Supporting Sumatran elephants in the Leuser ecosystem, Indonesia

Part of our work on Sumatran elephants, supported by the People's Trust for Endangered Species, involved us looking into elephant habitat use and conservation in the Leuser ecosystem in the provinces of North Sumatra and Aceh in Sumatra.

This work has enabled us to better understand elephant habitat requirements and the underlying causes of elephant crop foraging and human-elephant interactions. Together with our collaborators at Syiah Kuala University and the Leuser Conservation Forum we are able to use this information to develop improved conservation strategies by highlighting which areas are most important for elephants and where the best locations are for elephant corridors. We can also identify how to mitigate against the negative impacts of human-elephant interactions in order to protect both people and wild elephants.

Please click here to visit the PTES website for more information on this project and a full update of our research progress to date.