conservation goals that are in the
bill that you have drafted.
Mr. Abercrombie. Yes. One of the ways we attracted people
to help us with the African elephant was because--were hunters.
They could see if everything worked out right here, perhaps
they would be able to go back to hunting. Now, not everybody
was in favor of that.
But in order to get the broadest possible support--and I
will state, Mr. Chairman, for the record, I think one of the
reasons we succeeded and are succeeding where the African
elephant was concerned is that the originators of the
legislation with the African elephant were wise enough to see
that by broadening the base of support that we would have a
better chance at success.
Mr. Jones. Mr. Abercrombie, I couldn't agree more. In terms
of Asian elephants as work animals, you know a lot more about
draft horses than I do, but I have seen them. They are
magnificent. Asian elephants----
Mr. Abercrombie. They are more than just commercials for
Budweiser. My grandfather was the foreman on an eight-horse
hitch. That is where you get the word teamster from--teams of
horses--eight-horse hitch. They delivered the beer.
Mr. Jones. Mr. Abercrombie, I don't know if elephants have
ever delivered beer, but they certainly deliver other services,
and that is an amazing relationship. I suspect that you are
right over time when you go to countries in Asia where a few
years ago they may have been doing this; today what you have
got is a suburb or a city with people all carrying cellular
phones in their hands. And those are probably not people who
are thinking of Asian elephants anymore.
Mr. Saxton. Mr. Farr would like to----
Mr. Farr. One question.
Mr. Saxton. One short, final thought.
Mr. Farr. In your statement, you said none of this money
would be spent in the United States. Is that correct?
Mr. Jones. Mr. Chairman, I would not anticipate unless it
was for some kind of a data base or something else that might
be here, but our African elephant funds and our rhino and tiger
funds, those funds are all spent either in the range countries
or with international organizations that are devoted to
conservation like the CITES secretariat or the IUCN, and I
would anticipate the same with the Asian elephant.
Mr. Farr. So these funds don't trickle down to the zoo
breeding program?
Mr. Jones. We have worked with zoos, but those were zoos
that had programs in the range countries.
Mr. Farr. So the incident that happened in the Portland Zoo
where the Asian elephants were bred and have not had a very
successful life thereafter, this money wouldn't reach entities
like the Portland Zoo?
Mr. Jones. Mr. Farr, unfortunately, I don't know enough
about the Portland Zoo I think to comment on that, but we could
take a look at that, and I certainly could give you----
Mr. Farr. Well, they are one of the country's foremost zoos
in breeding Asian elephants, and there has been a lot of
problems with it, and that is what I am concerned about. You
know, I think the best thing you can do is protect the habitat,
and from then you have got at least rangeland in which
elephants can survive. Without protecting the habitat, you are
not going to protect them. Thank you.
Mr. Saxton. Thank you very much. And I would like to thank
Mr. Jones and Mr. Ferguson for being with us this morning.
Mr. Abercrombie. Mr. Chairman?
Mr. Saxton. Mr. Abercrombie for one quick, final thought.
Mr. Abercrombie. No, no. I thought we were all working on
your extended time. I am sorry. I had a couple of questions.
They are fairly short, and we can submit some questions to you
as well, I presume. You spoke about your ability to use
currency that may have accumulated in the Treasury of the
United States by the United States which stays in-country, and
you cited India--rupees that from whatever base are under your
jurisdiction or could be put under your jurisdiction by the
President or by the Congress.
Mr. Jones. Yes, sir.
Mr. Abercrombie. Would you think it would be useful to
write into this legislation, if it is possible, and I don't
know--maybe it would take a separate bill--permission to
transfer or change currency to promote studies, programs,
support, et cetera, such as you now have in India into the
currency of other nations in order to do this?
The reason I say that is is that range doesn't necessarily
respect borders. Habitat doesn't respect borders that are
arbitrarily made by human beings. It might even be one day that
we could get some kind of cooperation from Burma, that kind of
thing. Would that be useful?
I don't know if it can even be done in this particular
legislation, but it would seem to me that it would be useful
for you to have that kind of ability to be able to change
currency or transfer currency. I am not even quite sure of the
phrase I should use.
Mr. Jones. Mr. Abercrombie, the program we have in India,
you are right. Those are Indian rupees that are owed to the
United States. They cannot be turned into dollars. There is a
large amount of them, and the Department--is it the Treasury,
Dave?--that has this program, and different agencies a number
of years ago were able to make proposals for spending of that
money.
We got approval and a fund has been dedicated to this. The
funds are going to run out. They are not endless. We have had
programs in some other countries, and let me just have Dave say
a very quick word about other countries that we have worked in,
but I don't think any of those are Indian or Asian elephant
range countries. Is that right, Dave?
Mr. Ferguson. Well, just for clarification, these special
foreign currencies that we have been discussing--Indian
rupees--are part of the Public Law 83-480, the Agricultural
Trade Development Assistance Act, which allows the transfer of
surplus agricultural products to other countries. They pay for
them in their local currencies.
They are kept track of by the Department of Treasury, and
when they reach a certain amount which is excess to the needs
of the United States in that particular country, then they
become available for various purposes which U.S. Federal
agencies can take advantage of it.
So the Endangered Species Act of 1973 has a specific phrase
in it in Section 8[a] which deals with international
conservation efforts allowing the Secretary of the Interior to
utilize excess foreign currencies wherever they are available
for enhancing the status of wildlife, particularly endangered
species. So using----
Mr. Abercrombie. Are those funds transferrable from one
country to another? Because India might generate a lot of
money, and Thailand may generate not as much or virtually
nothing.
Mr. Ferguson. Well, that is true. Over 20 some odd
countries have come on the list and off the list, but these
transactions are going on all of the time even now, but there
are different categories of these funds. And the categories----
Mr. Abercrombie. Anyways, I appreciate that. I don't want
to take more time right now, but that is something we could
usefully look at I think, Mr. Chairman, as a possibility for
helping to get funding. Thank you, Mr. Ferguson. I didn't mean
to cut you off, but we are under a little bit of time
constraint.
Mr. Saxton. Thank you very much, and thank you, Mr. Jones
and Mr. Ferguson. And we are going to move on to our second
panel at this point. It consists of Dr. Terry Maple, President
and CEO of Zoo Atlanta; Dr. Raman Sukumar of the Center of
Ecological Science of the Indian Institute of Science; and Dr.
Eric Dinerstein, the Chief Scientist and Director of the
Conservation Science Program at the World Wildlife Fund.
And while these gentlemen are taking their places, I should
have and neglected to ask unanimous consent that Chairman
Young's statement be included in the record at the appropriate
point after the opening statements that were given, and so I do
so at this point.
Welcome to three very well-known individuals, Dr. Maple,
Dr. Sukumar, and Dr. Dinerstein. We are very pleased that you
are here with us. We are, obviously, interested in your
testimony and anxious to hear what you have to say this
morning. So as soon as you are prepared, Dr. Maple, welcome
back with us again, and the floor is yours.
STATEMENT OF DR. TERRY MAPLE, PRESIDENT/CEO, ZOO ATLANTA
Dr. Maple. Well, thank you very much. I might add that in
addition to my own zoo, Zoo Atlanta, I am speaking today for
the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and on behalf
of AZA I would like to express my appreciation for the concern
and interest that Chairman Saxton and this Subcommittee have
historically shown for the conservation of threatened and
endangered species. And I would especially like to thank the
Chairman and Congressman Abercrombie for introducing this bill
and thanking the Subcommittee members who have co-sponsored it.
The AZA strongly supports this legislation. The AZA
represents virtually every professionally operated zoological
park, aquarium, oceanarium, and wild animal park in North
America, as well as 6,500 individual members. More than 119
million people visit the AZA's 180 accredited zoos and
aquariums each year.
In 1988, this Subcommittee recognized the serious threat
the African elephant faced from poaching and loss of habitat by
strongly supporting the African Elephant Conservation Act.
While the Act's imposition of a ban on the importation of
African ivory was important, the establishment of the African
Elephant Conservation Fund has made the Act critical to the
survival of the species.
This fund is the only continuous source of money to assist
African countries and organizations in their conservation
efforts to protect and manage elephants. The fund has supported
over 50 conservation projects in 17 range states to enhance
habitat protection.
Regrettably, the Asian elephant is in need of similar help.
It faces serious threats, not just from ivory poaching, but
from a greater threat--the loss of habitat due to rapidly
expanding human populations.
By creating the Asian Elephant Conservation Act and its
subsequent fund, the United States will have the opportunity to
once again demonstrate its leadership and commitment to
wildlife conservation. The Asian elephant is a flagship species
for the tropical forests of Asia. Securing its long-term
viability will, in turn, assist in the conservation of many
other animals, including tigers, rhinoceros, Asiatic wild dog,
and others.
Unlike the African elephant, whose populations range
between 600,000 to 700,000, the Asian elephant population only
numbers between 35,000 to 45,000 animals. And this population
is highly fragmented throughout 13 countries. Only in four
areas does the population consist of more than 1,000 animals.
The goals of the Act and its subsequent fund would be the
following: one, protection of the remaining elephant
populations and their habitat; the establishment and management
of specially pro-
tected areas; reduction of captures from the wild, most notably
in Burma; and promotion of effective community enforcement
programs.
This bill would focus on remedies that address human-
elephant conflict resolution. The Act would give support to
projects that accomplish one or more of the following: directly
promoting wild elephant management practices; monitoring
population trends; assessing annual ranging patterns;
enforcement of CITES; encouraging law enforcement through
community participation; translocating elephants; and the
conduct of community outreach and education.
Today, AZA institutions exhibit 155 Asian elephants. Asian
and African elephants are magnificent creatures. They are
difficult to exhibit, manage, and breed. They have complex
social structures, at times rivaling those of humankind. They
are extremely intelligent.
You should know that zoos engage in three types of
conservation--captive propagation, conservation in range
countries, and conservation education in our local communities
and in range countries. An example of the first type is the
work that the San Diego Zoo and the LA Zoo did to save, breed,
and reintroduce the California condor.
As important as it is for our institutions to educate our
visitors about the life patterns of the Asian elephant, it is
equally important that resources be made available to protect
the wild Asian elephant populations in its habitat.
AZA strongly believes that H.R. 1787 should receive the
full support of this Committee for the following reasons: it
will provide competitive financing where it is needed most--in
the wild to support protection, conservation, and management of
threatened Asian elephants.
It is focused and cost effective, yet flexible enough to
address immediate needs for conservation. It will encourage
donations from private sources. Many zoos, for example, will
donate to this program--a fine example of public/private
partnerships. And funding requests will be based on sound
science. We thank you for the opportunity to endorse this bill.
[Statement of Dr. Maple may be found at end of hearing.]
Mr. Saxton. Dr. Maple, thank you very much. We will move
now to Dr. Sukumar.
STATEMENT OF DR. RAMAN SUKUMAR, CHAIRMAN, IUCN/SSC ASIAN
ELEPHANT SPECIALIST GROUP
Dr. Sukumar. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity
to speak on behalf of the Asian elephant. The Asian elephant,
which has shared a special bond with people for over 4,000
years, now faces an uncertain future. Its total population in
the wild and in captivity is under 10 percent of that of the
African elephant.
Of the estimated wild population of 50,000 elephants, about
50 percent is found in a single country, India. Other important
populations are seen in Burma, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand,
and Malaysia. Its status is unclear in potentially important
countries such as Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, although it is
known that elephants are in relatively low numbers. Elephant
populations in China, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal are
relatively insignificant.
Fewer than 10 populations, six of them in India, have over
1,000 elephants each, a level I believe is needed to ensure its
long-term viability. The majority of populations have much
fewer numbers, often less than 100 or 50 elephants each, which
are not viable even in the short term.
There are several causes for the decline of the elephant in
Asia, and other speakers have mentioned this. The loss and
fragmentation of habitat due to expansion of cultivation,
settlement, and developmental projects have squeezed elephant
populations into small, unviable areas. And this is a process
that occurs in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, India,
and Sri Lanka.
The loss of forest to agriculture occurs in a different
context in northeastern India and countries such as Burma,
Laos, and Cambodia. Here, slash-and-burn shifting cultivation
on hill slopes has denuded forest cover considerably.
The second major cause for the decline of the elephant is
its capture and killing in large numbers. During the past
century alone, up to 100,000 elephants have been captured in
Asia. It is now certain that the extremely low densities and
numbers of elephants in many southeast Asian countries,
particularly the Indo-China region, is due to hunting of
elephants for ivory, meat, skin, and other elephant products.
Equally, if not more important, is the consumer demand for
elephant products such as ivory from east Asian nations, in
particular Japan. A new wave of ivory poaching is sweeping
through Asia affecting countries such as India. Here, the
selective poaching of male elephants for tusks has caused
serious imbalances in the population structures. As the number
of male elephants declines and sex ratios become unequal,
genetic variation is lost to the detriment of the population.
A socioeconomic dimension to the problem of conserving
elephants is the impact of elephants on humans and their crops
and property. As habitats become fragmented and elephant
populations compressed, there is escalation of crop
depredations and manslaughter by elephants.
Several hundred people are killed by wild elephants each
year, often when elephants enter crop fields and settlements at
night in search of forage. The economic losses to crop damage
by elephants run into several million dollars annually in Asian
countries.
The coming century will decide the ultimate fate of the
Asian elephant and other creatures on this earth. Fortunately,
with the elephant, the problems have been well identified and
solutions available to ensure its survival and long-term
conservation.
Basically, I think there are four major aspects to the
conservation of the elephant, three of which have to do with
the wild populations and one with captive populations. These
are maintaining viable, contiguous habitats of high quality
through setting up of networks of protected areas; two,
minimizing elephant-human conflicts through appropriate
measures; three, controlling the poaching of elephants for
ivory and other products; and, four--and this is important I
believe because 30 percent of the total population of the Asian
elephant is found in captivity in Asian countries--we have to
properly manage the large numbers of captive elephants through
proper health care, training, and use.
Although the task is enormous, given the wide geographical
spread of the species, there is urgent need to consolidate upon
and expand the scope of various conservation projects being
carried out on a small scale.
Over the past two decades, the Asian Elephant Specialist
Group has been the most active player in elephant conservation
efforts in Asia. The considerable achievements of the AESG and
other organizations and institutions have been made with very
modest funding. The time has come to implement the conservation
strategies which have evolved over the years, and this calls
for much higher levels of funding from the international
community.
The irony that I personally see in the plight of the Asian
elephant is that it is arguably the ultimate flagship species
for conservation of biological and cultural diversity in Asia.
The elephant is a keystone species in the tropical forests of
south and southeast Asia, which are biologically one of the
most diverse regions in the world.
Conserving the wild elephant would automatically ensure
that hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species would
also be conserved in Asian tropical forests. The proper care
and management of captive elephants in Asia would ensure that
elements of the rich cultural heritage of this region would be
preserved. We surely have a responsibility to saving the most
magnificent of our fellow creatures. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[Statement of Mr. Sukumar may be found at end of hearing.]
Mr. Saxton. Thank you very much, Dr. Sukumar. Dr.
Dinerstein.
STATEMENT OF DR. ERIC DINERSTEIN, CHIEF SCIENTIST AND DIRECTOR,
CONSERVATION SCIENCE PROGRAM, WORLD WILDLIFE FUND
Dr. Dinerstein. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I am
here on behalf of the World Wildlife Fund and its 1.2 million
members to urge your support for this important legislation to
help conserve Asian elephants.
Over the past few months, we have heard a lot about the
recent CITES meetings and newspaper articles filled about the
plight of African elephants. And this hearing marks an
important opportunity to really turn the spotlight on the much
more endangered species of elephant, the Asian elephant.
Those of us who are involved in Asian elephant conservation
wish we had the problems that are faced in Africa where you
still have over 650,000 individuals, who have large
populations, and many populations that are more than 1,000
individuals. There are far fewer elephants in Asia. There are
far fewer individual populations with more than 1,000
individuals, and the habitats are much more fragmented.
We need to address conservation on several different
fronts. The first thing that we need to do for Asian elephants
is to undertake an exercise that we have recently done for
tigers, and I have given the members of the Committee a series
of maps that we have prepared on the distributions of Asian
elephants, tigers, and rhinos.
But we have recently published a book in collaboration with
the Wildlife Conservation Society that takes the 160 areas
where tigers occur across Asia and prioritizes them so we
invest our efforts in the 25 areas that provide the greatest
chance of conserving tigers for the long term.
The fact is the same thing applies for elephants. We don't
have the opportunity to conserve elephants in every place they
occur. There are places where we are probably going to lose
elephants over the next few decades. But there are places where
we have a great chance if we do the right things now and use
these funds appropriately to be strategic in where we make our
investments.
So we need the same sort of application of looking at where
elephants occur, where we can mitigate poaching effects, and
where the populations are largest and the best habitat quality
to try to conserve them.
And one of the things that you will notice if you look at
the maps that we have provided for you is that there are many
areas where elephants occur that are along the borders of
countries. And this is because this is where some of the most
intact and most biologically rich forests occur. So an
important part of elephant conservation is going to be involved
in transboundary efforts among the countries of Asia.
We also need to look at other ways to find some solutions
of having people live in close proximity to elephants. And I am
proud to report about one solution to this that we are doing
using U.S. taxpayers' money in the country of Nepal funded
through a U.S. Aid program in the Biodiversity Conservation
Network where we are using funds generated from a community
based ecotourism program where tourists go and ride trained
elephants to go and observe tigers and rhinos in a park in
Nepal.
In the first year of operation, we had 10,500 tourists take
part in this, and the local communities who are subsistence
farmers went from earning zero dollars in the first year to
$280,000, half of which goes back to the national park and the
other half goes back to supporting local community efforts like
building schools and health posts.
We also need to look at legislation that recycles some of
the revenues generated by national parks back to local people.
This is the appropriate economic incentive that will make
people more willing to live next to tigers, rhinos, and
elephants as their neighbors.
We also need more appropriate and more effective scientific
understanding of the dynamics of these populations that Dr.
Sukumar has talked about, to track them and to understand which
ones have the greatest viability over the long term.
We know from our studies of African elephants how vital
they are in the regeneration and maintenance of biodiversity of
African tropical forests where in some forests, for example, in
the Ivory Coast, that elephants disperse the seeds of 30
percent of all the trees that live in those forests. So we have
had a long example of co-evolution of elephants and their
habitat that is vital to maintain.
We think that it is very important to focus on these issues
in Asia because we have 50 percent of the world's population
living in perhaps 13 percent of the land area. And so if we can
solve some of these problems using Asia as our prototype where
you have high densities of people living around protected
areas, this will have broad application to many other places
around the world where we see burgeoning human populations
encroaching on nature reserves where you still have a large
intact megafauna that can come into conflict with local people.
So solving these issues here is very appropriate.
I would like to end with a nonscientific anecdote that I
suppose follows after Mr. Abercrombie's story of the draft
horses. This is a domesticated elephant story but one that we
use in our research. For years, I worked with the Smithsonian
Institution studying rhinoceros and tigers in Nepal, and one
night we were radio tracking using radio telemetry a
rhinoceros, a male that was following a female who was in heat.
And I was doing this sitting on the back of a trained
elephant, as purchase order by U.S. tax dollars for the
Smithsonian project, that was trained to capture rhinos and
capture tigers. We were following along with this elephant and
following behind rhinos when all of a sudden in the middle of
this--in the middle of the night at one in the morning the
elephant stopped in its tracks. And the driver tried to get the
elephant to go. He kept pushing it behind the ears which is
their gas pedal, but the elephant refused to budge and the
rhinos were getting away.
Finally, the elephant took two steps backward and put its
trunk down and picked up my databook that I had all the data in
over the last year on the species and handed it back to me and
then trotted off behind the rhinos again.
Well, this is not an unremarkable story. There are many
instances of this of elephants knowing so many commands,
knowing how to help us in our research. They have also given us
the databook in a sense that we know how to conserve Asian
elephants, and now we have to put the scientific knowledge and
the conservation will to our purpose to try to conserve these
magnificent animals. Thank you.
[Statement of Dr. Dinerstein may be found at end of
hearing.]
Mr. Saxton. Thank you very much, Dr. Dinerstein. Mr.
Abercrombie.
Mr. Abercrombie. Thank you very much, doctor. I don't think
any of the draft horses I ever came into contact with would
have picked up any notes for me. You mostly had to stay out of
the way when they were working. Can you tell me what efforts
are being undertaken by--the count that we have right now is 13
different range states--that is the phrase we are using--that
is the appropriate phrase, is it not--range states----
Mr. Dinerstein. Yes.
Mr. Abercrombie. [continuing] governments to preserve Asian
elephant habitats? One of the things we are going to run into
from our colleagues and from their constituents is why should
we spend this money? What are they doing to help themselves? I
think you will find Americans are more than willing to get
their paddle in the water and pull deep if they feel that other
people are in the canoe with them.
Dr. Dinerstein. Yes. I think Dr. Sukumar can talk about
that for India. Let me talk about a few other places. Let me
give some examples of where some of the range states have
passed legislation or enacted activities that really are
considered beyond what we are doing in our own country.
For example, in the country of Nepal, it just passed
legislation that requires recycling 50 percent of all the
revenues generated say from ecotourism or park entry fees back
to local development. So this is the first time in Asia this
has been done.
But I think this is the critical point. If we are going to
have conservation in Asia in the next 20--30 years, local
people have to be given incentives to want to live next to
large, potentially dangerous wildlife.
Mr. Abercrombie. Let me elaborate on that because we are
going to submit these questions to you folks for more elaborate
answers which we are going to need in order to satisfy our
colleagues' questions and perceptions, and we are under time
restraint. I appreciate that answer. In other words, it is now
underway. What we need to do is encourage it. Do you believe
that if we pass this legislation that will be an encouragement
to these range state governments to pass similar legislation or
complementary legislation?
Dr. Dinerstein. I think so. I think that, you know, for the
United States to take an active interest in this and to
identify important directions to go in and to put some money
where our mouth is on this would go a long ways for us to go
over and try to advocate new approaches----
Mr. Abercrombie. We have at least some moral leverage in
terms of not just simply being imperialist exponents from some
elitist plane to try and influence domestic policy in these
countries because we don't want it seen that way. Do you
believe the way this legislation is drafted that that will get
through that kind of elitist looking down your nose at other
people?
Dr. Dinerstein. I think it will, particularly if it
includes some language that talks about empowering local
communities to try to take advantage of the tremendous tourist
attractions, for example, that wild elephant herds and other
wildlife species maintain those values across Asia. But I think
that that really is the trick is that we can come up with ways
to try to conserve elephants, to try to address issues like
fragmentation----
Mr. Abercrombie. Well, in the intent language then of the
bill or the report accompanying the bill, then we have to
emphasize that?
Dr. Dinerstein. I would recommend that.
Mr. Abercrombie. Perhaps when you respond or others
respond, if you could emphasize how you think best that this
can get the message to local entities, local governments,
communities, et cetera, that were interested in building a
cooperative base with them legislatively and otherwise. That
would be good.
I wanted to ask one other thing, and, Dr. Sukumar, perhaps
you can answer this as well. Dr. Maple, you may have some
knowledge of this. Zoos and aquariums across this country, and
I expect in other countries, in order to attract support,
favorable attention, and so on have numerous programs in which
they try to bring people in. I know the Honolulu Zoo even has
where you stay overnight so that you can see, hear, and
experience what it is like because lots of animals are
nocturnal and that kind of thing. So they do things that reach
out to the community.
In this particular instance, Dr. Dinerstein, I was
intrigued by your point about ecotourism. We try to do that in
Hawaii right now. Obviously, I am searching for a hook or a
series of hooks that will enable us to attract, again, the
favorable attention of our colleagues about spending money.
I think that one of the things that this could do is that
people would like to ride elephants. I don't think that that
is--because there is, as Dr. Sukumar has indicated, 30 percent
of the Asian elephants are domesticated, they are engaged in a
commercial side, as opposed to abusing them in that category.
Perhaps with the right kind of program, the idea that
people could go to various Asian countries and participate as
ecotourists in that, that doesn't necessarily work against the
goals of conservation and preservation, does it? And if it
does, I want you to tell me. My instinct tells me that it does
not when it is properly managed and controlled and the right
attitude is put forward.
Dr. Sukumar. I think, Mr. Abercrombie, you have very
rightly put it, that we need to involve local communities in
terms of trying to conserve the species. And I can think of no
better way of doing this than by actually promoting tourism
which involves elephants--you know, both viewing elephants and
riding elephants and so on. And that will be an excellent way
of actually trying to get some economic benefits to the local
community which would give them incentives for protecting the
species.
Mr. Abercrombie. Is it possible, Dr. Dinerstein, that in
the context like either the World Wildlife Fund--I mean, your
bona fides I think are apparent with respect to your commitment
to preservation and conservation. You do not see the ecotourism
then, for example, nonshooting safaris, if you will, as
anything anesthetical to your goals and purposes?
Dr. Dinerstein. Oh, not at all. I think it is one of the
most powerful tools that we have to try to link local
development with long-term conservation.
Mr. Abercrombie. That also would include then, would it
not, helping to make an argument to local communities and
governments for the preservation, even the extension of
habitat?
Dr. Dinerstein. Oh, certainly. I mean, in fact, the program
that we have in Nepal is an example. We have managed to extend
the buffer zone and restore the habitat where we now have five
tigers living in a place and 40 rhinos that we didn't have 4
years ago through these investments.
Mr. Abercrombie. OK. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Saxton. The gentleman's time has expired. Mr. Farr.
Mr. Farr. I like the way that last question is going over.
I read nothing in the bill that puts any of the money into
that, and I would appreciate it if you want to take a look at
the bill to suggest some language that might tighten it up. It
seems to me that the best way to make this work is a
collaborative effort. You are going to have to preserve the
habitat of the animal. Preserving that habitat has got to
preserve the economy of the area.
There is a nexus. It doesn't mean that it has got to, one,
stop the erosion or the loss of the habitat, but at the same
time convert essentially agrarian cultures to a way of doing
economic development through ecotourism. And we know how to do
that, but we don't re-
quire at all that any of these moneys be collaborative that
way. And I think that we ought to tighten that up a little bit,
that there ought to be a nexus.
Secondly is I look at these maps that have been placed
before the Committee which is the Indo-Pacific ecoregions
overlaid with the distribution of elephants, tigers, and
rhinos. You really begin seeing--you can get a three-for here.
It seems to me if you can preserve the habitats of elephants in
some of these regions, you are also preserving the habitats for
tigers and the habitats in a very small area for rhinos,
particularly in Indonesia.
Is there any effort to try to prioritize a limited amount
of funds? This is $25 million over 5 years--$5 million a year.
Is there any attempt to leverage these funds with other efforts
to preserve those ecoregions as well where you can have a
multiple effect of preserving habitats?
Dr. Dinerstein. Yes, you can. I was in a way hoping you
wouldn't do the spacial overlap in your head and see how much
there is, but, in fact, I should make a point about these maps.
These maps certainly reflect the distribution of the species,
not population densities.
So you have to be careful in interpreting that in that
there are some places, for example, where tigers reach
relatively high densities like parks in Nepal where elephants
occur at low densities. And there are places where rhinos occur
and similarly for rhinos.
So there is a fair amount of overlap, but there are also
places where you have high populations of tigers and maybe not
some of the other species. So that's why I think it makes sense
to keep the funds separate because also----
Mr. Farr. I wasn't suggesting that they be commingled but--
--
Dr. Dinerstein. Yes, but certainly in terms of strategic
planning, yes, there are clearly places. And so if we can get
in the next year or so an elephant analysis that is similar to
our tiger analysis--we already know where the rhinos are
because there are so few populations left.
That would go a long ways to try to I think be much more
strategic about addressing concerns for both tigers and
elephants, which both have some of the same concerns in
maintaining large blocks of habitat and conactivity among the
remaining blocks so you can have dispersal and gene flow
between them.
Mr. Farr. Is an emphasis placed on buying the habitat?
Dr. Dinerstein. Well, it is difficult in that in many of
the countries, either it is going to be state owned or
privately owned. I think that what we should be focusing on the
most is to try to maintain the existing wildlife corridors that
exist between reserves so that elephant populations or tiger
populations can move between them very easily.
And that is probably our first goal is to maintain existing
corridors and then, where appropriate, try to restore them
because that is really what you are talking about is
appropriating land and trying to restore them.
The one advantage that we have in a lot of elephant habitat
is that elephants like habitats that are early successional,
that convert very quickly to the natural habitat. You don't
have to wait--you don't have generations of patience like you
would to regrow a tropical rain forest. So in one or 2 years,
you can have tigers, rhinos, and elephants back in places that
were once rice paddies. So that is very possible--to see
dramatic results very quickly if you can get the land
available. That becomes a tricky political issue in many
countries.
Mr. Farr. What is the highest priority? What is your
highest priority?
Dr. Dinerstein. I would say for elephants right now I would
say is to try and identify those places of the areas shown in
brown on here that have elephants in them where we have the
greatest chance of persistence over the long term right away so
that the money that would come from this fund goes to places
where it won't be wasted, where it won't be used in places that
may not have a long-term future but go to the places where we
know we can--we think we can protect elephants in perpetuity.
Mr. Farr. Well, it seems to me we need to tighten that
language up a little bit to do that. That makes good sense. And
is that your top one?
Dr. Dinerstein. Well, certainly, I think that is the top
one. And then I think in the other places is simply identifying
priorities is the first step. Then I think proper law
enforcement. As Dr. Sukumar has written about in his book and
other Asian elephant experts have testified, that the loss of
the big male tuskers is a real problem. They are being heavily
poached. Some of the reserves don't have big male tuskers
anymore. So I think strict protection from poaching is
critical, which also benefits the tigers----
Mr. Farr. My time is up but just one question. Where is the
best training in the world for wildlife game manager
enforcement?
Dr. Dinerstein. Maybe Dave Ferguson or--there are a number
of places that do that. I think in India itself, the Wildlife
Institute of India has an excellent program that Dave
Ferguson's program has supported for many years that involves
issues of law enforcement and management of parks. So,
certainly, for the region, that is an appropriate place to be
looking.
Mr. Farr. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I hope sometime we can
focus on--you know, whenever we have a NAFTA debate or any kind
of trade debate, it is always the environmental side. It comes
down to the countries have good laws but inappropriate
enforcement. It seems to me that this Committee needs to devote
a hearing to enforcement efforts around the world, where they
are weak and strong and good and bad and see if we can start
using some limited resources to enhance midlevel training.
I am a Peace Corps volunteer, and I found that midlevel
technical training--they are hungry for it and the ability to
facilitate it--get people to the countries and places that do
it. I think America does it very well in almost every area of
education. That we undersell and pay too little of attention to
that is the next step of sort of economic training that needs
to be done in the world.
Mr. Saxton. Thank you very much, Mr. Farr. Let me ask one
final question, if I may. One of the things that we have
learned in dealing with species such as the Asian elephant,
African elephant, rhinos, tigers, et cetera, is that along with
habitat protection one of the major issues that we need to
address is the economic incentive to--which dissuades people
from conservation measures. With regard to the Asian elephant,
can you talk about those economic incentives? And please
concentrate in particular on the traditional Chinese medicine
issue which I understand causes a great deal of concern. Anyone
who wishes to----
Dr. Sukumar. Well, I don't think the parks of Asian
elephants are really involved in Chinese medicine. I know that
tiger parks are involved but not elephant. I don't think
elephant is really used in Chinese medicine.
Dr. Dinerstein. Nowhere near the extent that rhinos or
tigers are. We are not facing that. It is really the ivory
threat.
Dr. Sukumar. It is really ivory--the underskin to a certain
extent, yes.
Mr. Saxton. Are there other economic incentives to hunt or
kill Asian elephants?
Dr. Sukumar. Apart from ivory and skin, no. I mean, that
is, of course, killing of elephants for meat, there are certain
tribes in northeast India and southeast Asia who eat elephant
meat, but that is the other incentive for killing elephants.
Mr. Saxton. So this is not, in the vernacular, a big deal--
--
Dr. Sukumar. Yes.
Mr. Saxton. [continuing] in the big scheme of things? OK.
Well, thank you very much. We appreciate all of your testimony
and thank you for sharing with us your perspectives. Mr.
Abercrombie?
Mr. Abercrombie. Mr. Chairman, I mentioned during the
course of the testimony for both panels and I think for those
who have consulted with us and given us their testimony
previously, could I ask that some of the questions put forward
to us in our background material and perhaps some other
questions be put to the witnesses in the hopes that the answers
we get back will help us write the legislation more
comprehensively?
Mr. Saxton. That is an excellent suggestion. If staff will
forward on the appropriate questions which are in our packet,
then we will ask you if you will submit some answers in writing
to us. Thank you very much. We are going to move to panel
number 3; Dr. Michael Stuwe, Research Associate of the
Smithsonian Institute; Dr. Mary Pearl, Executive Director of
the Wildlife Preservation Trust International; and the
Honorable former member of this House, Andy Ireland, Senior
Vice President of Feld Entertainment, Inc. Please take your
places. We are anxious to hear your perspectives as well. And,
Dr. Stuwe, when you are comfortable in your place and
sufficiently organized, you may begin.
STATEMENT OF DR. MICHAEL STUWE, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE,
CONSERVATION AND RESEARCH CENTER, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE
Dr. Stuwe. Yes. I am comfortable. And first of all, I guess
I have to say that I am a research associate with the
Smithsonian, but they told me as I am not a permanent employee,
I cannot speak for them officially. So I would like for you to
take this testimony as testimony of a scientist who works in
Asia on Asian elephants.
Mr. Saxton. Very well. Thank you very much.
Dr. Stuwe. But still this morning when I came in, I went to
the Natural History Museum, first of all, before it opened up.
I went into the big entrance hall, and I looked at the elephant
there--that monster of an elephant standing there with nobody
else in that big hall. And I realized going to this meeting
that that is what we have to do, we have to protect the
elephant.
Mr. Saxton. Doctor, I wonder if you might pull the
microphone a little closer.
Dr. Stuwe. When I was walking around the elephant there all
by myself, hearing my footsteps, thoughts went through my mind
from a few weeks ago when I went out with the Malaysian
Wildlife Department to capture elephants--capture elephants in
the plantations, in the crop fields in southern Malaysia, and
translocate them up into national parks. And for days and days
without end, we were visiting homesteads and farms and
plantations that just the night before had been completely
destroyed by elephants.
So in my statement here instead of repeating much of the
data on elephants that we have heard already, which is already
in the public record, I want to concentrate on two items that I
think are most important. And the most important item I think
is the human-elephant conflict.
It is what we see as a magnificent species over here that
needs protection, and the little landowner over there in
Malaysia or the other countries whose crops get raided season
after season, whose livelihood is destroyed season after season
may not see as a magnificent species.
So that is I think where we have to start. That is where we
have to find the solution, and that is where a lot of the funds
should be allocated onsite right there where it happens every
night when the elephants and man get in conflict with each
other. And, obviously, as the human populations grow as all of
Malaysia is being developed, the forests are shrinking.
And in addition to that, we humans--we provide the
elephants with restaurants. We provide them with plants that
are juicy, that are sweet, that are everything that we like to
eat, and they like it too. So not only do we displace them,
instead, we are actually pulling them in many cases into these
areas to feed on our crops which adds to the problem of solving
the whole issue.
The second point I wanted to make, and it has been
discussed quite a bit already, is the question of the
domestication of the work elephants out there. A quarter of the
population may be in captivity. These guys are not contributing
to reproduction. They are almost completely lost to the gene
pool of the Asian elephant population.
But still there are those animals that are under our direct
control. They are held by us. So if we can make these guys
breed, if we can have them reproduce and become active members
of the Asian elephant gene pool, we can control one-quarter of
their gene pool.
We were invited 2 weeks ago by the Royal Forest Department
in Thailand, for example, to help them reintroduce unemployed
work elephants. The Thai timber industry is going down the
drain as all the value cash timber has been logged out. There
were thousands of work elephants employed. These guys are now
unemployed. Their owners can no longer maintain them. So what
to do?
The first instances have been in the newspapers that
elephants are sold to slaughterhouses and slaughtered for meat.
Bangkok is full of elephants bagging in front of the big malls,
the big supermarkets--a horrible life in that congested
traffic. Other elephants are let loose by their owners. They
start raiding the crop fields over there and cause destruction
and loss of life.
So here is another big area where we can actually work on
thousands of elephants and try and find solutions on how to
integrate those guys back into the wild, into the pool of
elephants. Thank you.
[Statement of Mr. Stuwe may be found at end of hearing.]
Mr. Saxton. Thank you very much; very interesting. Dr.
Pearl.
STATEMENT OF DR. MARY PEARL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WILDLIFE
PRESERVATION TRUST INTERNATIONAL
Dr. Pearl. In your letter inviting me to speak, Congressman
Saxton, you asked me my assessment of the Asian Elephant
Conservation Act. You asked whether I think the authorization
level is appropriate, the types of conservation projects that
are likely to need Federal support, and what other steps could
be taken to help save elephants. I would like to comment
briefly on each of your queries.
First, my assessment. I think the Act may be key to the
survival of Asian elephants. As you have heard earlier, the
population is down to 50,000 animals, and what is worse, it is
isolated in small pockets spread all the way from India to
Indonesia. And because the hunting for tusks is limited to
males, because in Asia it is only the males that have the
tusks, in some areas the ratio of males to females has been
reduced to 1 to 100.
In such circumstances, it is virtually impossible for all
potential mothers to mate. Even in the best of circumstances,
elephants typically only produce an offspring every 4 to 6
years. Thus, elephant populations will be extremely slow to
recover from a steep decline.
Moreover, as you have heard, up to one-third of the
population is in captivity, mostly in logging camps. The share
of captive animals is growing. As more natural habitat is
converted into agricultural lands, the resident elephants
suddenly become ``agricultural pests,'' and they are taken into
captivity.
As Michael said, the productivity and health of this
worldwide captive population is important for the future of the
species. Yet, the captive care in many places falls short of
minimum standards for humane care. Successful captive breeding
must take place, but it cannot in unhealthy circumstances.
It will be necessary to take the hunting for capture
pressure off of remaining wild elephants by mobilizing this
captive potential. It is clear that active intervention is
necessary, both in elephant camps and in the wild to halt the
steep decline in elephant numbers.
Now, regarding your second query, I think that the
authorization level is appropriate to American interests and
values and to the capacity of field researchers and
conservationists to respond. In America, elephants are the
backbone of zoos and circuses.
In Asia, beyond the elephant's essential role in Buddhism
and Hinduism, the continued economic viability of sustainable
tropical timber harvesting depends on the maintenance of
captive elephant populations in some rural areas. In Burma, for
example, an elephant work force of 3,000 is used to manage the
logging industry.
But elephants are critically important not only culturally
and economically, but also economically indirectly through
their ecological role. They maintain the habitat that other
wildlife needs. A host of plants and animals depend on the
elephant in its role as the architect of the forest, creating
clearings in which they can also live and grow. These healthy
ecosystems are the basis of local human health and prosperity.
I would now like to outline some specific projects that
must be undertaken to protect elephants, which could be
supported under H.R. 1787. Despite the low numbers and the
troubles they face, they are not doomed to extinction. The
situation is urgent, which is very different from hopeless. We
know what we must do to stabilize the population. We must
locate and identify all remaining significant local populations
of elephants and determine their minimum critical habitat
requirements.
We must make plans to translocate isolated elephants to
places where they can become part of an effective reproducing
local population. We must resolve conflicts where elephants are
ruining people's livelihoods in such a way that both people and
elephants have viable futures. We must devise ways to better
manage captive populations so that they are self-sustaining,
humanely cared for, and a source of replenishment for remaining
wild herds.
At my organization, Wildlife Preservation Trust
International, we have, in fact, begun this work in partnership
with the Asian Elephant Conservation Centre in India, thanks to
the generosity of our members and various private foundations.
And we are also fortunate that throughout the elephant range
states, there are competent and committed scientists and
wildlife managers ready and willing to work with us to reverse
the decline in elephants.
However, the urgency of our mission is such that we cannot
accomplish what we need to on private support alone, and that
is why H.R. 1787 is so important. Rather than throwing money at
the problem, this legislation would direct a modest amount that
would bring ongoing efforts up to the needed level of intensity
and accomplishment.
In other words, the proposed U.S. contribution to Asian
elephant conservation represents leverage appropriate to
American interests and values which will result, in fact, in
far greater expenditures of funds and effort at the local level
within elephant range countries.
So to conclude, the Asian Elephant Conservation Act is
important for the future of a species of aesthetic and economic
value to Americans. The tasks before us are clear. We have the
people in place to make a difference with relatively modest
expenditures. Thank you.
[Statement of Dr. Pearl may be found at end of hearing.]
Mr. Saxton. Mr. Ireland.
STATEMENT OF ANDY IRELAND, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, FELD
ENTERTAINMENT, INC.
Mr. Ireland. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have submitted a
statement, and I would ask your indulgence to put----
Mr. Abercrombie. Excuse me, Mr. Ireland. To think I was
just moments from being able to jump in there and introduce you
myself, but decorum has been preserved.
Mr. Ireland. I appreciate that. Mr. Chairman, I represent
Feld Entertainment, Incorporated, one of the world's largest
and most prominent producers of live family entertainment.
While you may not be immediately familiar with the name of the
company, I am sure more than a few of the people here today
will have seen one of our shows. These include Ringling Bros.
and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Walt Disney's World on Ice, and the
Las Vegas illusionists Siegfried & Roy.
Four years ago when I retired from Congress, I had the
opportunity to run away and join the circus, not just any
circus, but literally the greatest show on earth. Needless to
say, it is a role I found myself eminently qualified for given
my 16 years here in these hallowed halls.
More seriously, the reason we are here today is because all
of us in this room and those testifying before you today have a
tremendous love and respect for one of nature's most amazing
animals, the Asian elephant. The Asian elephant has long been
an integral part of the circus experience and is among one of
our most beloved and popular animals.
America's relationship with the Asian elephant began over
200 years ago when the first Asian elephant came to this
country as part of a traveling exhibition. This has continued
through 127 years of history at Ringling Bros. and Barnum &
Bailey alone.
As the plight of the Asian elephant became more pronounced,
we at Feld Entertainment realized that we had a responsibility
to help protect the species, and that we were in a perfect
position to make such a contribution. As you know, and has been
said here by numerous speakers, roughly one-third of the
world's Asian elephant population, nearly 16,000, are
domesticated. While the vast majority reside in camps
throughout southeast Asia, we at Ringling Bros. maintain the
largest herd in the United States and the most diverse gene
pool.
Our commitment to conservation of the Asian elephant is
based on three goals: education and the accumulation of
valuable scientific information from a successful captive
breeding program and habitat conservation.
Let me explain how we look at this. As the largest
traveling exhibition in North America, over 10 million children
of all ages attended Ringling Bros. performance each year. We
long ago realized that we have a tremendous opportunity not
only to entertain but to educate our patrons, many of whom are
young children. I am sure that many of you in this room can
remember the first time you saw an elephant, a lion, and a
tiger, and the chances are pretty good that was in a circus
somewhere.
The impact of live exhibition, especially in an
entertainment setting, is tremendous. Common sense dictates and
numerous scientific studies have proven the long-term
effectiveness of live display and entertainment in both
educating and raising the public's awareness of the needs,
abilities, and, most importantly, of our responsibility to
endangered animals.
In a nutshell, we are well-positioned to educate the
public, and we go to great lengths to get the message out. In
addition to the educational benefits of public exhibition, Feld
Entertainment has made a substantial investment in the future
of the Asian elephant through the creation of the Center for
Elephant Conservation based in Florida.
The center is a 200 acre state-of-the-art facility
dedicated to the breeding, conservation, and scientific study
of Asian elephants. To date, nine calves have been born under
this program, the most recent addition arriving just last month
and weighing in at something over 200 pounds.
Having found ways we could contribute to the conservation
of the species in our own backyard through education and
successful scientific breeding, we at Feld Entertainment began
to look for the element that would make our role complete; that
is, the protection of the species in the wild.
Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the future of Asian
elephants in the wild is that of habitat preservation, and that
is what brings us here today. Dr. Sukumar and others, Mary
Pearl and Dr. Maple, have described this problem in detail. I
would simply recommend to you that the Asian Elephant
Conservation Act is the solution to this critical problem; the
piece of the puzzle that completes the picture.
The Federal Government, by helping to identify and provide
seed funds for grassroots habitat conservation projects, will
provide the vehicle through which conservation-minded
organizations such as Feld Entertainment and others here today
can make to them in a meaningful contribution to save the Asian
elephant. Thank you.
[Statement of Mr. Ireland may be found at end of hearing.]
Mr. Saxton. Thank you all very much for your comments, and
perhaps we will do this a little bit differently. The gentleman
from California.
Mr. Farr. I would just like to ask--thank you for coming,
and it is always a pleasure to have a distinguished former
member back in the building. I am interested and one of the
priorities you said was habitat conservation as the Feld
Entertainment's priorities. Is that the reason why you are
supporting this legislation?
Mr. Ireland. Yes.
Mr. Farr. Because as we heard earlier, none of the money
would be spent here in the United States for domestic breeding
programs or for all the other----
Mr. Ireland. Absolutely. The intention of this is in no way
for any funds to go to something in the United States. Speaking
for Feld, we expect to be a contributor of funds, not only hard
cash funds, but in other ways. First of all, we contribute by
raising the awareness educationwise that there is a problem out
here--in the United States, our own money, our own efforts in
our program books and other things.
We think that the $7 or $8 million that we spend and have
spent on this facility in Florida to breed these elephants and
the quite substantial funds for their care and maintenance each
year is a contribution we make to saving the Asian elephant in
the wild simply because the scientific knowledge that we
generate we make available to anybody that wants it.
And, as a matter of fact, I was just recently with Dr.
Sukumar in India with the idea of finding out how we can
transfer any knowledge that we have. Others have made the point
that this one-third of the elephant population that is domestic
can in many ways, beyond the breeding that Michael Stuwe talked
about and others, make a contribution to saving the wild
things. These two things are things that we have done
ourselves.
When we educate people about the circus, they come to us
and they want to do something. They want to participate, and
other organizations want to participate. And the leverage comes
from the Federal Government seeding the program and making it
possible for people to know where to put their funds and their
effort. Nothing in this thing would ever go to anything that we
do.
Mr. Farr. Well, I appreciate that because I agree that we
ought to be participating with both private and public sectors
to enhance the reproduction of endangered and threatened
species. And I think we do that best by preserving the habitat.
I think you can't do it just by captivity. I don't think that
we want to just learn about animals from visiting zoos and
circuses.
And I am very much opposed, I think particularly for
elephants, of the commercial use and transportation of
elephants. I don't agree with the circus's need to have
traveling elephants. I think if you want to--you bring people
to where the elephants are.
You don't take the elephants to where--you know, they
weren't intended to be on earth to be transported on trains and
trucks and so on. But that is my own personal feeling, but I do
appreciate your comment about putting private sector money into
habitat conservation, and I applaud you for that.
Mr. Saxton. Just let me comment on the gentleman's time or
my own, whichever. If it were not for Ringling Bros., Feld
Entertainment, and Andy Ireland, we probably wouldn't be here
today. This effort started when Andy Ireland came to visit Neil
Abercrombie and Jim Saxton and Harry Burroughs 6 or 8 months
ago. And the effort that he has put into getting us here today
has been phenomenal.
And I have not been able to uncover or see a single thing
here that economically benefits the circus or Feld, and I
appreciate that. I mean, we are looking to form partnerships
with those in private enterprise who can help to multiple
whatever moneys we may end up appropriating and leverage those
moneys. And I, for one, am most appreciative of the effort that
former Congressman Ireland and his associates have brought to
this effort. Mr. Abercrombie.
Mr. Abercrombie. Dr. Stuwe, I would like to know, and
perhaps, Dr. Pearl, you have expertise in this as well--I would
like to know what basis do you have for believing, if I
understood you correctly, that domesticated elephants could be
reintegrated with wild elephants in terms of expanding the
genetic pool?
Did I understand you both correctly that because of the
domesticated elephant situation--I mean, this is what we are
dealing--the real world is is that a large proportion of the
existing Asian elephants are in a domesticated state.
The testimony has been that as a result of something I
mentioned earlier in my commentary and questions, that is, the
clash between human beings and Asian elephants in the
contemporary Asian world, that the domesticated part of it may
be historically at an end or approaching an end--the
traditional uses as a result of domestication. Now, is there
any studies or activities which have already proven that this
can happen, or is this just a supposition or a proposal or
what?
Dr. Pearl. I guess we can both answer, but it may surprise
you to know that the captive/wild division isn't as clear-cut
as you might think. In many well-run elephant camps, females
are released at night to go into forests where they mate with
wild bulls, and in this way genes are exchanged between the
wild and the domestic population.
Mr. Abercrombie. So this is, I take it, random activity for
the time being?
Dr. Pearl. Oh, I am sure the females chose the healthiest
males; it's not random.
Mr. Abercrombie. I wasn't referring to individual romance,
but I meant in terms of, in other words, those who may have
used domestic elephants, obviously, want to have little
elephants to come along too probably. But that may not be the
case, but what I am interested in is is this the case then that
this would not be a difficulty? If we were able to start a
program which would be gradually--is the ideal--let me start
over again. Is the idea, Dr. Stuwe, from what you said that
eventually many of the domesticated elephants would be
reintegrated into natural habitat and reintegrated into
families, tribes, groups which currently exist in the wild?
Dr. Stuwe. If it is at all possible. It is an extremely
tricky problem that we are facing here. The study that I
mentioned to which we contribute in Thailand is selecting an
area that had elephants previously and due to poaching or
whatever happened that captures this elephant is now completely
empty of elephants. It is suited for them.
And the Queen of Thailand has just purchased three former
work elephants who had become unemployed whose owners could no
longer maintain them, and we are now trying to see what happens
if they are integrated back into the wild.
Mr. Abercrombie. So this is the kind of thing then that
perhaps if this legislation passes and we are able to get
funding that we could experiment with. We don't necessarily
know the outcome.
Dr. Stuwe. Right, exactly.
Mr. Abercrombie. That is the answer. Is that correct?
Dr. Stuwe. Through research find out does it work, does it
not work. If it works, hey, we may have a solution to
repopulate empty areas. That is exactly right.
Mr. Abercrombie. Then I am also taking from this testimony
that you have given that we may need to find or help to promote
habitat in which domesticated Asian elephants may be introduced
into that--introduced as groups. Is it possible? Are those
domesticated elephants in any kind of groups, or have they been
isolated and individualized?
Dr. Stuwe. Right. Those are extremely important questions.
The one question that you just asked, the important thing is is
there still a social structure within that group of work
elephants that we can release together, or do we first have to
try and form a new social group and train them for release into
the wild.
Imagine these guys don't have any fear of humans. They
possibly look for humans. They look for crop fields. And the
first thing they do, they start raiding them. So you are
creating problems rather than solving them. So there is a big
research effort that has to go in how can I pretrain work
elephants for release into the wild to then integrate in
social----
Mr. Abercrombie. OK. I won't go further with this right now
other than to say, Mr. Chairman, obviously, I am coming at this
as a layperson, but I am trying to immerse myself in it as much
as I can. One of the things I have concluded is is that we have
to be very much concerned about the domesticated population and
what will transpire with that. I have no answers, obviously.
Now, I have all questions at this stage. But I do believe that
that is something we are going to have to concentrate on in the
future.
My guess is is that the role for domesticated Asian
elephants will diminish relatively rapidly--the social role
that they now play, the economic role they now play--and that,
therefore, we will have to work, provided we can get the
legislation on the books in the first place, to see what we do
with that population in the various regional and habitat
context that they face as manifested on these maps that have
been given to us. So that may be a big program.
Dr. Stuwe. If I may add, even though it is red, one more
quick item exactly related to that problem. Right now the
Burmese timber industry is the most active. Most of the
elephants are actually employed there and working. But we have
access to trained work elephants, both in Indonesia, where they
are caught from the wild and put into camps which someone may
describe even as elephant concentration camps, or the Thai
elephants who have lost employment.
So here we are potentially talking about the option of
shipping elephants between countries from unemployment
situations into employment situations. That may have an impact
on the interpretation of CITES. Are these elephants allowed to
be shipped across to be employed in commercial activities
there?
Dr. Pearl. We also have the option of converting the
elephants trained to work in logging to working in ecotourism,
as was discussed earlier, as another potential----
Mr. Abercrombie. This is the last point on that. With the
lumber, the eventual purchaser of the lumber, finished and
otherwise, is the West, is it not--mostly in the West?
Dr. Stuwe. Japan.
Dr. Pearl. Japan.
Mr. Abercrombie. OK--same thing.
Mr. Saxton. Thank you very much, Neil. And, Dr. Stuwe and
Dr. Pearl and Andy, thank you very much for the very important
job that you have assisted with here and your efforts have been
greatly appreciated. You were instrumental in helping us to get
the bill introduced. You have been instrumental in helping us
to understand why it needed to be introduced and the subject
areas that are all related to it. And we appreciate your input
very much.
I would just like to say in closing, I don't know whether
it was Neil or Mr. Farr that was talking so much about tourism
and how interesting it is to see how various forms of wildlife
draw tourists, and I can't help but think of the many tourists
that come to this town because we have not one zoo but two.
Mr. Abercrombie. Mr. Chairman, on that note, if I could
just have a moment's more indulgence, I do want to finish this
question. I don't want to forget it. Has there been any
interest in Japan then in helping with this issue? And if there
has not been, are there societies or groups or perhaps branches
of the Preservation Trust Fund or wildlife funds in Japan?
The reason I bring that up is is I am very concerned in
trying to draw other countries in to help us with this, that if
we are the recipients particularly of finished products that
come out of, you know, logging and other things that take
place, then those countries that are the recipients of that
should be concerned about what happens with the Asian elephant.
And we would have a legitimate basis for asking them to help
us--may become associated. Are they presently involved at all?
Do any of you know?
Dr. Pearl. Well, sure. JICA, Japan's overseas agency, has
funded education centers and help for material assistance in
the wildlife departments.
Mr. Abercrombie. Is that a government entity?
Dr. Pearl. Yes, it is. It is the equivalent of U.S. Aid.
Mr. Abercrombie. So there is an institutional framework
available in Japan and perhaps other nations with which we
could coordinate--which the Department of Interior could
coordinate?
Dr. Pearl. Yes. We are leaving my area of expertise, which
is in science. But from working in the field, I see that there
are some forms of assistance----
Mr. Abercrombie. Just as long as we have an entree point is
what I am asking.
Dr. Pearl. Well, I would like to make another brief point.
Five million dollars a year really is dwarfed by the amount of
money already being spent by the Malaysian Government, the
Indian Government, and the Indonesian Government. They are
having to compensate farmers for damage elephants do to crops.
They are paying costs of translocations. They are underwriting
some research. So I think the money that would come through
this legislation is very strategic funding for the scientific
research needed and to get some model programs going that would
leverage further activity in the----
Mr. Abercrombie. I understand. I quite understand. The
reason I asked the question and begged the indulgence of the
Chair just a moment longer was it is important for us to be
able to make clear to our colleagues that we are not pioneers
out on the point on this, but rather we would be working on an
international basis with others who are interested, including
indigenous governments and peoples, and that we could provide
then a strategic contribution.
Dr. Pearl. Yes.
Mr. Abercrombie. Thank you.
Dr. Pearl. And European sources.
Mr. Ireland. Mr. Chairman and Congressman Abercrombie, if I
could add to that, we play a number of our shows in Japan. We
have had one of our circuses in Japan. The Asian elephant is
revered in Japan, as elsewhere in Asia. The strength of the
children interest is there, just like America.
The companies that we do business as we put on ice shows
and other entertainment there are companies that would
certainly be interested, we would say, in the leverage factor
of this legislation--a key part of this leverage was the word
that Mary Pearl used. That is the catalyst to getting the
private sector in there and bringing it up to speed. Japan is,
in my judgment, a good candidate for the private sector help.
Mr. Saxton. Thank you very much, Andy. Mr. Farr I believe
has one final, short closing thought.
Mr. Farr. Yes. In closing, you are to be commended for
having this hearing at a time when we are discussing the
foreign ops appropriation. I mean, you find, you know, a big
debate on whether we ought to insure American businesses going
abroad.
I think that what we are talking about here is essentially
a global economy where you pointed out that people come to this
town to watch the zoos, and I would submit that there is
probably one of them here that is of the two that you were
referring to that is more humane than the other. And we are not
sitting in the one that is the most humane.
But Megatrends pointed out that the biggest growth in
American ecotourism is watchable wildlife. There are more
people looking at wildlife in America than all of the
professional sports. And if you think what commercialization
there is for that that we are really investing in our future in
an economic sense, not just in preserving, you know, the
environment.
And it makes smart economics, and it is a time when
everybody is going to criticize the fact of what is Congress
doing putting $5 million into Asian elephants somewhere else.
And I think that we need to defend that, that that is just as
important as backing up American businesses that are going
overseas.
So I appreciate all of the effort today. We saw, you know,
nonprofits and government and for-profit companies all standing
in unison. And when we get criticized, I hope you will respond
equally particularly from the private sector that this is a
worthwhile use of taxpayer dollars. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Saxton. Thank you very much and thank all of you very
much. This hearing is adjourned.
[Statement of Wildlife Institute of India may be found at
end of hearing.]
[Whereupon, at 11:55 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
Statement of Marshall P. Jones, Assistant Director for International
Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me the opportunity to
provide the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's assessment of H.R.
1787, The Asian Elephant Conservation Act of 1997. On behalf of
the Administration, the Service fully supports the enactment of
this legislation and congratulates the Congress on its
foresight in recognizing and addressing the plight of the Asian
elephant.
Briefly, I would like to discuss the needs of the Asian
elephant and the ability of the Service to handle
implementation of the Act and to administer the Asian Elephant
Conservation Fund. In addition, I would like to provide
information on the capabilities and commitment of Asian
countries to protect this species and their habitat, as well as
what additional steps could be taken to support the
implementation of the Act.
From the first appearance of a fairly small tapir like
mammal in what is now Egypt 45 million years ago, elephants
evolved a number of species which at one time inhabited nearly
every continent. By the end of the Pleistocene glaciation about
10,000 years ago, however, only two species survived--the Asian
elephant (Elephas maximus) and the African elephant (Loxodonta
africana). As the largest land animals and as the ultimate
symbols of power, elephants have always been viewed by humans
with a mixture of awe and fear, commanding respect by their
great size but also being viewed as a dangerous and sometimes
difficult neighbor.
However, elephants also have other, more intangible values.
In Asian cultures in particular, people have embraced the Asian
elephant as a treasured partner in life, deified and venerated
it into their culture and religion, trained it for hunting and
war, and bonded with it at the most basic level. Today, the
Asian elephant is also a keystone species for the preservation
of biological diversity, since habitats which support wild
elephants also provide a home for a vast array of other
species, large and small, and thus also is a magnet for
ecotourism.
Nevertheless, despite these acknowledged values, the Asian
elephant also suffers from a series of paradoxes. Because it is
the elephant species usually seen in zoos and circuses, with
more than 16,000 animals in captivity, it may be more familiar
to the average American citizen. Yet its status is generally
less well known by the media and the general public than that
of its larger cousin in Africa. With all of the publicity about
the decline of the African elephant, they are still more than
ten times more numerous than the Asian species, which now
numbers only 35,000 to 45,000 animals. The story of the
dramatic decline of the African elephant, primarily from large
scale poaching is well known. The dramatic decline of Asian
elephant numbers due to the ever increasing population of the
Asian continent is relatively undocumented.
The Asian elephant must share its habitat with some of the
largest and poorest human populations in the world. The
combination of pressures on the environment brought on by these
conditions has resulted in the conversion of forest cover to
agriculture and villages, fragmenting elephant habitat and
populations. It is believed that today there are only about ten
populations with over 1000 elephants, with half these located
in India. The majority of remaining populations are small, with
less than 100 elephants each and some with lone bulls.
The dynamics of human population growth have inevitably led
to increasing conflicts between humans and elephants. This is
not a new phenomenon, but as the competition for the same
resources grow, people's tolerance for elephants has dropped.
Asian peoples have captured elephants for almost 5,000 years
for training for work-associated tasks, religious ceremonies,
and war. Where people once revered the elephant and tolerated
the occasional crop raiding and destruction, now they are
striking back, unfortunately often with lethal results.
Unlike African elephants, Asian elephants have not
traditionally been threatened by poaching for the ivory trade,
perhaps because females are tuskless and only 60 percent of the
males carry tusks. However, recent trends since 1994 indicate
that poaching for ivory, as well as for meat, is on the
upswing, especially in southern India. The proportion of sub-
adult and adult tuskers in various populations over the last 20
years has dropped dramatically, in some areas by as much as 75
percent. In one outstanding example, investigations in 1994
revealed that out of 1000 elephants in Periyar Tiger Reserve,
one of the strongholds for elephants in India, only five adult
males were left. Even among these, only two were tuskers. This
preferential decrease in the number of tuskers indicates
increased poaching pressure for their ivory.
The implications of this marked sexual disparity have yet
to be assessed. But it is obvious that it will result in
changes in population structures, not only among adults but
among sub-adults and juveniles. A drastic reduction in
fertility has al-
ready been seen which will affect the long term demographic
structure of this population. Similar effects have been well
documented in African elephants which have been subject to
heavy poaching; and even if poaching is brought under control,
it may take years for normal birth rates and juvenile survival
to be restored.
In recognition of these threats, the Asian elephant has
been accorded the highest levels of legal protection through
national laws and international treaties. It is listed as
``Endangered'' under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and on the
TUCN--World Conservation Union Red List, and on ``Appendix I''
of CITES. Most of the thirteen Asian elephant range countries,
including India, reinforce these international listings with
domestic laws of their own. CITES listing, which is designed to
eliminate the world-wide trade in ivory, has been partially
successful. However, some illegal ivory obtained from poaching
continues to move from country to country. Many Asian countries
have the strong desire to reduce the levels of poaching and
stop all illegal trade, but they need assistance if they are to
improve their ability to enforcement the CITES controls.
In addition, while national legislation has afforded the
elephant with maximum protection on paper, local conditions
often serve to make this safety net more illusory than real.
Forests in many areas can be owned by local District Councils
or private individuals and subject to uncontrolled slash and
burn, shifting cultivation, leading to disappearance of prime
elephant habitats. Erratic economic and political situations as
well as lack of emphasis on wildlife-related crimes have made
it difficult for some countries to effectively enforce laws and
to efficiently manage their elephant populations and other
natural resources.
For these reasons, the Asian elephant is in trouble--and it
will take more than legal paperwork to ensure its survival.
Asian elephants need active protection and management of their
habitat, resolution of the deleterious conflicts with humans
over land uses, better law enforcement activities to protect
against poaching, reduction of captures from the wild, and
better care and humane treatment of the remaining captive
populations. They also need the restoration of the harmonious
relationship that previously existed with humans through
community education and awareness activities.
Given the already endangered status of the Asian elephant
and the new and insidious threats now facing it from the
factors described above, it is indeed timely that this
Subcommittee is now considering H.R. 1787, the Asian Elephant
Conservation Act of 1997. This Act acknowledges the problems of
forest habitat reduction and fragmentation, conflicts with
humans, poaching and other serious issues affecting the Asian
elephant. The Act addresses the need to encourage and assist
initiatives of regional and national agencies and organizations
whose activities directly or indirectly promote the
conservation of Asian elephants and their habitat, and it
provides for the establishment of an Asian Elephant
Conservation Fund, authorized to receive donations and
appropriated funds. While many range governments have
demonstrated a commitment toward conservation, the lack of
international support for their efforts has been a serious
impediment.
Patterned after the African Elephant Conservation Act of
1988 and the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act of 1994, the
Asian Elephant Conservation Act would assign responsibility for
implementation to the Secretary of the Interior, in
consultation with the Administrator of the Agency for
International Development. The bill would authorize the
Secretary to make grants designed to benefit Asian elephants in
the world.
The Service would also mesh the administration of this new
legislation with our existing responsibilities under the
Endangered Species Act, using our experience gained during more
than twenty years of participation in cooperative wildlife
programs in Asia--including, among many other projects, a ten-
year ecological study of the Asian elephant in India involving
training, research, and management activities.
Additionally, the Service has facilitated CITES
implementation workshops in six Asian countries, and has so far
provided support for 15 projects under the Rhinoceros and Tiger
Conservation Act in three countries, with many more proposals
now under review. The Service has developed an excellent
working relationship with most Asian elephant range countries
and with the CITES Secretariat, as well as establishing an
important network of worldwide experts, advisors and
cooperators that can be drawn upon for support and expertise.
Implementation of the Asian Elephant Conservation Act by
the Service would be based on the pattern established by the
African Elephant and Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Acts.
The Service would develop a grant program with a call for
proposals that would be sent out to a mailing list of potential
cooperators from regional and range country agencies and
organizations, including CITES partners and the CITES
Secretariat. The Act's criteria for proposal approval gives the
Service clear guidance, and priority would be given to
proposals which would directly support and enhance wild
elephant populations and which include necessary matching
funds.
All amounts made available through the Conservation Fund
would be allocated as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
We expect that Asian elephant range countries and international
organizations would submit a variety of conservation proposals
for support, including research, management, conflict
resolution, community outreach and education, law enforcement,
CITES implementation, captive breeding, genetic studies and
traditional mahout and koonkie elephant training.
Given the success under the African Elephant Conservation
Act and the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act, we expect
that the Asian Elephant Conservation Act would make a major
contribution to conservation, filling a significant void in our
current programs. It would send a strong message to the world
that the people of the United States care deeply about Asian
elephants and that the U.S. Government is committed to helping
preserve this keystone species of the remaining tropical and
subtropical Asian forests.
For these reasons, Mr. Chairman, we urge this Subcommittee
to give favorable consideration to H.R. 1787, the Asian
Elephant Conservation Act of 1997.
------
Statement of Terry Maple, Ph.D., President/CEO, Zoo Atlanta, &
President-Elect, American Zoo & Aquarium Association, (AZA)
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
Thank you for the opportunity to appear here today. I am
Dr. Terry Maple, President and CEO of Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta,
Georgia, and President-Elect of the American Zoo and Aquarium
Association (AZA). On behalf of AZA and its members, I want to
express my appreciation for the concern and interest that the
Chairman and this Subcommittee have historically shown for the
conservation of threatened and endangered species. I would
especially like to thank the Chairman and Congressman
Abercrombie for introducing H.R 1787, and thank the
Subcommittee members who have cosponsored this bill. The AZA
strongly supports this legislation.
The AZA represents virtually every professionally operated
zoological park, aquarium, oceanarium, and wild animal park in
North America, as well as 6500 individual members. More than
119 million people visit the AZA's 180 zoos and aquariums each
year, more than attend all professional baseball, basketball,
football, and hockey games combined.
In 1988, this Subcommittee recognized the serious threat
the African elephant faced from poaching and loss of habitat by
strongly supporting the African Elephant Conservation Act
(AECA). While the Act's imposition of a ban on the importation
to the United States of African ivory was important, the
establishment of the African Elephant Conservation Fund has
made the Act critical to the survival of the species. This Fund
is the only continuous source of money (matching) to assist
African countries and organizations in their conservation
efforts to protect and manage these magnificent creatures. The
Fund has supported over 50 conservation projects in seventeen
range states to enhance habitat protection--anti-poaching
equipment for example--which has helped increase the elephant
populations in many regions of southern Africa.
Regrettably, the Asian elephant is now in need of similar
help. It faces serious threats--not just from ivory poaching,
but from a greater threat, the loss of habitat due to a rapidly
expanding human population throughout its range.
By creating the Asian Elephant Conservation Act and its
subsequent Fund, the United States will have the opportunity to
once again demonstrate its leadership and commitment to
wildlife conservation. The Asian elephant is a flagship species
for the tropical forests of Asia; securing its long-term
viability will in turn assist in the conservation of tigers,
rhinoceros, Asiatic wild dog, gaur, green peafowl, kouprey,
pheasants, clouded leopards, Malayan sunbears, lion-tailed
macaques, and gibbons.
Unlike the African elephant, whose populations range
between 600,000 to 700,000 animals, the Asian elephant
population only numbers between 35,000 to 45,000 animals.
Furthermore, the population is highly fragmented throughout
thirteen countries; only in four areas does the population
consist of more than 1,000 animals. Its range once streched
widely from Iraq through the Indian subcontinent to China.
Today, it can no longer be found in West Asia.
Ironically, for over 4,000 years, this species has enjoyed
a unique relationship with humankind in Asia. Elephants serve
as an element in certain religious ceremonies, and function in
the region's forestry operations. However, because of the
serious need to feed the continent's expanding population,
people are no longer tolerating incidents of crop-raiding.
Resolving the growing friction between humans and elephants
will require flexibility and long-term commitment--two tools
offered by the Act.
The goals of the Act and its subsequent fund would be the
following: (1) protection of the remaining elephant populations
and their habitat; (2) establishment and management of
specially protected areas; (3) reduction of captures from the
wild, most notably in Burma; and (4) promotion of effective
community enforcement programs.
H.R. 1787 would focus on remedies that address human/
elephant conflict resolution. That is a difference from the
focus of the AECA which focuses on trade-related aspects of
conservation. The Act would give support to projects that
accomplish one or more of the following: (1) directly promote
wild elephant management practices; (2) monitor population
trends; (3) assess annual ranging patterns of known
populations; (4) enforce CITES; (5) encourage law enforcement
through community participation; (6) translocate elephants; and
(7) conduct community outreach and education.
Today, AZA institutions exhibit 155 Asian elephants. Asian
and African elephants are magnificent animals that are
difficult to exhibit, manage, and breed. They have complex
social structures--at times rivaling those of humankind--and
are extremely intelligent.
As important as it is for our institutions to conduct
research on and educate our visitors about the life patterns of
the Asian elephant, it is as equally important that resources
be made available to protect the wild Asian elephant
populations in its habitat.
In summary, AZA strongly believes H.R. 1787 should receive
the full support of this Subcommittee for the following
reasons:
<bullet> it will provide competitive financing where it is
needed most--in the wild to support protection, conservation,
and management of threatened Asian elephants;
<bullet> it is focused and cost-effective, yet flexible enough
to address immediate needs for conservation;
<bullet> it will encourage donations from private sources--a
fine example of a public-private partnership; and
<bullet> funding requests will be based on sound science.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today in
support of H.R. 1787.
______
Statement of Raman Sukumar, Chairman, IUCN/SSC Asian Elephant
Specialist Group
The Asian elephant, which has shared a special bond with people
since time immemorial, now faces an uncertain future. It has steadily
declined in most of its range states in Asia to a population of below
50,000 in the wild and about 15,000 in captivity, a level which is
under 10 percent of that of the African elephant. Loss of habitat,
capture of elephants for domestication, and poaching for ivory and meat
are the major causes for the decline of the species in recent decades.
Dedicated conservation efforts, backed by adequate financial support,
are needed to reverse these trends and ensure the long-term
conservation of the species.
The elephant was first tamed in the Indian sub-continent about 4000
years ago. Since then it has carried our heaviest burdens and fought
innumerable battles. Kings have used the elephant both as a machine of
war and an ambassador of peace. It is worshipped by Hindus in the form
of Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, while the Buddha himself is
considered to be the reincarnation of a sacred white elephant. No other
relationship between man and beast equals the splendour of the
elephant-human relationship.
A species which once ranged widely from the Tigris-Euphrates basin
in West Asia eastward to the Yangtze river and beyond in China, is now
confined to the Indian sub-continent, southeast Asia and some islands
in Asia. Of the estimated wild population of 50,000 elephants, about 50
percent is found in a single country, India. Other important
populations are seen in Burma (5000-6000), Indonesia (2800-4800), Sri
Lanka (2500-3200), Thailand (1500-3000) and Malaysia (1000-1500). Its
status is unclear in potentially important countries such as Laos,
Cambodia and Vietnam, although it is known that elephants are in
relatively low numbers. Elephant populations in China, Bangladesh,
Bhutan and Nepal are relatively insignificant.
There are several causes for the decline of the elephant in Asia.
In many countries the loss and fragmentation of habitat due to
expansion of cultivation, settlement and developmental projects have
squeezed elephant populations into small, unviable areas. Indonesia,
for instance, has a transmigration scheme for resettlement of people
from the island of Java into Sumatra. The diversion of forest land for
settlement and agriculture has severely fragmented the habitat, such
that there are believed to be over 40 distinct elephant populations on
the island. The story is similar in peninsular Malaysia, where the
rapid conversion of natural forests to plantations of rubber and oil
palm has isolated elephant herds.
The loss of forest to agriculture occurs in a different context in
northeastern India and countries such as Burma, Laos and Cambodia.
Here, slash-and-burn shifting cultivation on hill slopes has denuded
forest cover considerably. Vast areas are permanently devoid of forest
cover because of short rotation periods of shifting cultivation. In
southern India, developmental projects such as dams, roads, railway
lines, mines and commercial plantations of tea and coffee have made
considerable inroads into hill forests and fragmented the habitat. In
Sri Lanka, the Mahaweli Ganga Project, a series of dams and
agricultural development, has begun to compress elephant populations.
Fewer than 10 populations, 6 of them in India, have over 1000
elephants each, a level needed to ensure its long term viability. The
majority of populations have much fewer numbers, often less than 100 or
50 elephants each, which are not viable even in the short term.
The second major cause for the decline of the elephant is its
capture and killing in large numbers. During the past century alone, up
to 100,000 elephants have been captured in Asia. Although most
countries have officially stopped any large scale capture of elephants,
some illegal captures still continue in southeast Asia. However, it is
now certain that the extremely low densities and numbers of elephants
in many southeast Asian countries, particularly the Indo-China region,
is due to hunting of elephants for ivory, meat, skin and other elephant
products. The precise magnitude of hunting impacts is not known because
of lack of investigations in these countries. The ready availability of
elephant products, including ivory and hide, in markets of these
countries certainly testifies to the severity of the problem.
Equally if not more important is the consumer demand for elephant
products such as ivory from East Asian nations, in particular Japan. A
new wave of elephant poaching is sweeping through Asia, affecting
countries such as India. Here, the selective poaching of male elephants
for tusks has caused serious imbalances in the population structures.
The ratio of male to female elephants has skewed considerably in many
populations in southern India; in one major population there is only
one adult male for every 100 adult females. As the number of male
elephants declines, and sex ratios become more unequal, genetic
variation is lost to the detriment of the population.
A socio-economic dimension to the problem of conserving elephants
is the impact of elephants on humans and their crops and property. As
habitats become fragmented and elephant get compressed, there is
escalation of crop depredations and manslaughter by elephants. In India
alone over 200 people are killed by wild elephants each year, often
when elephants enter crop fields and settlements at night in search of
forage. The economic losses to crop damage by elephants run into
several million dollars annually in the Asian countries. In Malaysia
the losses to commerical rubber and oil palm plantations reached such
levels that they prompted the expression ``the million dollar white
elephant.'' In a region undergoing rapid socio-economic transformation,
the traditional tolerance of farmers toward the elephant is
disappearing.
The coming century will decide the ultimate fate of the Asian
elephant and other creatures on this earth. Fortunately with the
elephant, the problems have been well identified and solutions
available to ensure its survival and long term conservation. Basically,
there are four major aspects to the conservation of the elephant. These
are:
(1) Maintaining viable, contiguous habitats of high quality
through setting up of networks of protected areas.
(2) Minimizing elephant-human conflicts through appropriate
measures.
(3) Controlling the poaching of elephants for ivory and other
products.
(4) Managing the large numbers of captive elephants through
proper health care, training, breeding and use.
Although the task is enormous, given the wide geographical spread
of the species, there is urgent need to consolidate upon and expand the
scope of various conservation projects being carried out on a small
scale. India's Project Elephant is one model which can be adapted for
other Asian countries. There is urgent need to impart training and
transfer technical expertise to personnel in many Asian countries.
Over the past two decades, the Asian Elephant Specialist Group has
been the most active player in elephant conservation efforts in Asia.
The basic details of the status and distribution of the elephant have
been pieced together through the work of its members. An Action Plan
for the Asian Elephant was published by the group in 1990. Several
studies of fundamental importance to the conservation of the ele-
phant have been undertaken or are in progress. The considerable
achievements of the AESG and other organizations and institutions have
been made with very modest funding. The time has come to implement the
conservation strategies which have evolved over the years. This calls
for much higher levels of funding from the international community.
The irony that I see in the plight of the Asian elephant is that it
is arguably the ultimate flagship species for conservation of
biological and cultural diversity in Asia. The elephant is a keystone
species in the tropical forests of south and southeast Asia, which are
biologically one of the most diverse regions in the world. Conserving
the wild elephant would automatically ensure that hundreds of thousands
of plant and animal species would also be conserved in Asian tropical
forests. The proper care and management of captive elephants would
ensure that elements of the rich cultural heritage of this region would
be preserved. We surely have a responsibility to saving the most
magnificent of our fellow creatures.
______
Statement of Mary Corliss Pearl, Ph.D., Executive Director, Wildlife
Preservation Trust International
My name is Dr. Mary Pearl, and I represent Wildlife
Preservation Trust International, a U.S.-based wildlife
conservation organization. At WPTI, we seek to save endangered
species from extinction through projects in collaboration with
local scientists and educators. We work primarily in areas
where there are human population pressures, human-wildlife
conflicts, highly diverse or unique ecosystems, and where
hands-on efforts are needed for animal survival. We integrate
methods from captive breeding and reintroduction to veterinary
care, public education, and wildlife research. We have no
higher priority than the conservation of the elephant.
Elephants are marvels of nature: their size is awesome--
they can stand over twelve feet tall and weigh over 15,000
pounds. One elephant molar can weigh ten pounds, and the
amazing elephant trunk contains at least 150,000 muscles,
enabling it to uproot a tree or lift a small coin. Elephants
are intelligent and emotional and inextricably entwined in
human history. Four thousand years ago, elephants were used to
carry burdens. Elephants were used in battle by King Porus
against Alexander the Great, by King Pyrrhus over the Romans,
and during the Vietnam War. Humans use elephants to log
forests, transport loads, carry tourists through parks and
religious relics to temples. Elephants, unlike any machinery,
can maneuver in mountainous, inaccessible terrain, through
water and forests with minimal environmental impact. In the
United States, circus and zoo elephants have inspired awe,
respect, and affection for generations.
Despite this heroic history, both the Asian and African
elephant species are facing tremendous pressure toward
extinction. In Africa, the chief culprit has been poaching for
tusks for the ivory trade. In Asia, where only a portion of
adult males grow tusks, the main problem is habitat loss. Since
the early 1980's, the African population has fallen 50 percent,
to an estimated 600,000 animals. This steep decline has been
halted to some degree by the worldwide ban on ivory trade, and
by improved, internationally coordinated law enforcement.
The Asian elephant is not as fortunate. Perhaps because
habitat loss is relatively slow and quiet compared to the drama
of violent gangs of poachers, the constant decline in elephants
in Asia has continued without much world notice. Yet today, the
worldwide population of Asian elephants is down to fewer than
50,000 animals, isolated in small pockets in India, Myanmar,
Sri Lanka, China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia,
Indonesia, and Vietnam. Because hunting for tusks is limited to
males, in some areas the ratio of males to females has been
reduced to one to one hundred. In such circumstances, it is
virtually impossible for all potential mothers to mate. Even in
the best of circumstances, elephants typically only produce an
offspring every four to 6 years, so that elephant populations
are extremely slow to recover from steep decline. Moreover, up
to one-third, or 15,000 of the world's Asian elephant
population lives in captivity, mostly in logging camps. This
share of captive animals is growing: as more natural habitat is
converted into agricultural lands, the resident elephants
become ``agricultural pests'' and are taken into captivity. The
productivity and health of the worldwide captive population of
elephants is important for the future of the species. Yet much
captive management falls short of minimum standards for humane
care, and successful captive breeding cannot take place,
although it will be necessary to take the hunting pressure off
of remaining wild elephants.
The endangered status of Asian elephants is especially
poignant because for thousands of years, they have lived in
close association with humans, as an integral part of religions
and cultures. Yet beyond their essential role in Buddhism and
Hindu-
ism, elephants are essential in traditional forest management
systems in many parts of Asia, and the continued economic
viability of sustainable tropical timber harvesting depends on
the maintenance of captive elephant populations. In Myanmar, an
elephant work force of 3,000 is used to manage the logging
industry. Elephants are critically important not only
culturally and economically, but also ecologically, in that
they maintain habitat that other wildlife needs. A host of
plants and animals depend on the elephant, which as ``the
architect of the forest,'' creates clearings in which they can
also live and grow.
Despite the low numbers of Asian elephants and the troubles
they face, they are not doomed to inevitable extinction. While
the situation of the Asian elephant is urgent, it is certainly
not hopeless. We know what we must do to stabilize the
population. We must locate and identify all remaining
significant local populations of elephants, and determine their
minimum critical habitat requirements. We must make plans to
translocate isolated elephants to places where they can become
part of an effective, reproducing local population. We must
resolve conflicts where elephants are ruining people's
livelihoods in such a way that both people and elephants have
viable futures. We must devise ways to better manage captive
populations so that they are self-sustaining, humanely cared
for, and a source of replenishment for remaining wild herds.
At WPTI, we have begun this work in partnership with the
India-based Asian Elephant Conservation Centre, thanks to the
generosity of our members and of various private foundations,
including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
the Liz Claiborne/Art Ortenberg Foundation, and the Chase
Wildlife Foundation. We are fortunate that throughout the Asian
elephant range countries, there are competent and personally
committed scientists and wildlife managers ready and willing to
work with us to reverse the decline in elephants. However, the
urgency of our mission is such that we cannot accomplish what
we need to on private support alone. That is why H.R. 1781, the
Asian Elephant Conservation Act, is so important. Rather than
``throwing money at the problem,'' this legislation would
direct a modest amount that would bring ongoing efforts up to
the needed level of intensity and accomplishment. In other
words, the proposed U.S. contribution to Asian elephant
conservation represents leverage appropriate to American
interests and values, which will result in far greater
expenditures of funds and effort at the local level, within
elephant range countries.
Asian elephants are an international treasure, for
aesthetic, cultural, economic, and ecological reasons. Our
world would be diminished and Asian forests would deteriorate
without these magnificent creatures. Saving the beloved
elephant is a more compelling goal than the abstract notion of
forest protection, and therefore attention to this flagship
species is a compelling means to preserve the wild lands we all
need for the health of the biosphere. WPTI is fortunate that
several private foundations and our membership have helped us
conduct preliminary work needed to reverse the recent decline
in elephant numbers. However, the situation is urgent, and our
financial resources are stretched to the limit. The additional
assistance that the Asian Elephant Conservation Act would
provide would allow the international conservation community to
move much more quickly in what is truly a race to save the
Asian elephant.
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