January 03, 2009 18:05 PM

Elephant Problem Solvable If Illegal Logging Stopped

BANDA ACEH, Jan 3 (Bernama) -- Wild elephant incursions into human settlements in Aceh will continue if nothing is done to stop illegal logging in forest areas, Antara news agency reported quoting a local nature conservation official as saying.

"The problem will persist unless illegal logging is stopped," Andi Basrul, head of the Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), said here Saturday.

During December 2008, wild elephants had invaded a number of villages in Aceh, damaged a few houses and injured several people.

Basrul said his agency could not do much to stop the animals' incursions because they were merely reacting to the damage being done to their habitat.

Villagers were known to have tried to fight the elephants by poisoning them but Basrul said the villagers' actions would not be effective and only cause the elephant population to shrink.

The root cause of the present conflict between elephants and humans was the damage done to the enimals' habitats by illegal logging, he said.

The wild elephant problem existed in the districts of Aceh Jaya, South Aceh and North Aceh, he said.

The only way to solve the problem, according to Basrul, was the consistent implementation of the Aceh provincial government's moratorium on forest logging.

-- BERNAMA

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