Saving the world's smallest elephant

[Catherine]

The Bornean Elephants are the smallest subspecies of the Asian Elephant. They are only found on the Island of Borneo and there are less than 1000 left.
In the last 40 years, 60% of the elephants habitat has gone due to logging and palm oil plantations. This leave the surviving elephants fragmented and living in smaller populations. Malaysian Elephant Ecologist, Dr Farina Othman plans to connect the elephant populations by wild tree corridors.  She has founded the group 
Seratu Aatai, solidarity, to address this issue and the problem of human/elephant conflicts.
She has been given the Whitley Award for her efforts. The award is for grassroot conservation efforts in the global south and comes with a $66,000 prize.
The money will be used to expand the network of elephant corridors. For the idea to work, there need to be a number of corridors.
The first challenge was to get the farmers to work with her. 
Now she even has a set of elephant rangers who are monitoring the situation.


https://www.cnn.com/world/asia/whitley-a...index.html

Never underestimate the power of one person with an idea. Dr Othman is an example of what grassroots conservation can do.
She got the farmers to see the benefit of biodiversity and native trees alongside their plantations. Since elephants play a key role in keeping the land healthy, their presence is ultimately of benefit to the farmers. When the farmers understand that, they will work to save the elephants. The elephants are not out of danger, but they are moving in the right direction.