US pledges $24 million to protect Vietnam's last remaining elephants

Keeping people away from the giant mammals and their habitat is the only chance they have of survival.

The U.S. government has promised $24 million to the central province of Quang Nam to support elephant conservation efforts after multiple sightings of what is thought to be the last remaining herd left in the wild.

The money will be directed through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Ambassador Ted Osius said during a visit to the rural province on Thursday to attend the agriculture ministry’s opening of an elephant reserve.

The reserve covers nearly 19,000 hectares (47,000 acres) in Nong Son District, where elephants and their tracks have been spotted many times in recent years.

Since 2011, locals have been reporting sightings of elephants, some alive and others killed by poachers, as well as their footprints.

In 2015, when Quang Nam was zoned off to become part of an urgent elephant conservation program, a team of experts arrived and reported a herd of seven elephants with male, female and juvenile members.

A similar herd was spotted near houses on the edge of the forest in January and July this year.

“On one occasion, the elephants were just 50 meters from us. Their trumpeting was as loud as truck horns,” a local man said.

To read the full article, click on the story title