Bornean elephants endangered due to human activity

Agriculture, mining, logging and other human activities on Borneo have caused elephants living on the South Asian island to become endangered, according to an assessment by wildlife experts published.

There are around 1,000 Bornean elephants left in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which categorises species in a /”Red List/” according to the level of risk they face.

Animals that are /”critically endangered/” are at extreme risk of extinction unless conservation efforts are deployed. The next category below consists of endangered animals, like Bornean elephants, which face a very high risk of extinction unless action is taken.

/”It’s a small population, and it could easily disappear if we just let development happen without any conservation actions,/” Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN Red List Unit, said of Bornean elephants.

The habitat of Bornean elephants, which are generally smaller than elephants found in Africa, has decreased over the past 75 years, initially due to extensive logging, IUCN said.

The elephants have since entered human-dominated areas in search of food, which can cause them to destroy crops and face retribution killing.

Their habitat has been further lost due to agriculture, timber plantations, mining, and major infrastructure projects.

The Malaysian and Indonesia governments, which control distinct parts of Borneo where the elephants are found, have conservation action plans that require extensive coordination with corporations, private landowners and conservationists, among other actors.

Among these measures, the authorities are looking into ways to create corridors for elephants to move safely between different fragmented areas of their habitat while development takes place at an increasing pace. – Report from Reuters

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