How do we move restoration into the private sector, creating “an economy that restores”?

I felt the need for a little levity today, right before Christmas, what with my aunt dying on December 9 and my mother’s death-day coming up on December 21. In fact, I thought I was going to be depressed about that all month, even though it’s been sixteen years since she died. I thought the fog was going to descend, but so far it’s been light.

So I bring you Mr. Ellie Pooh.

Otherwise known as “recycled elephant poo paper products.”

Now I know this post is titled “Restoration Nation,” not “Sewage Nation” or some such. But with more people in the world bumping up more often against fewer animals (at least, fewer animals that require a lot of space to roam), I believe we must get creative.

Making elephant dung into paper was a response to the increasing number of unpleasant interactions between farmers and elephants in Sri Lanka. The little brochure I found says, “Since 1950, it is likely that more than 4,000 elephants have been destroyed as a direct consequence of the conflict between humans and elephants.”

My first reaction was, 4,000 elephants in 58 years? Is that a lot? That’s 69 elephants killed by farmers every year. How many elephants would die naturally? I don’t know the answer to the last question, but I do know that elephants take a while to get to the reproductive stage. So taking 69 potential parents out of the gene pool every year is probably not a good thing.

So how is all this a form of restoration?

1. It’s treating elephants as an economic resource. Right now the animal is an economic liability for farmers.
2. Something is being sold—paper—though as far as I can tell, it’s being sold only in North America, not in Sri Lanka. The farmers in Sri Lanka get a cut, but I couldn’t tell if they go out and collect the poo, and I don’t think they are the ones making it into paper. So it sounds like the paper is made—somewhere—and the farmers get money and are told that the source of that money is paper made from elephant poo.

In short, Mr. Ellie Pooh’s website needs a little work.

But hey, the paper is acid-free.