The Indonesian government is currently drafting a 10-year
master plan to protect the endangered helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil), set
to be launched in 2018.
The program will comprise five action plans: research and
monitoring; policies and law enforcement; partnerships; raising public
awareness; and funding.
The helmeted hornbill has been driven to the brink of
extinction by poaching for its distinctive scarlet casqued beak, which is
pound-for-pound three times as valuable as elephant ivory.
The Indonesian government will next year launch a 10-year
program to save the critically endangered helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax
vigil), a bird driven to the verge of extinction because of poaching for its
distinctive casqued beak.
The new strategy, to run from 2018 to 2028, comprises five
action plans — research and monitoring; policies and law enforcement;
partnerships; raising public awareness; and funding — and follows from last
year’s forum of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“If we have a clear action plan, hopefully our next generation
will not suffer the loss of the helmeted hornbill, like the Javan tiger and the
Bali tiger in the past,” Bambang Dahono Adji, director for biodiversity
conservation at the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, said at a
meeting in Jakarta last week to discuss the action plans.
The helmeted hornbill, one of Southeast Asia’s most unique
large bird species, is confined to pockets of forest in Borneo and the Malay
Peninsula. The bird has been hunted
close to extinction for its casque, which is prized in China for
use as ornamental carvings and can fetch $4,000 per kilogram — three times more
than elephant ivory.
Forest degradation, extremely low rates of reproduction and a
lack of conservation efforts have piled further pressure on the species,
resulting in the downgrading in 2015 of the helmeted hornbill’s conservation
status by three categories, from “Near Threatened” to “Critically
Endangered.”
Continued
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