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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photography by max orenstein/clinton foundation. opposite page: barbara kinney/clinton foundation (clinton); mike hill/getty images (elephants); alvaro canovas/getty images (garamba national park); jean liou/afp/getty images (weapons) Elephants continue to be slaughtered for ivory at an alarming rate. Years ago it was a major issue, then it quieted down until CGI's 2013 announcement. When was the first time you learned about the horror of elephant poaching? I remember vividly: My mother's parents moved to Arkansas right before Christmas in 1987, and I remember my grandparents asking what I wanted for Christmas. My grandmother said, "We'll give you a membership and a subscription to anything that you want," so I picked National Geographic and pos- sibly Greenpeace or Conservation International. Even though I was a kid in Arkansas, I was so fasci- nated by the wider world and just as fascinated by animals. It was also the real awakening of the envi- ronmental movement. 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth was a book that resonated with me as a kid, and I just wanted to know everything I could about what was happening with the environment and conser- vation. I was so shocked that elephants were under such duress, and the only thing that I could do was to ask my grandparents to continue to support organizations that were trying to save the ele- phants as my Christmas present every year. You had very progressive grandparents to give you philanthropic subscriptions instead of a Barbie. My grandfather always gave me a remote-controlled device. It was my grandmother who was very much the social consciousness, and then my grandfather would give me the cool, shiny new toy. Last September, the Clinton Foundation announced a three-year, $80 million commit- ment to combat elephant poaching. How does CGI coordinate this gigantic undertaking with so many different partners? First, by bringing them all together. It was the first time that many of these organizations had come together, and the first order of business was to understand the landscape of who was doing what and where. That hadn't been mapped. There are three parts of the CGI commitment: You stop the killing, stop the trafficking, and stop the demand. One of the first things we did was assess what each organization was doing and where there were the gaps—whether func- tionally or geographically—so that the additional monies could be invested in helping to fill those voids. Or they could be used to double down on strategies that were working: the Howard G. Buffett Foundation made an investment in Gabon, because Gabon had already started to increase its emphasis on conservation, increase its num- ber of rangers and ranger training to try to protect its elephants. Because of their serious intentions, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation allocated more funds to this project. Now because of the security dynamics, we have US Marines train- ing Gabon rangers because it's not only about protecting the elephants; it's about protecting the security of the country. Gabon, like so many countries where poaching is happening, is being preyed upon by armed groups who are destabi- lizing forces throughout West Africa and East Africa. Tell me more about security concerns and government cooperation. The Marines are in Gabon, and Interpol is now part of our CGI commitment. The FBI is working with Interpol, as are various national intelligence groups because increasingly, poaching is part of the most nefarious activities throughout Africa—whether it's running guns or people or drugs—so there's a real security interest not only for the countries that are affected but for all of us to stop the poaching. Having lived through 9/11, I think people will be very interested to know that poaching has direct links to terrorism and Al Qaeda in North Africa . The trafficking of animal parts is the [fifth] most lucrative illegal activity, after people and drugs. And increasingly it's the same people and groups that are engaged in all of those nefarious activities. There's irrefutable evidence that Al Qaeda in North Africa, the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the Janjaweed from Sudan coming into Uganda and the DRC are all engaged in poaching because, sadly, ivory is an easily accessible commodity to them. It's become a lubricant that continually greases the wheels between the shipment of drugs, guns, and people. I don't think many people realize the brutality involved when elephants are killed for ivory. It is true that, increasingly, poaching is militaristic, but that doesn't make it any less brutal. Elephants can't survive without their tusks. Another miscon- ception that exists in much of the world is that taking off the tusk is like extracting a tooth. Elephants cannot live without their tusks; it's crucial to their survival. What happens with the ivory after the elephants are killed? Is there a supply chain or black market? The tusks are removed from an elephant carcass and then trekked out to a port. In East Africa, a lot of ivory f lows out of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, or Mombasa and Kenya up and down the coast, and it largely goes to Asia. China by far is the biggest market; Vietnam and Thailand are also signifi- cant markets. The vast majority [of ivory] is transported in tusk form. When it gets to China, it then is cut down and made into commodities and luxury "Stop the killing, Stop the tr afficking, and Stop the demand." —Chelsea Clinton 138 AUSTINWAY.com