Photo report: Ulet Ifansaasti / Ecologist Film Unit
Like all Asian elephants, the Sumatran elephant is threatened by poaching and habitat loss, caused by increasing demand for palm oil: Across Indonesia hundreds of thousands of acres of tropical rainforests and peatlands have been destroyed to make way for plantations.
Environmentalists and scientists say that 65% of Aceh’s forest needs protected to save the Sumatran elephant, and the government's current plan would only allow for 45% to be protected - a difference of way over a million hectares.
Read our full special report here
Read Elephant Family's full comment here
Watch the full ITN news special, produced in association with the Ecologist Film Unit
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SPECIAL CONTENT EFU film UK tourists fuelling brutal live elephant trade between Burma & Thailand An illegal cross-border trade in endangered wild Asian elephants to serve Thailand's tourist industry is threatening the future of the species, an undercover investigation by the Ecologist Film Unit (EFU) has revealed |
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NEWS ANALYSIS Why the Philippines’ role in the illegal ivory trade must stop The Philippines have become a significant transit point for illegally traded ivory, and far greater law enforcement is required, says Elephant Family's Dan Bucknall |
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COMMENT Shot, face hacked off, tusks stolen... horror of the elephants butchered for their ivory More than 3000 elephants may have been slaughtered in 2011 so far - and that's just those we know about. In Kenya, Mary Rice from the Environmental Investigation Agency witnesses the bloody reality of the global ivory trade |
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NEWS ANALYSIS Illegal ivory openly on sale in Chinese cities Activists question allowing China to participate in ivory trade, with estimates that as much as 90 per cent of retail items in the country are illegal |
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NEWS ANALYSIS Frontline Online: 14 elephants found dead in Borneo Ruth & Mary Powys on behalf of ‘Elephant Family’ report on the tragic plight of the Asian elephant. |
