Road to nowhere

Last week I attended the 9th meeting of the IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group (AsESG) in Bangkok. Bringing together 100 experts and the 13 Asian elephant range states, the three day meeting provides an important platform for discussion and collaboration on the issues facing the species.

As a communicator and ex-officio member, being surrounded by scientists was fascinating; their in-depth knowledge and passion was infectious, their occasional professional jealousies, curious. What was clear, however, was that three days was barely enough to cover the issues facing the world's Asian elephants let alone find the solutions to the challenges that confront them.

As expected the story is a sorry one. In his opening address Dr Singh of the IUCN said 'the future of the Asian elephant is precarious'.

Numbers are falling in most range states. Poachers and traders are devising new ways to kill and profit from them. Vietnam called for help to save its dwindling population - a population so small (c100 elephants) and so fragmented that in one area there is a single, lone female cut off from the other wild herds that cling to survival in the country. Her fate is in the balance, but with a government fearful of the repercussions of an unsuccessful translocation it seems she is destined to live alone, becoming increasingly angry and a growing threat to people in her isolation.

Bangladesh too appealed for help in the face of the overwhelming pressure that the Rohingya refugees - 700,000+ - have put on their critically endangered population of Asian elephants. 700,000+ people have moved into an area that was once wild, once forested, once inhabited by elephants. 700,000+ people need homes and water and firewood and, as they struggle for survival, they are decimating the forest homes of the elephants that have lived in the region for millennia. Already, 12 people have lost their lives to conflict with elephants and experts warned that it would not be long before elephant deaths were added to the equation. With the monsoon season approaching no one knows how the elephants (or people) will behave and with part of the refugee camp prone to landslides and elephant corridors blocked it was hoped that the refugees could be persuaded to move from the danger zones to allow safe passage for the elephants.

While the issues facing Asian elephants are legion the one that struck me hardest was the projection that by 2050, 25 million kilometres of NEW road would be built around the globe - the majority in developing countries - and that railway infrastructure and development would expand too. (To add a little more perspective - should it be needed - the circumference of the Earth is 40,075 km). It was at this point that - optimistic as I am - that I began to wonder whether there was any hope - for any of us.

25 million kilometres of road driven through otherwise untouched landscapes is nothing short of fatal - an arrow driven hard into the heart of the planet. Building roads is disruptive; it requires space for the construction crews, more land for junctions, it cuts across the migratory routes of thousands of species. And, once built, human curiosity and greed drives us to divert from the roads deeper into the landscape - to explore, to pilfer, to poach, to pillage - creating a herringbone effect so that the 25 million kilometres of official roads give birth to thousands of unofficial ones. Add the pollution of the vehicles that will use the roads and the billions of dollars already committed to build them and the scenario is little short of apocalyptic. Businesses, apparently, recognise the threat and are keen to help maintain natural 'connectivity' for species but in reality how will that work? A tunnel for hedgehogs here - a bridge for elephants there?

On my way home from Bangkok, unprompted the taxi driver that picked me up at the airport moaned about the weather saying that he was glad that he would not live for more than 40 more years. He didn't think there would be anything to live for beyond that. As we stop-started around the M25 he said that the climate was so erratic and unpredictable that all he could see was a doomsday scenario. I found it very hard to argue with him.

Yet, less than 24 hours earlier the 4x4 that had taken me into the heart of a stunning wildlife sanctuary in Thailand, had been stopped in its tracks not by a traffic jam but by a magnificent bull elephant. This lone, languid bull was blocking the road, munching on the flowering bamboo that he had pulled down over the muddy track - he was in no hurry. He sized us up, saw no threat and continued to eat. Butterflies of myriad colour and species mud puddled around us, lizards scampered to their burrows, cicada's thrummed, a stream of clear water burbled by, bird song echoed through the canopy and our engine idled as we waited for him to move on.

#elephants #infrastructure #science #conservation #optimism #solutions #IUCN