WWF-Indonesia on Wednesday (25/02) received Riau Police Chief, Brigadier General (Pol) Dolly Bambang Hermawan in his office to discuss the development of the case arrest of elephant poachers in Riau some time ago.

In this meeting, WWF Indonesia had the opportunity to express its appreciation for the success of the Riau Regional Police (Polda) in arresting 8 elephant poachers along with some important evidence including 2 elephant tusks and firearms used by the perpetrators.

Anwar Purwoto, Regional Director of Sumatra-Kalimantan, WWF-Indonesia said, "WWF-Indonesia congratulates the success of the Riau Police who have successfully arrested suspected elephant poachers. WWF-Indonesia encourages Riau Police to complete the entire legal process until the perpetrators are sentenced accordingly."

Considering the number of elephant deaths in Riau alone in the last decade has reached at least 140 elephants, and the remaining population of Sumatran elephants is around 1700 elephants, the prevention of future elephant deaths and the thorough investigation of every elephant death case is very important.

The Riau Police Chief responded, "We will handle this elephant death case until the file is submitted to the Prosecutor's Office and then brought to trial. Therefore, parties such as WWF, BBKSDA (Natural Resources Conservation Center) and those who have concerns about elephant conservation can also oversee the trial process of this case later."

Director of Criminal Investigation of Riau Police, Kombes (Pol) Yohanes Widodo, who was also present at the meeting, said, "The suspects will not only be charged with the provisions of Law No.5 of 1990, but will also be charged with illegal possession of firearms."

In addition to law enforcement, the key to preventing elephant deaths is strengthening the monitoring of elephant movement areas in their habitat as an effort to prevent elephant poaching.

According to Brigadier General (Pol) Dolly, education and participation of local community components living around elephant habitat areas need to be intensified as a force to prevent crimes against elephants or other protected animals. In addition, the involvement of other parties such as the local Agriculture Office and Industry & Trade Office is also important due to the fact that in many cases, elephants are found dead due to poisoning using chemicals that have been banned from use as pesticides.

In Riau, there are currently 4 Team Flying Squad, 1 of which is a joint program of WWF-Indonesia and BBKSDA Riau, which has a function to mitigate potential conflicts between wild elephants and humans. In addition, WWF-Indonesia also monitors the movement of elephants in their habitat through the installation of GPS collars, which are hung on elephants to track the position of the elephant group so that early on it can prevent wild elephant-human conflicts.