Hutan Asian Elephant Conservation is working to save:
Bornean (pygmy) elephants (Elephas maximus)
Found only in the Malaysian state of Sabah in northern Borneo, about 1,500 of these endangered elephants live in fragmented populations which they share with the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus morio). International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listing is Endangered.
Habitat
Lower Kinabatangan floodplain stretches westward from the Sulu Sea for some 80km (50 miles) along the Kinabatangan River, from the coastal mangroves to interior tropical forests. Mixed dry lowland dipterocarp, limestone, heath, semi-inundated (seasonally flooded), freshwater swamp, peat swamp, and mangrove forests characterize the ecosystems of this dynamic floodplain. Today, populations of about 1,000 orangutans and 200 elephants are still found in these remaining fragmented blocks of secondary forests, mostly confined to the riverbanks of the Kinabatangan.
Critical threats to wildlife
- Not enough protected areas to support Sabah's elephant population
- Human/elephant conflicts in agricultural areas
Hutan Asian Elephant Conservation Success Stories
The Elephant Conservation Unit (ECU) created by the Hutan project has reduced human-elephant conflicts around the village of Sukau by almost 90%. Without the ECU, increasing crop damages by the elephants would have driven farmers to more radical solutions such as killing the elephants. The ECU employs several local residents.
Hutan helped to create the first community-based ecotourism tour operator in Malaysia -- Red Ape Encounters -- which now allows increasing numbers of local families to derive tangible benefits from the creation of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary and the conservationof the Bornean elephant and orangutan.
Conventional logging methods can cause local extinctions of orangutan populations. However, a 10-year study by the Sabah Forestry Department and Hutan shows that long-term orangutan conservation can be achieved in forests exploited with reduced-impact logging methods. Sustainable forest management can also bring long-term financial benefits through timber certification and carbon offset funding.
Hutan employs local people and relies on the involvement of those who share the habitat of the lower Kinabatangan to ensure long-term sustainability.