Austin Way Magazine - GreenGale Publishing - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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I t's an unimaginable horror. Satao, an iconic male African bush elephant who was born in the late 1960s, should have lived a natural life of 70 years. But he was found dead in Kenya's Tsavo East National Park in June. Poachers took down Satao, who weighed an estimated seven tons, with a single poisoned arrow to his f lank. His signature ivory tusks, which weighed more than 100 pounds each and touched the ground, had been hacked off. The Tsavo Trust, a conservation group that monitors the elephant populations of Tsavo in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Services, knew Satao well because of its focus on protecting large "tuskers" who are lucrative targets for poachers. But Satao was so horribly butchered that the conservation groups who tracked his every move for years could not immediately identify him. They searched for him in the park for more than a week in the hopes that they might spot him, before he was confirmed and pronounced dead, two weeks after the day of his death. Why would anyone want to kill the world's largest land mammal—a highly intelligent species with a lifespan nearly as long as a human's? An animal with powerful family bonds, a memory that far surpasses ours and spans a lifetime? Through years of research, scientists have found that elephants are capable of elaborate thought and deep feeling. In fact, the emotional attachment ele- phants form toward family members may rival our own. Elephants mourn deeply for lost loved ones, even shedding tears and suffering depression. They have a sense of empathy that projects beyond their species and can even extend to others in distress. So why are these gorgeous creatures being slaughtered? It's for that objet d'art on your mantelpiece, the necklace in your jewelry box, the hair ornament on your dresser, and the ivory keys of your custom piano. While elephant poaching has been a grave challenge at different times in the last century, it has recently risen to alarming levels. In 2012, some 35,000 African elephants were killed, about one-tenth of the remaining population, representing the worst mass slaughter of elephants since the international ivory trade was banned in 1990. Roughly the same number were killed last year as well. African forest elephants, in particular, have been devastated by poaching and have declined by about 76 percent since 2002. At this rate, African forest elephants could effectively be extinct over the next decade. The wildlife trade is one of the world's most profitable criminal activities and ranks fifth globally in terms of value—estimated at $7 billion to $10 billion a year, behind the trafficking in drugs, people, oil, and counterfeiting. Increasing con- sumer demand for ivory, especially in Asia, is causing the price of ivory to skyrocket, fueling the illegal trade in elephant ivory and the mass slaughter of elephants in Africa. Today's ivory traffickers are well-organized syndicates that function as transnational criminal networks and often participate in traf- ficking drugs and weapons, and some have links with terrorist networks. According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as much as 70 percent of elephant ivory is transported to China, where it is sold for up to $1,500 per pound and carved into jewelry, religious figurines, and trinkets. In September 2013, at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton unveiled an $80 million endeavor to stop the ivory trade. The Partnership to Save Africa's Elephants (the first big international cause championed by Hillary Clinton after she stepped down as secretary of state) collaborates with the Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Fund, African Wildlife Foundation, International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, and 11 other nongovernmen- tal organizations to halt the decline of African elephants. Chelsea Clinton, due with her first child in the fall, still keeps a packed schedule at the foundation, passionately promoting initiatives close to her heart: empowering women and girls, promoting clean drinking water, com- bating childhood obesity, and stopping the elephant poaching crisis. We sat down with Clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, to talk about her efforts to save African elephants. The PrIce of Ivory With the ever-expanding worldwide market for luxury goods, African elephants are being hunted to extinction for their valuable tusks. Here, Chelsea Clinton shares her passion for these exceptional animals and the Clinton Foundation's efforts to save them. by elizA betH e. tHor p opposite page: Satao, a male bush elephant born in the late 1960s, was killed for his tusks in Kenya's Tsavo East National Park earlier this year. AUSTINWAY.com 137