Den samlede værdi løber op i omregnet mere end en milliard kroner.
“Højden på bunken af elfenben foran os markerer styrken af vores beslutsomhed. Sådan lød det fra præsidenten, før han stak ild til den første bunke af mange, skriver DR online.
De kenyanske myndigheder har haft et lager på godt og vel 6.700 stødtænder fra elefanter, som er beslaglagt. Og afbrændingen markerer overfor krybskytter, at den ulovlige jagt på elfenben er dybt skadelig for alle afrikanere.
“Ingen – og jeg gentager: ingen – har nogen som helst forretning i handel med elfenben, for den handel betyder død for vores elefanter og død for vores kulturarv”, lød det videre i præsidentens båltale.
Talen og båltændingen fandt sted ved Kenyas hovedstad, Nairobi. Her har organisationen The Giants Club fredag og lørdag indkaldt interessenter fra hele verden for at redde verdens truede tykhuder – se neden for og mere på http://spaceforgiants.org/giantsclub/summit
Nye penge på bordet fra top-initiativ
NANYUKI, 29 April, 2016 (Giatns Club): Philanthropists and financiers offered more than five million US dollar (ca. 32 mio. DKR) in immediate funding, with pledges of more to come, to launch a series of new elephant protection interventions announced by African presidents heading the inaugural Giants Club Summit.
Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, and Gabon each laid out visions for actions with proven impact, including new rapid reaction or special operations ranger units, support for strengthening prosecutions, electrified fences to keep elephants out of farmers’ fields, and conservation investment strategies.
This ‘toolkit’ of methods was pioneered by Space for Giants, the elephant protection charity that helped found The Giants Club, which helped drive a 79 per cent reduction in elephant poaching in three years in the areas of northern Kenya where it operates.
Evgeny Lebedev, patron of The Giants Club and owner of the British Evening Standard newspaper and independent.co.uk, will put together a new communications strategy worth three million dollar to broadcast elephant protection programmes.
Ruth Powys, CEO of Elephant Family, pledged an initial 500,000 dollar in support, and Jorge Rios of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime announced 300,000 dollar in new funding.
The Nature Conservancy, an international environmental organisation, plans an innovative green energy scheme in Kenya using the profits from solar power generation to fund the preservation of wildlife landscapes, which could drive more than 50 million dollar in new conservation revenue.
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Between them, the four Giants Club countries together hold more than half of Africa’s remaining elephants, a population under protection that will be boosted after Ethiopia announced at the Summit that it would become the fifth Giants Club country.
“What we have seen here today is the start of an African conservation revolution,” said Max Graham, CEO of Space for Giants.
“We have always said that what is key to better protection of elephants and their landscapes, and to ending the illegal wildlife trade, is greater political will from Africa’s leaders.
President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, hosting the event, with President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, and senior representatives of the Government of Botswana, each announced new interventions based on the Space for Giants model.
Ruster op mod krybskytterne
Details of interventions announced by each country included:
Gabon plans to double staff at its National Parks Agency from 750 to 1,500
Uganda intends to construct an electrified fence around Murchison Falls National Park to reduce incidents of human-elephant conflict
Botswana will form an intelligence-led special operations unit to support wildlife rangers
Kenya will launch a National Conservation Endowment Fund, whose profits will fund conservation
The Giants Club is an exclusive forum that brings together African Heads of State, global business leaders, and elephant protection experts to secure Africa’s remaining elephant populations and the landscapes they depend on.
It was established by Space for Giants and its founding members are the Presidents of Kenya, Gabon, Botswana, and Uganda and Evgeny Lebedev, the owner of the ESI media group
www.spaceforgiants.org/giantsclub
