Asian Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy (AREAS)

The Asian Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy is a WWF initiative for the conservation of the mega-herbivores Indian Rhino and Asian Elephants. The AREAS Programme is a response to the recognition that long-term conservation of these endangered 'Pachyderms' is only possible through a landscape-based approach that goes beyond isolated protected areas and includes the surrounding landscapes and related land use practices.

With this vision in consideration, a WWF/TRAFFIC Strategy meeting was held in the Ho Chi Minh City in 1998. Thirteen priority landscapes addressing cross-cutting issues like trade, elephants in domestication and human-wildlife conflict were identified.

The WWF India AREAS Programme is the outcome of the whole WWF AREAS strategy. It has now a programme on the conservation of Asian elephants and Indian one-horned rhino in four identified priority landscapes in India.

These are the Nilgiris-Eastern Ghats (elephants) in Karnataka, the North Bank Landscape (elephants), and the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong (rhinos and elephants) in Assam and Western Terai (rhino) in Uttar Pradesh. This is to be noted that these landscapes are refuge to the largest population of Asian elephants and Indian rhinos.

The North Bank Landscape and Nilgiri-Eastern Ghats Landscapes are in operation. The strategy of both the landscapes aims to conserve as much diversity as possible in these identified habitats along with the elephants and rhinos.

In an ambitious program that brings together cutting edge conservation interventions with trade monitoring, socio-economic analysis and policy advocacy's, AREAS promises new hopes for the dwindling populations of these two species in Asia.