> today y on "earth focus"... elephants on the edge of extinction--two stories from asia, coming up on "earth focus." beneathth the canopy of indonesia's rainforest, life comes together to produce an amazing symphony of wild sounds. [whistling] [low growl] [roaring] [chirping]g] [bellowingng] but n now, the rarainforest''s t booming voice is increasingly hard to find. [deep trumpet] the sumatran elephant teeters on

the edge of extinction, and there's no one else to blame but ourselves. [loud buzzing] it's here in grocerery stores wheere the fatate of indononesin elephants beginsns. you may have never heard of it, but palm oil, a common vegetable oil, has been a growing presence on supermarket shelves since the 1990s. it's high yield, versatility, and price make it an exceptional competitor against alternative vegetable oils. today, palm oil and its derivatitives are prpresent in % of all packaged food. products like bread, cookies, chocolate, chips, and even shower soap.

thee consumeer benefitits, but e ssumatran elephants papay a pri. their habitat is cleared by leggal and illegal l loggers to make room for palm oil plantations. we sesent our u.k. field producer jim wickens to the aceh region of north sumatra. here the leuser ecososystem is one of the last remaining strongholds for indonesian n wildlife. it's a 6-million-acre protected park, but it's being illegally cut down to make room for palm oil. >> we've driviven into the leusr ecosystem. . this is a place of tigers,s, elephants, rhinos, , d orangutans. it's supposed to be prootected. but we''ve been t td off byby rangers here that t the is illegal deforestation gogoing on as s we speak. we're going to go anand try to film tm anand get right up c close to te dedestruction.

keep going. we've been hiking for hours to get here, right on the edge of where the trees are being cut down. i'mm standing just meteters from where the chchains are operatining. i'm whispererig because we''ve bebeen told by or guides that t these people a are highly d dangerous. [chainsaws in babackground] and it's likely to get violent if we move any closer. [manan shou in ststance] you can hehear the trees falling through the canopy. it's one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. [chopppping and it's being destroyed. every day we consume palm oil, labeled as vegetable oil. and a lot of it is coming from

here e in indonesia. th''e convererted the lowlands alread. and now the p palm oil plantatis are moviving up and d up the sl, to herere, leuseer rainforest. we've gotta go. >> leuser isn't tthe only place experiencing deforestation. since 191985, more than 50% of e forests i in sumatra a have been cleared, not just for palm oil plantations, but also for paper, wood, mineses, and road infrastructure. what took thousands of years to grow is coming down at an alarming rate. >> look at that.

we traveveled for over anan hou, deep p into this s palm oil plplantation, , till w we've go, the front line of the expansisi. this expansioion here is illegal under r indonesian law, , and 's all happeningng for palm oil. thiis timber will be shshipped f to market, and in its place, in a matatter of dayays, young m oil seedlings will be planted. > palm oil is one of f the mt wiwidespread vegetable o oils throughout the world. within indonesia itself and also china and india, the 3 of them account fo far more e than half of the uh, the world's consumption of palm oil. but the u.s. and europeaean union are also major players and d can really, you

know, set the standndard for others to follow. >> we all know about the charismatic m megafauna t that e inin africa--elephants, , lions, hihippos, things like that. i guess what's lesess known toto ththe international commmmunity are the charismaticic megafauna in asasia, and paparticularlyly summatra. so h here we havave a, 3.5 million hectares of rainforest, it contains about a thirdrd of the sumatran elepht population, uh, possibly a third of the sumatran tiger population.n. it contains nearly 990% of the sumatran orangutan populati. . it's s cticallll impoant fofothe survalal o lalage mammalsnot juju in sumat but a aoss asias wewell elephts prefer lowland forest habit. thata's theirirrime hatat. th's also the hitat or theheand tha's mosin dend forgricicultul lantatatns or for logggg concesons as wl. thexpansn of paloil plantatis s certnly y habeen

a kecontritor to eleant orest habit loss. at' wihout a dbt. >> the future of this mountain elephanant is bleak. it's a reay difficult situatioion. as longns therere's a dememand for oil pam there's going to be a demand to clear lowland rainforestt in sumatra. >> > the distinct and u unique sumatran elephanant is noww coconsidered critically endangered,d, meaning t that i'n imminent danger of extxtinction. >> you know, when you don't t he governmentsts, when y you don'te enforcemt,t, and you g got the chance m make piles s of money, guess s what's gonnana happen. right, and we're seeing that play out. from a pure economic standpoint, you've got to sort of look at all the political actors. t p palm oil isis generatingng revenue for the government inin terms of export taxes on palalm oil, in terms of payroll taxes anand payments ino social security systems and all of t the governmenent programs. palm oil is more valuable than the forest right now because of the way we value forests. >> while indonesia is looking to

scale upup its production of p m oill, this will come at a great cost.t. it will come at a great cocost to the envivironment anae ececosystem. >> with their old homes deforested, elelephants and othr wildlife h have to move somewhe. it's here inin farming villagess that huhumans and e elephants collilide. in aceceh, communinis rely on agriculture, and when elephants begin eating those crops, conflicts become dedeadl. >> [speaking local language]

>> loss of life isn't new to the people of aceh. for over 30 years, vioiolent clashshes occud between rebels and the jakarta government, until 2004, when a peace treaty was signed. over 15,000 people died in that conflict. o years s after the peace treaty, aceh was hit by a series of deadly floods, killing dozens. experts believe extensivive logging in the surrnding hilllls caused the floods. >> [s[speaking local l language]

>> after such adversity, many communitieies are just t tryingo rebuild. a and for young farmer, likeke sabaruddidin, elephanantd other wildlife pose e a threat o their livelihood. >> [speaking local lananguage]

>> with money on the ne, it''ss often harard to find d solutions that are gogood for bototh peope and elephants. but with no solutions at all, the conflicts can turn ugly. baby elephants are ofoften captured, domesticated, and useded for enentertainmement. >> [speakaking local lalanguage] [e[elepht t grow] >> this is rajah the e elephant. he's been nanamed by the villags who found him in a t trap, on a planantation abobout a month ag. appararently he's jusust over ar old. as cute as he is, it's a really tragic story. he's on his own, chained up, padlocked, well away from his family, where he should b be learning the skis to surviveve in the wild. and effectctively, he'e's now w dooo a life of... bebeing in a a camp somewhere. andd this is----thiss rereally y

much t the hea o of the problem hehere in sumamatra. the communy are telling us thatat they're really y fed up withth the elepphantcomming in and takingng food cropops every, from the wild. . and they feel pretty strongly ababout, you k , the government neneeds to helelp them, nonot the elephants. andnd they're refusing to let rajah go, to give hito the govevernment vetets, untill thet compensasation for their cropsp. >> that compensation never came, and shortly after these images were taken, rajah died. >> [speaking local language] >> the body of an elephant lies rotting on the forest floor. a casualty of the human/elephant conflict, this elephant was killed using rat poison.

as more palm oil is planted and more habitat cleared, more elephants will find a similar fate. conflict elephants that aren't poisoned are often c captured ad placed in government-run camps.. forcibly taken from their herds, these elephants now face a lifetime of captivity. despite the best effort ofof government employees at the camps,, the issue of what to do with these so-called problem elephants remains largely unsolveded. one nonprofit orgrganization, fauna & f flora internatitional, is t trying to hellp. their conseatioion respononse unit, or cru, made up of 14 elephants, is being deployed to prevevent human/wildlife cononflict. in communities where conflicts

exist, the cru will push elephants back to remaining forest areas away from villages. >> [speaking localal language]e] >> these approaches can be very effectctive on the small scale,

um, a a also in thehe srt terer. at the end ofof the e day, as elephant habit shrhrinks, elephantsts are going to spendd more and more time coming out of the foforest. so t the long-term solution is not community based initiatives to drive elephants back to the forest. the long-term solution is to make sure there's enough room for the elephannts to live in the n natl habitat wiwithout having to o ce into humuman habitatation. >> the best hope to cononserve the sumatran elelephant is actualally to consnserve the onn aceh, because that's where t the biggest p populationsns are so in order to conserveve the elephants, we've got to conserve those lowland rainforests, which means conserving leuser. >> grahaham usher is trying toto jujust that. he is a maman on a mimission. he is using new technology to capture an aerial viewew of the illegal logggging operationsns. he hopopes it will help protectct elephant habitat.

>> we've been flying a uav, unmanned aerial vehicle. that gives us the capacity to fly program missions over a set route with camemeras and other sensosors on boboard, so wewe cn basicallyly get an aeaerial vief what's going on on the grground. >> [indistinct] >> ok, can you hold this? ok,, she's on course. good aspspeed. ground speed's ok. today we saw that a very large area of f regrthth forest in t e leuser ecosystem has been cleared and is being replanted with palm oil. this sort of work, collection of evidence, provides us with a much stronger case when you go to decisionmakers a and say, lo, this is what't's goining on. the are your lalaws. why isisn't acn

being taken? it's very likely that palm oil from these, uh, ilillegally logged arereas willd up on supupermarket shelves unless we are very, very careful. >> as consumers, we need to be far more wary of which products contain pallm oil and put pressure on the retailers and the food industry to ensure that those products conontain palm ol that comes from sustainable sourceces. >> we d do have an n opportunit. previous to all of this, it was really a a seller's mket,t, although ththere was much morore demand than there was supply. and s so this is really the time to really pusush hard arounthe palm issue, because it is gonna bebe about access to markets. so we've got t a little b bit of lelevegege, but we r really also have t to take the fight andnd t conversation to the chinas, the indias, a thehe indonesesias, because they hahave a great, , t role in terms of being able to put market pressure and try to change it.

>> [speaking local l language] >> whenever i go to sumatra, whenever i walk into the forest in sumatra, it's like walking into a wall of diversity. it's incredible. if we could save sumatraran elephants in the lowland areas o of sumatra, we wewe would b be saving s so muce than elephan. that to me i is the crux, is this huge amount of biodiviversity that you're saving by protecting the--this mamagnificentrreature tthat is e susumatran elelephant.

>> if we don't take ururgent action, a few years down the road w we will be looking atat e leuser ecosystetem and saying, mmy god, why didn't we do momore when we had the chahance? >> for baby elephants like this, the future remains uncertain. if deforestation continues, it isis unlikely the sumatrtran elelephants will survive. but people can make a difference before it's too late and the elephants disappear forever. whilele elephants in sumatrtra e habitat loss from palm oil, elephants in thailandnd face a completely different set of prooblems. here, tourism is fueliling the illllegal trade of baby elephants. >> [speaeaking thai] >> elephant rides, festivals,

and camps are a must for thousands of tourists who flock to thailand eacach year. but beyond the happy smiles, there is a dark reality behind the origin of these elephants. a brutal trade that experts claim threatens the survival of some of the world's last remaining populations of asian elephants. >> we traveled to the region of chiang mai in northern thailand, home to many of the elephant camps enjoyed by tourists. >> there have been recent sites basesed in africa watching eleephants, ang o other thihing, r r a very, very lonong time,, whereas in asia there's very little research hasas been done. very little has been said about the dramatic drop in population.

no one would have any idea that this spececies is also endanger. >> john roroberts runsns an elet camp.p. he was one of thehe firo recognize the link between the supply of elephants for the tourism industry and elephant hunting in the wild. >> we've beenen jumpingng up and down sasaying, if y you buy ann elephant,t, you're probabably tg another elelephant outut of the wild. we realized very early on that buying elephants was causing a problem a and hurting the wildld popatioion or at lelt the bururmese population. >> the hunting of wild elephants is ilillegal in thailand, b but eerts claim the practice is widespread in neighboring burma, and it threatens t the last healalthy populalations of asian elephants that reside there. baby elephants are particularly sought after. >> it's very attrtractive to tourists or thai p people, so everybody wants bababy elephant, and they are worth a lot of money. yoyou don't need any documents, no microchip, so it's susuper easy. you go iinto the jungle, you u catch an elephant, you train n them, andd a month later you can n get like 600,000

baht, and if you can imagine how much m money this s is in thaiad and how easy it isis to do.... >> teams of hunters surround herds of elephants, killing the parents and other adults who try to defend their young. investigations have revealed that as many as 5 adults may be slaiain for everery calf capapt. the defenseless calves are then smuggled across the border. these rarely seen imimages show elephants being forced to endure a cruel spirit-breaking ritual known as the fashong. these activities take place in remote camps o on the burmrmese borderr from thehe public eye. >> i in thailandnd, they usese p things to o stab them.m. they ue knives, they use axe, they use a stick to beat them. anything that will make the elephant painful and afraid of people. a lot of them die. we have a

record d how the elelephant die. die from suffocatete, die fromom starvation, dieie from the e st, anand some of theem die from the heartbreak becausesehey couldn't accept it. >> while the lucrative trade in wild elephant smuggling is illegal in thailanand, lek allls that it involves corruption on various levels. >> have the police involved, hahave the miilitary involved. you know, if you want to make birth certificate or i.d. card, you can fake it. big money for the offificial to issue e the p. >> once you are confrontining these i influential peoplple tht arare above the law, itit can gt quite dangerous. there were some camp owners that like told me literally y that if i i was a y i would be e dead alreaeady. >> shortly before the making of this film, a local informant in the area disappeared. activists fear the worst but carry on nevertheless. >> people who work with the animal in thisis counttry, the'e afraid. myself, i afafraid, too,

but to be honest, the animal are morre afraid.d. >> we put these allegations to the deputy director of thehe nationanal parks authority, w we remit t is to protect and police ththe country'y's wildld. >> [spepeaking g thai] >> but despite such assurances, evidence suggests trade in wild calves is still ongoing. >> investigationsns in the lalat 6 monthths and conversations hae been had witith traders and elephant ownersrs have shown at leasast 14 wild-d-caught calalve been t traded acrcross the bordr froom burma ininto thai cacamp and we believe this i is juststa fraction of the numbers. >> elephant advocates claim the

presence of s scarred baby elephants at the recent surin elephant festival also highlilight the neneed for urgrt action. >> the world has lost up toto 9% of its s asian elhantnts in thee last 100 years. and unless actually m more is done to prott this species and stop acttivitis such as the illlegal liveve tra, then we're going to lose t the asian elephant in n the wi forever. what we're askiking for is only a registration of capveve bull calvlves so that tthey'rere actually y registered within twoeeeeks of birth. a and toto makehihis ev strtronger, we'rere also o calling for a dna databaase. >> now, wiwith all thihis prooft we have,e, is reallyly the momet to form an ininternational communityty to, you know, push thailand t to really e enforce e law a and finally really prprott the wild elephantnts. >> until then, the plight of burma's wild elelephants contins to hang in the balance.

[animal screeching] bill: good morning, bioneers. audience: morning. bill: morning. that's a phrase my wife likes to use when she's here. and unfortunately, she's not here today 'cause she has a bad cold, so i am pinch hitting, and i hope you'll, um, give me some leeway for improvising a bit as we go along. um, i am here to introduce dr. mark plotkin, who is a healer and a man whose life journey, i think,