GIVE ELEPHANTS WINGS AND LET THEM FLY - A PROVEN SOLUTION TO THE ILLEGAL IVORY TRADE

                                     

                       GIVE ELEPHANTS WINGS AND LET THEM FLY.......

 Having just finished reading @Sammy242 post about elephant poaching it gave me the kick up the proverbial to get on and finish a post I have been toying with for a week or 2 now.   

THE POACHING OF AFRICA

I am a huge animal lover and conservationist – I try my best to support as much as possible and talk about it to anyone who will listen and now hopefully read. I have been a WWF member since I was a small girl and wanted to adopt every elephant to save them from certain death...mum said they wouldn't fit in our back garden!

 

THE POACHING PROBLEM

In the last decade there has been an increase in the killing of elephants and rhinos by poachers. Over  100,000 elephants have been slaughtered in just 2 years – thats staggering thats a total of 4,167  elephants a month, approx 130 a day!!  At this rate all of the elephants in Africa could be killed within 10 years. Rhinos  are also poached for their horns in 2013, over 1,000 rhinos were killed just in South Africa alone.(source Air Shepherd Lindbergh Foundation)  

Now I'm not trying to 'poach in' on Sam242 post, but I want to talk about a solution that is proving to work and one that I intend to become involved with financially. 

A year ago I came across a wonderful article in one of the national newspapers, about how ELEPHANTS WERE GIVEN WINGS... no not Redbull.  Intrigued, I read on.  It talked about a Foundation that used drones to monitor and prevent he poaching of elephants and rhinos in one of Africa's parks.   

 THE SOLUTION - THE AIR SHEPHERD   

Poachers tend to operate under the cover of darkness so as to go undetected. They are usually well equipped with high calibre rifles, helicopters,  nightgoogles to be able to locate the unsuspecting elephants. Highly organised criminals are coming in from the bordering countries around the parks – Sudan, Chad  to illegally poach as well as local groups.  Up to now its been impossible to keep a track, not only on the Elephants, but on the poachers and the Rangers have often not had a chance to prevent them.....UNTIL NOW....

THE AIR SHEPHERD. 

The Air Shepherd is a drone that not only has infra-red night vision and GPS thermal imaging,  but its linked back to powerful computers that can track the elephants and potential threat by poachers.  The drones (UAV's) are able to pinpoint co-ordinates back to a control centre, who in turn will arrive at the location in advance and help to prevent any poaching and Nelly can carry on with her life.... I've put the link in here for you to see for yourself the simplicity of this system and how in just a few years they have helped to reduce the number of poaching incidents.   

http://airshepherd.org/ - SCROLL DOWN AND WATCH THE VIDEO

WHY DO POACHERS POACH? - Good question 

DEMAND AND SUPPLY – If the demand wasn't there, then there would be no need to supply !?– Correct This unfortunately for the elephants and the rhinos, is where it  comes down to centuries old tradition and superstition. There is a belief that ivory is the 'perfect gift' because its pure, rare, exotic and overall, beautiful. In some countries its still seen as a status symbol of wealth and prosperity. In others it has medicinal properties that can cure all sorts of ailments- the rhino horn is said to cure liver ailments in China's traditional medicine trade. Ironically its seems, that while ivory purchasers express genuine concern about the 'cruelty' of obtaining the tusk/horn, less than one-third of them believed that elephants are 'on point of extinction' , whilst others thought 'just a bit won't hurt' - (source National Geographic) - ignorance is bliss! There is a huge demand from the Asian and Chinese continents for ivory and this is why the demand and supply train is still giving poachers the reason to slaughter. 

- source National Geographic 2015 

Despite a ban through the international markets in ivory trade in 1989 by CITES (Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) poaching still goes on.  Over 80% of herds were decimated before the introduction of this ban. Since then  even with poaching still rife, some herds where they are in a protected environment, usually National Parks, have slowly started to recover; but its not enough. If demand continues to grow, and studies show that Ivory is the new Gold amongst young people – a study by the National Geographic Society by Mark Strauss, published August 12, 2012 - concluded   “The study represents an effort to better understand what motivates people in the United States and Asian countries to continue purchasing ivory, despite years of efforts to raise awareness about how the illegal trade is fuelling the mass slaughter of elephants. - This tragedy, however, can’t compete with the allure of “white gold”—especially among young fashionistas in low- to middle-income brackets who see ivory as a way to project an image of wealth and social status, the survey finds.” - DEMAND AND SUPPLY.......

CAN THE POACHER BE A SOLUTION? - Why would I ask this ?

 This needs analysing as they could  be a part of the solution.  Its not unusual for poachers to be killed in their persuit of illegal poaching,  this in turn leads to another problem, for their families. Quiet often poachers are from a poor background (I am not including the organised criminal poachers here) and know that elephant and rhino tusks bring money and this is an incentive to many; but, if killed, their families will suffer the consequence of possible starvation, loss of homes etc. So whats the solution here?  Every heard of the saying 'poacher turn gamekeeper' – if poachers could be enticed, through legal employment, to become gamekeepers, this would help toward combating poaching in some of the poorer areas. Investing in better equipment and  training, national parks and  villages could reap the benefit of increasing their revenue by having more herds available to see for the tourists.  

What needs to be remembered here, is that if poaching isn't stopped, then elephants and rhino's will become extinct and their 'illegal lively-hood' will dry up anyway.This will have a direct effect on communities as tourist will not come, and thus no income.  However, if they can be persuaded to encourage not to poach, the herds will grow again, tourism continues and revenues continue to flow in. A possible incentive program could be initiated, based on a % increases of elephant/rhino population, through a government and/or foundation backed scheme, to incentivise poachers to become gamekeepers– this to me seems a win win situation. What do you think? 

CONCULSION 

Only through education, government awareness, social media platforms ie: Steemit, good start, can we bring home the senseless rationalization that "one bit isn't going to hurt", that "its fine, they (whoever they are!) won't let them die"... The message needs to be VERY LOUD AND VERY CLEAR -  “ As long as ivory is available, people will continue to buy it therefore it has to become 

                'SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE TO PURCHASE IVORY 

                                       IT'S NOT COOL TO BE CRUEL.

IF YOU FEEL MOVED BY THIS POST, AND I HOPE YOUR ARE, THEN I INTEND TO  MONEY GENERATED FROM IT AS A DONATION TO AIR SHEPHERD FROM THE STEEMIT COMMUNITY- OR YOU CAN DONATE DIRECT THROUGH THE AIR SHEPHERD LINK ABOVE - this post is not a fundraising post, just something I feel very passionate about.

Befriend and follow AIR SHEPHERD ON FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/AirShepherd/