Some 5,000 elephants are used in Burma's timber industry. When logging stops, they'll either be left to fend for themselves in the wild or else slaughtered for their hides and tusks
Last year, in the land that is now officially known as Myanmar, total timber exports surpassed 1.24 million cubic tons and generated more than $1 billion in revenue, of which teak alone earned $359 million. From Tuesday, however, the new quasi-democratic government is banning the export of round logs and slashing its total logging quotas. The plan is to stimulate a domestic milling and carpentry industry and protect already plundered forest, which plummeted from 58% of total land in 1990 to 47% in 2010, according to government figures.
But while applauded in many environmental quarters, this move will likely spell disaster for the more than 5,000 elephants and their oosi, or handlers, who rely on this trade.
Currently, 2,851 of these working animals belong to the state-run Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE), while around 2,700 belong to private firms involved in logging, says Tin Win Maw, who founded Green Valley Elephant Camp in Shan State for retired timber elephants.
After some 25 years backbreaking toil, "some have health problems — cardiac problems or eye problems — and we decide they are not suitable to work any longer," she tells TIME. The government has camps for retired elephants, but "they don't have enough resources" and need to "give more supplementary treatments" for elephants that fall ill.
In the wake of the April 1 logging ban, and with nowhere else to go, many timber elephants may be released into the wild, but "because of deforestation there are not enough habitats for them," the campaigner adds. Competition for land and food will likely bring them into conflict with humans;
If not set free, elephants risk being slaughtered for their precious ivory or hides. Many could also be smuggled across the border to Thailand and put to work in the tourism industry, where animal abuse is rife. Still others could used in Burma's illegal timber trade, which in fact accounts for the great majority of the business.
