‘A’ is for Apple...
...‘E’ IS FOR ELEPHANT By: Anita Balletto Photos: Terra Mater Factual Studios/Anne Ackermann
P
ick up any child’s book and I can almost guarantee you will find ‘E’ is for Elephant, but for how much longer? When will we reach the point when our children will no longer know what an Elephant looks like in its natural habitat when learning the alphabet? Could we be the generation that watches these gentle giants slip into extinction, and stands by as China and other countries, predominantly in the East, continue to fuel the demand for ivory or ‘white gold’? How much longer can we allow these magnificent animals to be massacred, with entire families of Elephants slaughtered, their faces hacked off in order to provide trinkets and keepsakes kept for bragging rights by this fickle market?
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TRAVEL & LEISURE ZAMBIA
As an African from the ‘Muzungu tribe’ and someone who has always been very passionate about conservation, I was delighted when I, and my film fixing company (A to Z Solutions) were approached by German based Richard Ladkani to assist them with logistics, permits and support for filming THE IVORY GAME right here in Zambia. The intention was to be the ‘fly on the wall’, sharing with the audience the incredible work done on a dayto-day basis by the ‘fearless heroes fighting to save the last remaining elephants’. Here in Zambia we identified Georgina Kamanga - the head of the Intelligence unit for the then ZAWA – Zambian Wildlife Authority and now DNPW – Department of National Parks and Wildlife as the main contributor.
As a country Zambia is not immune to the current poaching epidemic, which has seen a significant increase over the past few years and is now run by sophisticated criminal syndicates, often with influential backers and substantial budgets. This is no longer about ‘petty’ shoot for the pot poaching. It is estimated that approximately 150,000 elephants have been poached in Africa in the last 5 years. The past 100 years have seen a staggering 97% decline in Africa’s elephant populations. At the current rate, it is estimated that an African Elephant is poached every 15 minutes, meaning within 10 years more than 50% of Africa’s remaining elephants could be killed, and the species extinct within our lifetime.
