Today is the inaugural World Wildlife Day, recently established by the UN General Assembly in order to celebrate our wild world and to urge us to step up the fight against wildlife crime in this precarious era.
This morning Frank and I were at the Kenya Wildlife Service headquarters to celebrate the occasion, and found an audience packed with Kenyans and young Chinese students. From the grassroots to the highest corridors of power, it seems understanding of the ivory situation is growing.
Wider awareness amongst those who buy ivory about the impact of their purchases is essential. As a front page article<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?SavetheElephants/cadc5521cc/90f8c80775/e165faa8f7> in China’s biggest-selling weekend newspaper, Southern Weekend, in November last year quoted me, “excess demand for ivory is the root of the elephant poaching crisis. All other efforts to stop the killing of elephants will be useless if the world doesn’t stop buying ivory.”
World political momentum on ivory has built to a new high, with the unprecedented involvement of the highest levels of the US government soon after the US senate hearings<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?SavetheElephants/cadc5521cc/90f8c80775/c3422902ae> on the issue. This year the Chinese government have shown their commitment by crushing an ivory stockpile and signing up to international declarations on the need to reduce demand for ivory.
We’re still hoping for the ultimate prize: for China to exercise joint leadership with the USA and shut down her domestic ivory markets.
Leadership in public opinion matters too. After Yao Ming’s visit to Samburu, last year we shared with Chinese megastar and UNEP Goodwill Ambassador Li Bingbing the wonder of elephants and the horrific impacts of poaching.
To mark World Wildlife Day we are launching the short film we made with UNEP of Li Bingbing’s visit to Kenya. I very much hope you enjoy the film and appreciate the importance of its message.
The 3-minute version:
The 6-minute director’s cut:
Yours faithfully,
Iain Douglas-Hamilton
Founder & CEO
Save the Elephants
