- A Year in Review -
2023 Asian elephant support annual Report
After a slow reopening of Asia again to tourism in 2022, built-up anticipation, determination and necessity helped Asia, and those we collaborate with, find their footing.
We continue to support two mobile veterinary clinics, one in Thailand and (thanks to our friends at the Topeka Zoo) one in Sumatra. These two programs provide such needed service while educating mahouts (elephant caregivers) and their owners on medical care for their elephants. We happily foresee these partnerships continuing in the future!
In Myanmar, we partnered with Little Rock Zoo to fund 93 mahout uniforms and 3 GPS units to Emergency Elephant Response Units that protect wild elephants. We are also were able to fund milk formula supplementation for three calves, including one new, very young orphan named Mocha and two year+ calves we funded previously.
In collaboration with Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society, a two-month long fundraising campaign - Project Dodam - helped fund our support toward the first phase of SLWCS’s Project Orange. This project will help encourage human-elephant coexistence by first establishing temporary electric fencing while dodam plants (oranges, but a specific type not palatable to elephants) reach maturity in approximately 4 years, at which time the electric fencing can be reused to help another community by repeating this procedure.
Climate change is negatively affecting many of our friends in Asia. Funds we earmarked in the beginning of 2023 for supplemental fodder should the Conservation and Elephant Response Units in Sumatra experience drought as they had in 2022, we repurposed for equipment to fight wildfires threatening these same units. It is easy to see that this destruction could lead to another fodder storage in coming months if the rains fall.
The Education Connection - After two years of meetings, workshops and conferences all having to be held by zoom or similar, 2023 offered a much-needed return to in-person gatherings. And thanks to the support of AES donors, we were able to help facilitate 14 individuals (veterinarians, mahouts, and researchers) to participate in-person, sharing their knowledge and learning from their peers. These opportunities really are important for the benefit of better medical care for elephants and other wildlife, too, as most of the vets we work with are staff of wildlife departments, so in addition to elephants we have also seen reports on treating tigers, orangutans…whoever needs medical help!
AES is now represented on the ICUN (AeSG) Conservation Committee and helped finance a meeting to finalize the mapping of the elephant distribution of Lao PDR. All Asian range countries are going through this process to give updated estimations, as best as possible, of the Asian elephant populations in total and by country. This is an important step toward international conservation efforts.
The United States Fish & Wildlife Service has provided funds over the years for larger projects that satisfy their requirements for endangered species research and support. 2023 was the second year of an important grant geared towards continued training for field veterinarians in wildlife disease investigation. This grant consisted of four zoom meetings and four in-person workshops, two each in India and Nepal. Next time you’re at the US Post Office be sure to pick up a sheet, or two of Tiger Stamps! Through the purchase of these Saving Vanishing Species stamps, Americans have raised nearly $7.5 million, supporting 157 projects in 37 countries to date and contributing directly to the conservation of some of the most endangered species on Earth, including Asian elephants!
Looking Forward to the New Year!
The unique ability of Asian Elephant Support to act quickly with emergency funding allowed us to continue helping those we work with as efficiently as possible. While our income remains lower than we would like, being a totally voluntary nonprofit affords us the ability to put each dollar donated toward critically needed assistance in range countries. It is the support of our donors - YOU - who made it possible for us to be there, when needed, during this last year.
Both our repeating donors and our new supporters have our sincere appreciation - and we hope you will be with us in 2024!
