Elephants and the Nam Theun 2 Dam

The global range of the Asian elephant has shrunk by 70% in the past 30 years. Most of this habitat loss has occurred in lowlands and river valleys, and elephant ranges today tend to be small, fragmented, and confined to peripheral hilly and mountainous areas. These threats – habitat loss and fragmentation – are conservation problems for many species, but especially severe for elephants for two reasons. First, elephants require very large areas, inside which they make seasonal movements between different habitats. Herds and individuals might use between 100 to over 600 square kilometers depending on habitat type and quality. Second, small isolated groups of elephants are much more vulnerable to extinction, for example through hunting, a period of drought, or a skewed sex ratio that diminishes reproduction.

A Pair of Elephants in Nakai

Places in which Asian elephants are relatively numerous, and occur over large contiguous areas of 1000's of square kilometers, are increasingly rare. Most are in India. The Nakai Plateau in Khammouan Province is one such place in SE Asia. Elephants of the Nakai plateau are central to one of the largest remaining populations in the region. Forested links remain between its constituent groups, so this population represents one of the least fragmented as well. These conditions – population abundance and habitat contiguity – are considered critical for the long-term conservation of elephants. Any location possessing these conditions deserves very special consideration.

Why did the Elephant Cross the Road? To Get Away from the Dam!

Elephants do not persist here because the Nakai plateau is pristine. As in many significant conservation areas in the world, people have altered its habitats, fished its waters, and hunted its forests over thousands of years. This does not detract from the ecological significance of the plateau for elephants however. (Elephants thrive on grass and bamboo, for example, both products of habitat disturbance.) The Nakai plateau supports a rich array of habitats including secondary forests, pine forest, semi-evergreen forest, deciduous forest, seasonal wetlands and permanent streams. These are interspersed with numerous mineral licks. This richness, combined with the gentle terrain these habitats rest on, provides excellent physical conditions for high densities of elephants. The central role of the Plateau in ecological functioning of the region is exemplified by the fact that elephants maintain widespread seasonal movements on a landscape scale.

The proposed Nam Theun 2 dam would destroy these special conditions, forever. After the dam, the status of elephants would resemble that of countless other populations, displaced and confined to isolated fragments of a former range. Remaining groups would have lower chances of survival, and would come into increasing conflict and competition with humans.

An Elephant Eating Native Grasses

These negative consequences can not be mitigated, because habitat loss and fragmentation are permanent conditions in the case of a reservoir. The loss of population integrity and habitat connectivity that would result from the dam are irreversible. Various measures have been proposed to deal with the elephant conservation problems that the dam would create. Corridors that link the Nakai Nam Theun protected area with others, such as Phou Hin Boun, are one example. These would do little to alleviate the complete destruction of mineral licks, and annual and seasonal ranges of elephant sub-populations in the reservoir area. Despite the creation of corridors, seasonal movements of elephants would still be obstructed, such as between the Plateau and Phou Hun Boun protected area.

What about translocation of elephants out of the inundation area? The success of translocation assumes that suitable alternative locations for them exist. They do not. Alternative locations are in the proposed corridors, where infrastructure development, land conversion, commercial hunting, and human population pressure will increase in direct response to hydropower development. Such areas are clearly inferior even without such changes, otherwise elephants would already be concentrated there.

A Lao Poster Promoting the Dam Project

In the evolution of the Nam Theun 2 dam, “mitigation measures” have become goals of their own, and so the Nam Theun 2 dam has been transformed from a hydropower project into a conservation project. The elephants that reside on the Nakai Plateau will understand the difference.