In a bid to try and save the Critically Endangered Sumatran elephants in Aceh, Indonesia an emergency appeal has been launched by the UN’s Rapid Response Facility (RRF) on behalf of the local conservation group HAkA.
There are just 500 Sumatran elephants, which are the smallest of the Asian elephants, left and they live in fragmented habitats, as almost 70 per cent of elephant-suitable habitat has been destroyed in the last 25 years.
As a result of this their home, the tropical forests of the Leuser Ecosystem, is part of a designated World Heritage Site in Danger.
And conservationists fear that an increase in poaching could drive this number down even further.
In the first five months of this year, local conservation group HAkA has found and destroyed 139 snares – already more than in the whole of 2013.
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