Wild Daze

Save the wild … save yourself

Each day 100 African elephants are poached each and the death rate now exceeds the birth rate. Often the elephants are dismembered alive, their faces sawed off with chain saws in view of their infants and family who stand by protecting, but awaiting the same fate. Elephant extinction is imminent in less than 8 years if China does not close its state-sanctioned carving factories and legal ivory trade which is fueling an African elephant ecocide. In addition to the vast loss of elephant lives, this poaching inflicts a huge human and environmental toll. Elephant dung disperses seeds for 90 tree species in the rainforest which now is brown due to prolonged drought as a result of its missing gardeners: the elephant. The ivory poaching war is emptying forests and savannas in Africa, which is its tourist engine, and which is destabilizing governments. The poaching is putting poor people into an even worse situation. Ivory is a conflict resource fueling an annual $213 billion illegal wildlife trade orchestrated by terrorist groups: highly militarized actors who outgun and outpace rangers and who rape, kidnap, slaughter and murder animals and humans alike. Like blood diamonds, elephant ivory (AKA white gold) has become a conflict resource, enabling and sustaining a group of highly militarized actors across Africa.