11 March, 2005

Mr. Ian Porter
Country Director, Thailand
The World Bank
14th Floor, Diethelm Tower A,
93/1 Wireless Road,
Bangkok10330

Dear Mr. Porter,

Re: Nam Theun 2 dam and wild elephants on the Nakai Plateau

We, the undersigned, are concerned that the Nam Theun 2 project – currently being appraised by the World Bank – will result in severe, negative impacts on the endangered Asian elephants of the Nakai Plateau.

We have seen your reply of 21 January, 2005, to Ms Soraida Salwala, Founder and Secretary General, Friends of Asian Elephant Foundation, regarding the Nam Theun 2 dam’s impact on wild elephants on the Nakai Plateau in central Laos, and would like to provide you with additional information and comments.

We note with grim irony the World Bank’s promotion of Nam Theun 2 as the best hope for Laotian wildlife. In Thailand, it was the cancellation of a hydroelectricity dam, Nam Choan, 17 years ago, one the World Bank also promoted as necessary for meeting Thailand’s power demand that helped save what is now Thailand’s largest
and finest wildlife sanctuary. That sanctuary, Thung Yai Naresuan, together with Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, was declared a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site in 1991. It was nominated for that global recognition by Thai environmentalists who successfully forced the cancellation of the Nam Choan dam in 1988.

Your statement that the Bank “do[es] not believe it [NT2] would be the kind of destructive project for elephants and other wildlife” is not based on baseline data and fact. Rather it is based on personal feeling, which we respect your right to express; however, it leaves your arguments unconvincing.

The Nam Theun 2 project will definitely cause deforestation and destruction of habitats of wild elephants, white-winged ducks, and other endangered species on the Nakai Plateau and surrounding areas. The fifth report of the World Bank’s International Advisory Group, dated 15 February 2005, states, “The impacts on terrestrial biodiversity of the inundation will be considerable given the destruction or degradation of habitats that will occur. The habitats of herds of elephants on and around the plateau will be affected and the potential for conflict between elephants and humans enhanced to a degree.” (p.12)

Contrary to your claim that “the Nakai elephant population probably face a more secure future than might have been the case without this development”, the experience of dam-affected wildlife in Thailand indicates the opposite. In Thailand, we have witnessed and learned from the impacts large-scale dams such as Sri Nakarin, and Khao Laem (Vachiralongkorn) dams in Kanchanaburi province, and Chiew Larn (Ratchaprapa) dam in Surat Thani province have had on wildlife. The construction of these dams and associated infrastructure transformed the areas – previously covered with big fertile forests with high biodiversity – destroying the forests and resulting in loss of wildlife.

The Chiew Larn dam in Surat Thani province was the first dam project in Thailand at which a wildlife rescue programme was introduced. Mr Seub Nakhasathien, a wildlife researcher with the Royal Forestry Department, and chief of the programme, concluded in his report, Assessment Report on Wildlife Rescue Operation in Reservoir of Chiew Larn Dam (Ratcaprapa Dam), Surat Thani Province, 2530 (1983), that the wildlife rescue programme was a complete failure. Most of the wildlife in the area was hunted by dam workers, loggers and others prior to the completion of construction.

The rescue programme team found that many animals were starving, injured and the conditions made it difficult for them to survive. Those lucky enough to survive and migrate from the reservoir faced difficulties as the new areas were not as suitable in terms of food, water sources, as well as the types and condition of the forest. For these reasons Khun Seub strongly disagreed with the proposed Nam Choan dam in Kanchanaburi province. As a result of the failure of the Chiew Larn wildlife rescue programme, there has not been any wildlife rescue programme at subsequent dam projects. The failure of the Chiew Larn wildlife rescue programme has remained in the Thai public’s mind for a very long time.

Regarding human-elephant conflicts in the Nam Theun watershed, these are already a problem in Thailand, and are likely to be more severe in the future due to development projects increasingly invading areas important for elephants. Prior to the construction of Sri Nakarin dam in Kanchanaburi province, wild elephants migrated
between the two banks of the Kwai Yai river, which was surrounded by forests and removed from human settlements, and an important source of food and water for the elephants. The Sri Nakarin dam dramatically changed the environment. In addition to the reservoir flooding the low plains along the Kwai Yai riverbanks –destroying important sources of food along the river banks and making the area inaccessible to the elephants – a road was built, opposite the Salak Phra Wildlife Sanctuary, to make way for the resettlement villages.

Human-elephant conflicts became more apparent 10 to 15 years after the Sri Nakarin dam was completed, as the food sources for elephant continued to decline within the surrounding Salak Phra Wildlife Sanctuary. Elephants had to search further for their food, and by instinct, they go where they used to go – cross the river to Erawan National Park, Sri Nakarin National Park, Nam Choan National Reserved Forest and Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary – yet the path of the elephants within and between these designated conservation areas has been disrupted by villages and farmlands so conflicts are on the rise.

Human-elephant conflicts in and around Salak Phra Wildlife Sanctuary will continue because the elephants have no place to go. The dam has isolated them in a limited area and their range has been significantly reduced by the reservoir. There is no longlasting mitigation measure for this situation and new methods have to be created constantly to deal with the conflicts. Although some methods were successful in the beginning, local people’s attempts to keep the elephants away from their crops have generally failed. Recently, people have tried electric fences, a common method used internationally to prevent invasion by large wildlife, however, the elephants have managed to pass though by breaking the poles that hold the electric fences together.

You claim the World Bank is interested in developing “a science-based management plan for the elephants” displaced by Nam Theun 2. But the act of tying funds for elephant conservation to a project that will destroy elephant habitat is neither‘science-based’ nor ethical: it is political. The essence of wildlife management is to
conserve wildlife habitats; and yet the construction of the Nam Theun 2 dam will contradict this key principle because the dam’s reservoir will result in permanent habitat loss and fragmentation.

True conservation only happens when people perceive the value of natural resources, their importance for people’s livelihoods, and maintain their local culture and wisdom. The achievement of the conservation of wild elephants and other wildlife on the Nakai Plateau relies on the cooperation of the local people in the area, not the construction of the Nam Theun 2 dam.

To suggest as you do that the Nam Theun 2 developers can build now and develop a management plan later violates all principles of sustainable development. The World Bank should have insisted upon completion of a thorough wildlife impact assessment long ago. Now weeks before the developers’ deadline for financial closure and the developers have failed to produce a plan to ‘mitigate’ wildlife impacts.

We therefore request that the World Bank stop rushing to meet the developers’ deadline and postpone its decision on financing the Nam Theun 2 project until such time as:

Thank you for your serious attention to these important matters. We look forward to your earliest response.

Sincerely,

Soraida Salwala,
Founder and Secretary General, Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation

Veerawat Dheeraprasart,
Chairperson, Foundation for Ecological Recovery

Rataya Chantian,
Chairperson, SeubNakhasathien Foundation

Dr Surapol Duangkae,
Secretary General, Wildlife Fund, Thailand

Dr Saranarat Kanjanavanit,
Secretary General, Green World Foundation

Dr. Robert Mather,
Country Representative, WWF Thailand Programme

Philip D. Round
Faculty of Science, Mahidol University


cc

• James Wolfensohn, President, World Bank
• Ian Johnson, Vice President for Sustainable Development, World Bank
• Jemal-ud-din Kassum, Vice President, East Asia and Pacific Region, World Bank
• Haruhiko Kuroda, President, Asian Development Bank
• Rajat M. Nag, Director General, Mekong Department, Asian Development Bank

Letter in PDF HERE