At the recently held UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference in Johannesburg, for many people deeply concerned about the plight of endangered species around the world, it was gratifying to hear that member states voted overwhelmingly, to reject the proposal to sell elephant tusks and rhino horn, whether seized from poachers or removed from animals who have died naturally.
After the result was announced, The Kenyan Environment Minister, Judi Wakhungu, commented “Ivory belongs to the elephant and it is worth more on a live animal rather than a dead animal.” A sensible consideration given the fact that as well as driving the animal to possible extinction, there would possibly be total deterioration of the tourist industry to countries in Africa if the continent was denuded of these prehistoric giants.
This sentiment is very much in keeping with the Women for Wildlife team on the Elephant Ignite Expedition that is travelling through Africa helping with support for local Elephant centred projects in the ten countries that they are travelling through.
Having travelled with this team of feisty women (with a permanent team of six) through Botswana and parts of Zimbabwe, Namibia and Zambia, it has been fascinating and hugely gratifying to see how much research is going in to save our magnificent giants.
From the team at the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, involved in anti-poaching and trying to find ways to prevent the local population of elephant from feeding off the municipal rubbish dump – which we visited, and were deeply saddened to see elephants trying to find food in a burning mass of toxic waste as the vegetation in the area has virtually collapsed because of the drought – to the wonderful, passionate Thea Khama, wife of the Minister of Tourism and the Patron of the EIE Botswana leg of the journey and the Research Doctors in Botswana, all bent on finding ways to help the local communities co-exist with elephant. Then there were the teams in Namibia, also finding ways to help the local population with various co-existence programmes.
And finally, for me (as part of the EIE crew) the orphan elephant programmes at Zambezi Elephant Trails in Livingstone. When we lived in Zambia eight years ago, I wrote about the elephant backed safaris that took place along the Zambezi with a herd of elephants orphaned during various culls in Zimbabwe, and whose lives had been saved. They had been tamed and trained to take tourists for rides through the bush. Today, these elephants have been given back their dignity and instead of riding them, tourists can interact with them at the Elephant Café. The interaction includes a five star gourmet meal and is bound to be a huge hit with tourists. I personally found that interacting with these gentle giants gave me a profound feeling of respect for them and their deep intelligence.
How can we do anything else, but find ways to prevent their annihilation from the planet?
GLENDA THOMPSON
Get-U-Noticed.