Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE)

Photo: An Asian elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) in Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka. © IUCN Thailand/ Petch Manopawitr

Project title: Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE)

Location: South Asia – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka
Southeast Asia – Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam

Duration: May 2017 – December 2019

Project background:

The Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) programme is an international collaboration that measures the levels, trends and causes of elephant mortality, thereby providing an information base to support international decision-making related to conservation of elephants in Asia and Africa. The MIKE Programme was established by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) by Resolution 10.10 adopted at the tenth Conference of the Parties in 1997.

There are currently 28 sites participating in the MIKE programme in Asia, distributed across 13 countries: India has 10 sites, followed by two sites each in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand, and one site each in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam.

In 2017, IUCN was engaged by CITES to implement the MIKE Asia programme in two sub-regions: South Asia (via the IUCN India Country Office in New Delhi); and Southeast Asia (through the IUCN Asia Regional Office in Bangkok). This forms part of the wider Asia Wildlife Law Enforcement and Demand Reduction Management Project funded by the European Union.

To find out more about MIKE, please visit the CITES MIKE website.

Objectives of the project:

The main objective of the MIKE Asia programme is to identify spatial, temporal and other trends in elephant mortalities by collating and analysing data on elephant carcasses (which are collected by management agencies). Other objectives include support for law enforcement activities, capacity-building for front-line field staff and limited provision of field equipment to sites. The programme’s analytical outputs and field activities support international decision-making related to elephant conservation in Asia.

Expected outputs:

• Collation and quality control of annual records of elephant carcasses from MIKE sites in Asia
• Data analysis to identify patterns at the level of site, local region and country.

Donor: European Union

Partner: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Secretariat; IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group

Contact:

Dr Aditya Gangadharan
MIKE Sub-regional Support Officer, South Asia
IUCN India Country Office 
Address: C-10 Gulmohar Park
New Delhi 110049, India
aditya.gangadharan@iucn.org
Tel: +91 11 2652 7742
Fax: +91 11 2652 5554

Mr SayLin Ong
MIKE Sub-regional Support Officer, Southeast Asia
IUCN Asia Regional Office
Address: 63 Sukhumvit 39, Soi Phrompong
Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
saylin.ong@iucn.org
Tel. +66 2 662 40 29, up to 33 (ext. 154)