A new 10-year plan for elephant conservation released by the Indonesian government places the country’s wild elephant population at an estimated 1,325-1,648 individuals. The previous figure, published in 2007, was 2,400-2,800 individuals, meaning the new estimate represents a decline of 41-45%. The launch of the 2026-2036 strategy and action plan comes after a long wait. After the 2007-2017 elephant plan expired, the government was supposed to release a new one. While a draft 2019-2029 plan was completed in 2017, then-President Joko Widodo’s administration never finalized the plan or shared it with the public. The draft 2019-2029 plan, seen by Mongabay, placed Indonesia’s elephant population at just 928-1,379 individuals, Mongabay reported in 2022. The plans are drafted by the Indonesian Elephant Conservation Forum (FKGI), a multi-stakeholder group composed of conservationists from NGOs and government agencies, and submitted to the forestry ministry for approval. FKGI deputy head Wishnu Sukmantoro suggested the discrepancy between the new plan and the previous unreleased one was due to the incorporation of new data. “The higher figure [in 2026] doesn’t mean the elephant population has increased” since 2017, Wishnu told Mongabay. The updated number better represents the situation on the ground, he said. “It is a combination of scientific analysis and agreements among elephant conservationists.” Nearly all of Indonesia’s elephants are Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus), a critically endangered subspecies of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), which is itself endangered. Fewer than 52,000 Asian elephants are left, most of them in India, according to WWF. Indonesia’s new…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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