Valuing Elephants and Their Ecosystems

Elephants are found in 13 countries spanning all of Asia, and including the islands of Sri Lanka, Borneo, and Sumatra. They live in diverse landscapes, from grasslands to rainforests and everything in-between. Many of these are biodiversity hotspots. However, elephants have lost nearly 2/3 of suitable habitat over the past 3 centuries. The purpose of this working group is to identify how elephants and their ecosystems are valued in tangible and intangible ways by cultures and societies.
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The Urgency of Vanishing Habitats

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What biodiversity, natural services and value to humanity do they represent?

Asian elephants are flagship species that represent very diverse ecosystems. But today they are found in just a fraction of the habitats they once inhabited, and over half of their present-day habitats may not actually be considered suitable for them. The pace of this decline has accelerated since the mid 1900s. These changes have come about from a failure to adequately appreciate and value both elephants, and the diversity of other species on their landscapes. While conservationists may value the role that elephants play in their ecosystems as ecological engineers, they also hold deep cultural significance in many places.

Today we recognize that these ecosystems - wilderness and species - in them are not merely a source of natural resources. Not only do they have intrinsic value in themselves, they have cultural and economic value as well as provide services to society. The goal of this working group is to identify the ways in which the remaining elephant populations, and their ecosystems, can properly be accounted for in development decisions, including the economic calculations of decision-makers who have the ability alter these trends.

A rough approximation of change in habitat suitable for elephants (green) since the 1700s.

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Working Group Participants

• Nilanga Jayasinghe - WWF-US (Group Lead, T&L Advisor)
• Nirmal Bhagabati - WWF-US
• Shermin de Silva - Trunks & Leaves, USA/EFECT Sri Lanka.
• Philip Nyhus - Colby College, USA
• Antoinette van de Water - Bring The Elephant Home, Netherlands/South Africa/Thailand; Miami University; University of KwaZulu-Natal.

What does group participation entail?

Participating in the group entails:

• Contributing to assessments of the biodiversity of elephant landscapes.
  
• Identifying and quantifying the services provided by elephants and elephant landscapes.
• Developing means to value them in meaningful ways.
• Working to communicate this work to decision-makers and integrate them into land-use and development policies.

How to become involved?

If you are interested in joining the working group please contact us via the contact page.

Relevant Publications

de Silva, S, T Wu, A Thieme, J Johnson, P Nyhus, J Wadey, T Vu et al. "The Past, Present and Future of Elephant Landscapes in Asia." bioRxiv (2020).