Sacred and endangered – the Thai elephant

Since I will be in Thailand the next 6 month with GVI and my last A-level will most likely be about biodiversity I thought, I’d write about Thai elephants and their importance for the ecosystem.

Elephants play an essential role in maintaining forest dynamics and are considered a keystone species. So their absence or presence affects many other species. They spread seeds, which especially rare plants rely on. Due to their poor absorption of nutrition and slow digestion, they are ideal for distributing seeds and fertilizing the ground. They create trails through the Underwood that other animals travel on too. Another very important function elephants fulfil and that other species profit from, is the provision of water. By digging over the ground, they open access to the wet nutrient-rich ground and create small wells. So all in all just their presence, enables fellow animals easier access to food, water and the forest.

Elephant with mahout (keeper)

But it is estimated, that only 1000 wild elephants remain in Thailand and 95% of their original habitat has been cut down. The main drivers are humans. Cultivation of the countryside, illegal trade and its hunt for ivory as well as the increasing number of elephants held for domestic purposes and tourist attractions is threatening the wild population.

If the elephants become extinct, it would be a loss for the ecosystem as well as the Thai culture. Elephants have always been sacred and a symbol for power and peace.

But how can the Thai elephant be saved? Well, one option is supporting programs, like the one I am joining. GVI supports a village near Chiang Mai to release elephants back in the wild, by ensuring them a secure environment and health care. The aim is to provide a sustainable way to ensure their long-term conservation and survival.  Through programs like these, the number of wild elephants will hopefully stop decreasing.

Elephant statue in a temple

Where I got my facts from and for more information:

http://www.eleaid.com/index.php?page=elephantsinthailand

http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/elephants/adaptations.htm

Philippines – progress in achieving the MDGs

Just like Uganda and Bangladesh, the Philippines have agreed to the eight targets of the MDG in order to rid the world of extreme poverty. In the following I will examine if the Philippines are likely to reach the goals until 2015 and how their progress compares to Uganda and Bangladesh.

sources: http://www.undp.org.ph/?link=mdg_ph

               A2 Geography for Edexcel, Chapter 5.9

 

The vicious cycle of development

The vicious cycle of development roughly visualizes the process of trade in developing countries. The outcome is that there hardly is any development. Poor regions depend on the export of commodities (raw goods) into developed countries, where the goods are processed and value is added. So the raw goods are less valuable than the product. Therefore the profit for the undeveloped region is low . With hardly any gain, the country cannot invest in machinery or manufacturing and cannot process its goods within the country. It’s dependent on exporting them instead – continuing the cycle. In order to disrupt this process poor countries have to focus on their own processing and manufacturing industries and they cannot do it by themselves. Developed countries need to assist in order to make the vicious cycle virtuous. 

Malawi’s development status

The Republic of Malawi, one of the poorest countries on earth, currently resides rank 171 (from 187) of the annual UNDP human development Index. The landlocked country in south-east Africa reached an HDI of 0,400 in 2011, the best the country got rated so far, yet it is even under the data that is considered as low human development (0,456). The GDP that year was equally as low, with 900$ per capita. In comparison, Germany has a GDP of 38,400$. Adding to the low living standard and weak economy, Malawi’s population keeps increasing – the average Malawian only reaches 52 and has 5,6 children. One indicator of the HDI is the local health care system, which needs to improve. At the moment out of 1000 people, 1,1% can claim a hospital bed and the risk to get infectious diseases, like malaria or hepatitis A, is very high. Probably the most shocking number is 53% – the count of people below the poverty line.  The only categories of world rankings, where Malawi is in the top 20, are for example population growth (2,758%), aids victims (11,9%) and infant mortality (79/1000). So this country is densely populated and highly underdeveloped.

As seen in this graph, Malawi’s HDI did increase over the years, but still is below the “low human  development” line.

Uganda – Living on the wrong side of the gap

Uganda counts to the so called HIPCs (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) and is in debt, even though parts have been cancelled. The flow chart below is a short summary of how Uganda got into this situation.

But what role does debt play in maintaining a development gap?

Uganda has a troubled past and heavy future. The nation’s dept will hold them on poor side of the development gap.  Due to the amounts of money they owe to different countries, it’s hard to move forward and increase living standards. At the moment every child born in Uganda is 350US$ in debt.  And the interest adds to that, so the mountain of debt keeps growing. 

The land is actually very fertile and rich of natural resources, but there is a lack of knowledge and of money to cultivate it properly. There are several social projects and parts of the debt have been cancelled, so the situation did get better over the years. But the debts still have their effect on the education and health system, the development moves very slowly and a school degree or a hospital bed is not assured. A problem not only in Uganda, but in many developing countries is the inferior role of women. They get married very young, need to stay home and take care of their children. So they don’t get educated or proper jobs, if they do they earn less than men.  If women would get the education men have, they would have more perspectives in the future. Another problem is the shortage of sex education, either because the religion forbids protection or there are no education programs. Uganda has a very high fertile and HIV rate. Uganda’s government did support awareness programs and the HIV rate decreased over the past years. This shows how important education is. Thanks to foreign aid and debt cancelling Uganda was able to recover a little, but there still is a long way ahead. While the wealthy countries keep on growing, those in debt have stopped developing, paying for mistakes of the past. Debts definitely hinder developing countries of crossing the developing gap and are a major contributing factor that it maintains.

Uganda is a country that possess the potential to increase the output of it’s primary economic sector.

Poor and rich

In 1981 you could draw a clear line between the wealthy and the poor countries according to Brandt (picture below). Today you can’t differ between just those two. Many once as poor considered nations have earned international importance and influence. These also called NICs (Newly Industrialising Countries) have developed economically, but often not socially. For example, ranking by economic strength Brazil currently resides the sixth place and has even outrun the UK. But the South American state still has features of a third world country, due to poverty and crime. While the NICs are slowly catching up with “the rich north”, Africa is falling behind. The majority of the African countries remain poor and with low living standards. At the moment South America and Asia are processing and Africa seems to freeze. So the separation that Willy Brandt made, does not accord to the world we live in today. Of course there still is a gap in terms of development, but you can’t divide the world into two fragments. Countries like Brazil are both, poor and rich.

The North-South division after Willy Brandt

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