The 3rd Asian Elephant Range States Meeting was held from 27-29 April 2022 in Kathmandu (Nepal) with a focus on priorities including human-elephant conflict, habitat management, and transboundary issues. As a culmination to the meeting, representatives of government adopted the Kathmandu Declaration for Asian Elephant Conservation that includes priority commitments to promote connectivity and wildlife-friendly infrastructure within and among the countries.

With approximately 50,000 wild elephants remaining across 13 countries in Asia, the endangered species is increasingly at risk of local extinction in some places. Considering the growing direct and indirect impacts of linear transport infrastructure (LTI) development – especially roads and railways – that challenge elephant conservation efforts, this 3rd Meeting included agenda items to discuss solutions that could reduce the resulting habitat loss and degradation, fragmentation of the populations themselves, and direct mortality due to collisions. Hosted by Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, the sessions were conducted using a hybrid format and a 1.5-hour session was devoted to introducing the recent AsETWG publication Protecting Asian Elephants from Linear Transport Infrastructure and facilitating a robust discussion among participants about a variety of transport projects that are incorporating purpose-built elephant crossings to mitigate impacts.

At the closing of the meeting delegates adopted the Kathmandu Declaration for Asian Elephant Conservation including the following two priority commitments to be achieved by 2025:

  • Promote the maintenance and connectivity of large Asian Elephant conservation landscapes where new permitted developmental activities such as linear infrastructures are elephant- and biodiversity-appropriate; and
  • Promote the development of national guidelines on wildlife-friendly linear infrastructure, including elephant, based on those developed by the Asian Elephant Specialist Group of the IUCN SSC and Connectivity [Conservation] Specialist Group [of the IUCN WCPA] after Range States consultations.

Additional reporting from the meeting by the Asian Elephant Specialist Group can be read here.