Addressing landscape connectivity

Why was this project important? 

Asian elephants have drastically declined in number. The construction of roads, railways, and transmission lines is a major threat to their habitats. This linear infrastructure cuts through elephant habitat, fragmenting it into ever smaller pieces, and breaking the connectivity between the habitat corridors that remains. Roads, railways and power lines also put elephants at risk of collisions with vehicles and electrocution from fallen cables. Hundreds of thousands of kilometres of new linear infrastructure are due to be built by 2030, making international guidelines on how to best plan and mitigate infrastructure developments an urgent priority. 

Project Partner: Asian Elephant Transport Working Group 

Duration: 2018 – 2020 

Project goal: To establish the Asian Elephant Transport Working Group, and develop internationally recognised guidelines and targets for infrastructure development and mitigation 

Elephant population across all range countries: approximately 47,000 

What we did

Elephant Family supported the creation of an expert working group to ensure that habitat corridor connectivity and wildlife-friendly developments are prioritised during infrastructure construction. The Asian Elephant Transport Working Group (AeTWG) develops internationally recognised guidelines for governments and financial investment institutions, and is a source of expertise, support, case studies and technical information. The AeTWG leverages their leadership within the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) existing working groups on habitat connectivity and transport to promote these best practices at the highest level. Targets and guidelines were prepared for the setting of targets for the Convention on Biodiversity in 2020. 

December 2018: ‘Ensuring connectivity for the Asian elephant’ an interview with Rob Ament, co-founder of the AeTWG