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For centuries Laos has been known as the Land of a Million Elephants. Now there are fewer than 900 of the iconic creatures – and less than half of those are wild. If the population continues to decline at the current rate, elephants will be extinct in Laos within a few decades.
These statistics add an extra poignancy to the Elephant Caravan, a 45-day procession of elephants and their mahouts currently making its way across northern Laos. The caravan started in Pak Lay district on 27 October and will end, 391 miles later, in Luang Prabang on 9 December with 20 elephants parading through the streets. The parade is part of the celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of Luang Prabang’s listing as a Unesco world heritage site, but the primary purpose of the project is to raise awareness of the plight of elephants in Laos.
Organised by conservation charity ElefantAsia, the caravan is a sort of wildlife roadshow, accompanied by performers and educational specialists, who are staging shows and activities at villages en route to promote eco-tourism as an alternative to the logging industry. Swaths of forest (the elephants’ natural habitat) have been destroyed, and as logging reaches saturation point mahouts face unemployment and poverty.
“Elephant owners in Laos are asking us for help,” says Sebastien Duffillot, co-founder of ElefantAsia. “They want to stop working their elephants in the dangerous logging industry and work in the gentler tourism industry.”
There is no disputing the passion and dedication of Duffillot, who also runs theElephant Conservation Center in Sayaboury, northern Laos, yet his vision of tourism as the answer to the survival of elephants is at odds with some wildlife charities. While he doesn’t offer elephant rides at his own centre, and elephants are not being ridden on the caravan (the images used here are from a previous caravan), Duffillot fully supports riding as part of carefully managed tourism. “It is not cruel for an elephant to have a person or howdah (elephant chair) on its back. It is proportionally the same as having a saddle on a horse, or a harness on a buffalo,” he says.
Wildlife chairty World Animal Protection disagrees. Last month it called on UKtour operators to sign an elephant-friendly tourism pledge promising not to promote elephant rides or shows, arguing that “there are no cruelty-free rides.”
Dr Neil D’Cruze, head of wildlife research and policy at World Animal Protection, describes the caravan as “slightly misguided”, potentially sending out a message that it’s OK to ride elephants. “They are missing a core issue – what got that elephant to a point that it is able to tolerate having someone on its back? Their spirits are being broken to get to that point.”
Chris Draper, programmes manager at the Born Free Foundation, also expressed concern about the caravan. “These elephants will have undergone training in order to be handled by mahouts, which may be based on ongoing negative reinforcement and dominance.”
But Duffillot believes the critics are too quick to point the finger. “It is not a perfect world but it is much better to take a tourist on the back than to go logging. I totally support elephant trekking with one client per elephant. We would love to see them in the wild but it’s not possible. The forests aren’t safe and poaching is on the rise.”
The caravan, says Duffillot, is a “living and direct message” about the urgent need for conservation of this endangered species. “Elephant-based tourism is not inherently bad. In 2015 there are more sanctuaries and centres engaged and committed to elephant conservation and welfare than ever before. These efforts should be supported for their positive approaches, rather than criticised for the mistakes of others.”
http://www.theguardian.com/