Dear Dr. Siti Nurbaya Bakar (Minister of Environment and Forestry, Republic of Indonesia),

Today, we mourn the loss of another treasured and respected endangered animal tragically killed. Please take a moment from your day to read this petition: Justice for Yongki, and take action against the barbaric poachers.

As you may know, Yongki, a male Sumatran elephant, worked without complaint alongside park rangers in Sumatra’s Bukit Barisan Selatan national park to help improve human elephant conflict in Indonesia. Park rangers are devastated as they discovered Yongki's motionless body on Friday evening (18th Sep). He was found dead in a pool of his own blood, his tusks forcibly removed. Rangers in the park suspect he was poisoned so that poachers could attack Yongki for his tusks. Poachers have mercilessly killed Yongki, for their own greed, and that of the buyers who will pay to have Yongki's tusks made into simple ivory trinkets. It's a disgrace! 

Yongki, described as having a 'friendly nature', was a valued member of the park's conservation response unit (CRU), helping park staff to prevent wild elephants from destroying village crops, and protecting the forests from illegal logging. He also patrolled the forests with his mahouts (elephant riders) to secure the area against poachers hunting his fellow wild elephants, who are critically endangered. 

Part of the family, Yongki was respected and loved by all. There are now less than 3,000 wild Sumatran elephants left alive, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and this number is falling dramatically at the hands of poaching on the island. 

Please take action to find the poachers who have committed this horrific crime, and bring them to justice for Yongki, and all Sumatran elephants who have lost their lives at the hands of humans. They have every right to live on this planet, and those responsible must be held accountable! Please investigate Yongki's death and do all that is possible to track down his killers!