• supporting the development of a National Action Plan for the conservation of the Asian elephant in Bhutan;
• developing long and short-term plans to conserve the scattered populations of 134 Asian elephants in Vietnam;
• creating a strategy to manage the human-elephant conflict between displaced Rohingya refugees on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
The Rohingya issue remains pressing. Driven from their homes in Myanmar across the border into Bangladesh, 3,000 acres had initially been set aside to house the refugees. By September 2018 over 900,000 refugees were living in 27 camps covering approximately 6,000 acres – an area that had once been densely forested and home to upward of 45 elephants. Between September 2017 and October 2018, thirteen human deaths caused by elephants had been reported in and around the camp area and, as the forests continue to be depleted by humans foraging for firewood, and food sources for the elephants are being destroyed, the conflict is set to worsen.
At the end of October, Working Group members keen to lend technical support to help mitigate the human-elephant conflict visited Bangladesh.
Although an elephant corridor (Ukhia-Ghundhum) has been identified in the camp area, construction works were still ongoing, including the building of a concrete transit centre. Despite this disruption, elephants were still coming close to the camps and had made several attempts to pass through the area causing high excitement and spreading fear among the refugees.
To prevent elephants entering the camp and to alert people to their presence, IUCN Bangladesh (the agency managing the HEC mitigation at the camp) has set up 89 watch towers positioned on known elephant entry points. Manned by 45 Elephant Response Teams with a total of 534 members recruited from among the refugees, they are helping to monitor elephant movements.
The Working Group recommended that as there is little information on how elephants are using and moving through the habitat on the western side of the camp, there needs to be a series of ground surveys along with the radio collaring of elephants before a plan can be developed. The Working Group is also in the process of drafting a report on possible solutions to the issue and will continue to feed into the process of keeping people and elephants safe in this unstable area.