WCS works in many of the regions devastated by the recent earthquakes and Tsunami.  Thankfully, our staff escaped injury, but it is with sorrow that we have learned that some of our colleagues lost family and homes. 

 

WCS staff in Indonesia are actively assisting with relief work, mainly in the cities of Aceh and Medanin in northern Sumatra, one of the worst hit areas.  We are assessing what we can do throughout the region, and will roll out programs to help rebuild infrastructure and capacity when it seems most appropriate. One of our major field sites in Indonesia is Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, which is in southernmost Sumatra.

 

There were close calls in Thailand, where WCS has field staff in coastal areas working to protect marine mammals.  Some staff had to flee their homes for higher ground during the initial surges from the tsunami.  WCS collaborates with the Phuket Marine Biological Station, which reported that none of its staff are hurt, but that the field station building is damaged.  The WCS-Myanmar program has reported that all are okay there.

 

The latest issue of our own Wildlife Conservation magazine (February 2005) contains an article on dugongs and tribal peoples in the Andaman Islands. The article has pictures of members of the Onge tribe, a tribe of peoples of Australasian descent, and of which there were only 95 left. According to news reports coming out of India (the Andamans are a territory of India), about 60 of the Onge perished in the tsunamis. We have heard however that the author of the article, Hoslo Jiwa, lives on the Andamans and is fine.

 

As an organization, we extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to all whom this tragedy has touched. WCS has the highest respect for the humanitarian work of organizations such as Doctors without Borders, Oxfam, and Care, which are all active in tsunami relief efforts throughout the Indian Ocean region.

 

It's far too early to tell what the impacts of the tsunami will have on wildlife.  WCS conservationists were recently interviewed on ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, CNN and Fox News to discuss how animals may have sensed the oncoming surge and fled to higher ground.  However, populations of terrestrial wildlife in most affected areas are already fairly low due to high human populations living along the coasts.

 

Destruction of near-shore coral reefs, which can help deflect storm surges, along with clearing of mangrove forests that buffer shorelines, may have exacerbated the situation in some places.  The tsunami may have further impacted coral reefs and coastal wildlife, which will need to be studied in the near future. Scientists in WCS's Marine Program have been closely following this aspect of the tsunami disaster.

 

We will continue to share news here on wcs.org about the people and wildlife living in the wake of the tsunami. To learn more about WCS programs in Asia, follow these links: