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Asian Elephant
Wildlife Programs in Asia
How a culture or society treats injured, orphaned, and compromised wildlife reflects its attitudes towards both wild and domestic animals. Yet even in cultures or societies in which animals are typically not respected, many people are drawn to wildlife and to helping compromised animals. This natural affinity provides opportunities to change attitudes and behaviors towards wild animals and towards such practices as keeping wild animals as pets, hunting and trapping. In addition the illegal trade in wild animals is flourishing. As more governments confiscate animals from the trade, there is an urgent need for proper facilities to house rehabilitate and relocate them. Therefore the main objective of HSI’s wildlife program is to encourage a change in public attitudes towards wildlife and other animals, using rehabilitation centers as a focus for changing attitudes and behavior and to support rehabilitation projects in developing countries which are serving or have the potential to serve as models.
Listed here are some of the past and present wildlife programs in Asia sponsored in wholly or in part by HSI. If you wish to look at HSI programs in the rest of the world, please click here.
Since 2001, the HSI has been providing strong support and guidance to the US-China Environmental Fund and the “China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda” (CCRCGP) to help the pandas in the Wolong Nature Reserve, in central China, to survive and multiply.
Nestled at 1,980 meters (6,500 feet) in the lush mountains of Sichuan, the Wolong Nature Reserve is one of the last habitats of the giant panda. The reserve covers an area of over 2,000 sq km and is also a refuge for other rare and endangered species including the snow leopard, golden monkey, golden langur, musk deer and red panda.
Sadly, the giant panda population is severely threatened and their numbers in the wild are estimated to have dropped below 1,000. Once these deceptively cuddly looking 200kg animals roamed the hills of all of China’s southern provinces but now their territory is extremely limited. Poaching is still a problem, but more significantly the advance of man into the hills and deforestation has restricted the pandas’ territory.
Pandas only eat a certain type of bamboo from a specific altitude and are notoriously unenthusiastic about breeding. The CCRCGP studies pandas with the aim of improving the panda birth rate and also breeds pandas which are later re-introduced to the wild.
CCRCGP currently cares for 60 captive pandas, including nearly twenty babies born in the past four years. The Center also conducts crucial research on panda breeding and bamboo ecology.
Sun Bears and Orangutans Rehabilitation in Kalimantan, Indonesia
Both sun-bears and orangutans inhabit Tanjung Puting National Park and its surrounding areas in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Partnering with HSI, local group Friends of the National Parks Foundation undertook an initial survey of the occurrence of sun bears in the park and surrounding areas. HSI then provided further resources to undertake even more extensive surveys (both flora and fauna) in order to identify potential rehabilitation sites for these animals. A quick assessment of sun bear hunting and trade activities (and local residents’ attitudes toward the bears) was also undertaken, and further survey work is continuing.
In addition to survey funding, HSI has also provided The Friends of the National Parks Foundation with funding for a new reforestation programme in Tanjung Putting National Park. The program centres on orangutan conservation and the enabling of local employment and education programs linked to on-going orangutan rehabilitation and care programs
Rehabilitating Orangutans in Sumatra, Indonesia
The Leuser System in Sumatra, Indonesia, is the largest protection rain forest area in Southeast Asia, and is home to orangutans. HSI is partnering with a local group, the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP) to support a new and effective re-introduction program of rehabilitation for orangutans into the Bakit Tigapuluh National Park.
Rescuing Endangered Primates in Vietnam
In 2000, a list released by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and Conservation International, showed that 20 percent of the world’s most endangered primates inhabit Vietnam. The list included four langur species endemic to the country and the black gibbon. Not only are the langur species among the most endangered, they also have the lowest number of individuals.
Based in the Cuc Phuong National Park the Endangered Primate Rescue Center (EPRC) is the only such facility in Vietnam and its primary focus is on the langur species. The EPRC houses the only Delacour’s golden headed and grey shanked douc langurs in captivity. The main goal of the EPRC is to breed these highly endangered animals to increase numbers and gradually reintroduce them to the wild. They have already bred five Delacour’s langurs from five animals who were poached from the wild, confiscated by rangers, and brought to the center. The EPRC also rescues, cares for, and seeks to rehabilitate various other langur and gibbon species. HSI is supporting the EPRC by providing financial support for the construction of additional holding pens for primates rescued from the illegal bush and pet trades.
On the coasts of the island of Bali, Indonesia, turtles come in to nest particularly at Kuta and Klunkung beaches. Since 2000 HSI has partnered with a local group, Pro Fauna, to protect these turtles and their egg nesting by educating local people on turtle protection and by promoting Balinese participation in turtle protection programs.
In 2003 in participation with local residents, Pro Fauna built 10 turtle protection informational billboards at Kuta and Klungkung where the turtles lay their eggs. The information on these billboards includes species, number, nesting time and an estimation on egg hatchlings.
As part of its program to protect the turtles, Pro Fauna has also provided training on turtle handling for village officers. The training includes tagging, turtle nest protection, hatchling protection, and turtle releasing.
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