ASIA About 20% of the world's population lives in or near current existing habitat of the Asian elephant
and the human population of these areas is growing at a rate of 3% per year.
- Honolulu Zoo
India is home to 60% of the remaining Asian elephant populations. Habitat loss, leading to
fragmentation, is a serious threat, resulting in isolated populations of elephants which are vulnerable
to extinction. Large animals like elephants require substantial areas to support them and will leave
protected areas to search for food. This often results in conflicts with humans, and hundreds of
elephant deaths each year.
Partner:
World Land Trust and Wildlife Trust of India
Initiative:
to protect and restore critical wildlife corridors with the
planting of trees in the Wild Lands Elephant Corridor Project
It is Possible to Protect Against the Threat of Climate Change
with actions, reminds FOC founder and International Chairman Jorie Butler Kent,
"that simultaneously offset humanity's footprint, conserve threatened biodiversity
and further the sustainable livelihoods of impoverished communities."
In a country with more than a billion people, it is vital that initiatives involve the local
community to ensure the success of a project.
The goal of the Wild Lands Elephant Corridor Project is to sequester carbon by
reforesting areas inhabited by villages and tribes eager to move due to high levels of
human-animal conflict, and create a network of 88 forest corridors throughout India.
Once land within a corridor is purchased, it will be planted as necessary to create an
entire forest corridor and registered as 'Reserve Forest.' This will preserve the land
as natural forest, and also enable Indian elephants and other wildlife to move safely
between protected areas.
Funds raised through the Climate Change Challenge will specifically support efforts
to reforest the Tirunelli-Kudrakote Corridor in Kerala State, a 'global biodiversity
hotspot' that is home to India's largest elephant population and contains a number
of other mammals including tiger.
Villagers will be moved to areas with less conflict and workshops will assist them
in developing sustainable livelihoods, creating alternatives to the 'slash-and-burn'
agriculture that has led to the rapid depletion of the natural forests.
