China, Laos cooperate on wildlife protection

An eight-member team from the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve has concluded a joint field study on endangered Asian elephants with their Laotian counterparts.

The survey, which took place from Wednesday to Monday, helped determine range and population of wild Asian elephants in two counties of Luang Namtha Province, Laos, according to Zhang Zhongyuan, head of the office of the China-Laos cross-border biodiversity joint protection program.
This was the fifth joint mission since the office was set up in 2006.

Asian elephants often wander along both sides of the 680-km-long China-Laos border in Xishuangbanna, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Zhang said.

"Our experience in preventing and handling elephant attacks, including stolen or damaged crops and human injuries, can benefit our friends in Laos," Zhang said.

According to Yunnan's forestry authorities, more than 48,000 cases of wild elephants causing chaos were reported in Yunnan from 2011 to 2015, resulting in 18 deaths, 27 injuries and economic losses of about 99 million yuan (15 million U.S. dollars). The government has compensated the families of the victims more than 98 million yuan.

Wild Asian elephants are a Class A protected animal in China, with the species mainly located in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and the cities of Pu'er and Lincang.

China's efforts to protect the ecosystem have helped wild elephant numbers grow from less than 180 in the 1990s to about 300 currently, but the animals are still facing extinction.

This month's survey came less than a month after another survey on endangered wild animals and plants was conducted at a nature reserve in Luang Namtha.

In a survey last year, Chinese researchers captured images of a rare leopard, the first such finding on the China-Laos border.

In 2009, China and Laos put an area of 55,000 hectares on the border under joint protection and gradually expanded the zones to 220,000 hectares by 2012.

Joint protection improves ecosystem management in border areas and is conducive to conservation of biodiversity, said Yang Yuming from Yunnan Academy of Forestry.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-11/14/c_136752177.htm

Tauranga student will care for elephants in Laos

A Tauranga woman is heading to a remote part of Asia to help care for endangered elephants.

Angela-Mary Fearnley, from Whakamarama, plans to go to Laos in late November to spend two weeks at the Sayaboury Elephant Conservation Center as part of the Volunteer Eco Student Abroad VESA programme.

Miss Fearnley's role will see her working closely with many elephants at the purpose-built rehabilitation, research and breeding facility.

All the animals were rescued from endangerment by the logging trade.

Miss Fearnley, 20, is in her third year of a bachelor of mechanical engineering at the University of Auckland.

"I've always loved elephants and when some VESA volunteers visited the university in my first year to talk about their unique experiences, I was hooked," she said.


One of the perks of her eco-tour would be the chance to ride elephants to and from her jungle bedroom, and help care for the calves in the elephant nursery.

To read the full article, click on the story title

Elephants on Parade in Laos to Raise Awareness about the Animals

Dozens of elephants, adorned in bright colors and with garlands of flowers, paraded through a Laotian town on Saturday in a celebration of a species that has become increasingly scarce in the Southeast Asian country.

Known historically as the "Land of a Million Elephants", Laos now has only a few hundred left in the wild and not many more than that in captivity, most of which are used in logging.

Nearly 70 elephants joined the main procession at the 11th annual elephant festival in Sayaboury Province some 200 km (120 miles) northwest of the capital Vientiane.

"The festival is organized to draw the public's attention to the condition of the endangered elephant as well as promoting traditional culture and livelihoods," said Yanyong Sipaseuth, the deputy governor of the province.

Wild elephant numbers have dwindled because of the destruction of their forest habitat, although poaching for ivory has also played a part, conservationists say.

A ban on capturing elephants from the wild so they can be domesticated has put greater strain on the existing captive population, meaning elephants are often worked so hard that they fall sick and no longer reproduce.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:https://seasia.co/2017/03/08/elephants-on-parade-in-laos-to-raise-awareness-about-the-animals