Jumbos surviving by the skin of their teeth

Higher demand for elephant skin — popular among traditional medicine practitioners in China — stands as the latest threat to endangered Asian elephants, especially those living in the forests of Myanmar, according to a report by Elephant Family, a conservation charity based in the UK.

The group has been studying the illegal trade in Asian elephants since 2012 and found that increasing numbers of wild elephants are being killed in wooded areas in Myanmar for their prized skin, said Belinda Stewart-Cox, the charity’s director of conservation.

Speaking at a media briefing, she said the pachyderms are targeted as a source of ingredients for Chinese traditional medicine as well as accessories like ornamental beads.

China’s State Forestry Administration (SFA) has even issued licences for the manufacture and sale of pharmaceutical products containing elephant skin despite the animal’s rapidly dwindling numbers in the region.

“We discovered there was a clear increase in poaching in Myanmar for jumbo skins in particular. We were shown images of elephant carcasses found with strips of skin missing,” Ms Stewart-Cox said.

The report was called “Skinned — The growing appetite for Asian elephants.”

The 21-page report said that in 2010 four skinned elephants were found in a Myanmar forest. The number killed by poachers stood at 26 in 2013 but jumped to 61 in 2016, the report said.

It named Myanmar as a new source of supply and estimated there were only 5,600-6,000 wild elephants left in the country.

The report also claimed to have located manufacturing facilities that can process the skins in Myanmar and Laos.

Ms Stewart-Cox said the skins can be legally traded under the Chinese government’s permit, adding most of the skins sold at markets in the region, or used as ingredients, provide no clues as to which country or forest the animals came from.

“It is worse than hunting for ivory as only the male elephant is the target. But when poachers are hunting for skins, no elephant is safe. If hunting for skin can happen in Myanmar, it could be found anywhere with a wild elephant population,” she said.

She said the authorities in Thailand and Myanmar should start a campaign to end the trade because their shared border has served as a key shipping route for elephant trafficking.

“Thailand has around 10 million Chinese visitors [a year]. If they each buy one elephant skin product, that would represent a scary increase in demand and pose a major threat to the survival of wild elephants,” she added.

Kanita Ouitavon, chief of the Wildlife Forensic Task Force under the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said her laboratory recently collected samples of elephant skin obtained from a market in Tak province so it can research the Thai-Myanmar border trade.